Transfer to chemistry engineer from BS in chemistry?

College Majors Science Majors
1

Hi.
I’m currently an undergraduate student studying for a BS in chemistry and doing pre-pharm courses (I wanted backup career). I’ve taken anatomy and orgo lectures and labs. What I enjoy from orgo class was that they give you a start and an end, you fill in the rest. I like problems that are like puzzles where you use logic to solve them. I also enjoy solving math problems since they are logical. Orgo lab was less enjoyable because I get bore looking at procedures and doing them. Also, because I have shaky hands, it was annoying to do things like massing or using a pipette.

I’ve been looking at forums and seeing that the job markets for pharmacist and BS in chemistry are getting worse.
So I wanted to know if I should transfer to a chemistry engineering degree. Strictly speaking, I only want to get Bachelor degree right now, without going to graduate school (college debts pretty much won’t let me).

If I do transfer to chemical engineering, then it will add 2 extra semesters to my expected graduation date along with (+10k-15k of debt).

The things I want from my degree are

-good job outlook being the most important
-prefer a salary of 40k+ after graduating.

Personal hobby: drawing, web design, and programming.

2

If you’re good at math–and it sounds like you are–then making the switch sounds like a good idea.

The ChemE degree will give you a much higher salary than the Chem BS, and a much more stable backup to fall on if pharm doesn’t work out.

The extra semesters of debt is a little concerning, but assuming that’s the total for that year (and not for each semester) I think it’ll be okay. A ChemE job will be more able to pay that off than a BS in Chem.

3

Chemical engineering no brainer. The job prospects are an order of magnitude better with chemical engineering vs chemistry and the pay and career potential is equally better. That 10-15k debt you will make it up in one year most likely.

With a chemistry degree you will struggle for employment at all and if you get it it will probably be a temp job for 15 an hour no benefits and little career possibilities.

With ChemE you can easily start $50k+ and within a few years be on course for 6 figures.