Hello, I am an international student who recently got an admit for masters in Chemical Engineering for Fall 2019 at UCLA Henri Samueli. I have received admits from schools such as Ohio State University and some schools in Canada such as McGill University and Waterloo. I am receiving no financial support from US universities, however, I am getting funding from schools in Canada about 18k(CAD) per year. I am typically looking at getting into industry R&D after my degree. Can you please suggest if Canada has better opportunities for Chemical Engineers? I am very confused and UCLA will be very expensive but it is highly reputed, however, have to do Work Study to earn some bucks there.
Canada in general has way less high tech jobs than the USA in chemical engineering, but use Indeed to look at job patterns in the USA. Chemical engineers can go into petroleum engineering, or semiconductor engineering or pharmaceuticals, so it may depend a lot on what sort of chemical engineer you plan to become. What industry interests you at this time?
Los Angeles is a hub of high tech jobs, now surpassing the Bay Area of California for job concentration.
Thanks for the reply. I am currently interested in working with advanced materials, polymers and its eventual application for sustainable energy solution- electrochemical energy storage, fuel cells, PEMFCs…
@Arkabh I moved your thread to the engineering major forum. You’ll get better answers there than the UCLA one which is geared towards undergrads.
If I’m honest, McGill and Waterloo are at least as high in quality as the other schools you mentioned, so I wouldn’t choose somewhere like UCLA and break the bank just because of “prestige” or something along those lines. The only real question is whether you might have a slight leg up on employment in the US if you went to a US institution, and I don’t know if that’s worth it.
if you have a degree from a Canadian university it is very easy to get permanent residency in Canada. A degree from UCLA or any American university is no guarantee of getting permanent residency in the US.
@10s4life Thanks a lot.
@Coloradomama Thanks for the reply. I am currently interested in working with advanced materials, polymers and its eventual application for sustainable energy solution- electrochemical energy storage, fuel cells, PEMFCs…