<p>I'd be interested in hearing about curriculum, research opportunities, career prospects, or anything else you can tell.</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction (9780471736967): William D. Callister: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Materials-Science-Engineering-William-Callister/dp/0471736961/ref=reader_auth_dp]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Materials-Science-Engineering-William-Callister/dp/0471736961/ref=reader_auth_dp)</p>
<p>Use the Search Inside this Book feature and look at the table of contents. During my undergrad career I had roughly an entire semester-long class on each of those topics.</p>
<p>All of the rest of the stuff is highly dependent upon which subset of materials science you’re interested in pursuing.</p>
<p>It’s basically ChemE with specialization on physical properties etc. of materials. You can specialize, too.</p>
<p>Interesting. ChemE might be a more flexible option.</p>
<p>Take a look at ChemE classes and MSE classes and you’ll see they’re entirely different curricula, though. Generally at my undergrad school half the people that wind up enrolling in MSE applied planning on doing ChemE. They take the ChemE intro class, realize it’s nothing like what they think it’s going to be, take Intro Materials and love it.</p>
<p>Materials is really about understanding the physical, chemical, electrical, thermal, etc properties of a material and how we can apply that knowledge to not only make current materials better, but also to create completely new materials.</p>
<p>Most people are only ever exposed to the mechanical side of materials where you learn about various mechanical tests and properties of materials, and think that’s the extent of the field. Even if you were to only consider the mechanical properties, there’s still an enormous amount of work being done trying to understand what causes materials to behave the way they do, and why those sorts of things happen.</p>
<p>^ What would you say is present in the ChemE intro course that makes people realize they would prefer MSE?</p>
<p>I think most of my friends wanted to learn what made materials behave the way they do. ChemE’s intro class was basically Flow In = Flow Out while Intro MSE covered all different aspects of the field. (I didn’t take Intro ChemE, so I’m just guessing.)</p>
<p>They’re both great majors, but I think it’s important for people to realize they really are two distinct fields. :)</p>
<p>Materials engineering is very different than chemical engineering.
Chemical engineering has to do with the factory, the machines, and the operations that produce usually liquids and gases.<br>
Materials has to do with the properties of the materials, and how to improve them. </p>
<p>Look at the typical courses in any of the schools.</p>
<p>Chemical Engineering courses:
Mass Transfer and Separations, Unit Operations, Process Control, Fluid Flow, Heat Transfer</p>
<p>Materials Course:
Electronic Properties, Mechanical Properties, Metals, Ceramics, Polymers, Microstructure and Characterization.</p>
<p>Bumping this because I am torn between Mat Sci and ChemE.</p>
<p>The general consensus I am getting is to do ChemE undergrad for a broader and more traditional engineering degree, and then specialize in Mat Sci by applying to Mat Sci jobs or applying for Mat Sci grad school.</p>
<p>However, at my school (Northwestern), the Mat Sci department is world-renowned (oldest and ranked 2nd to MIT) whereas the ChemE department is less known (ranked 20th or something).</p>
<p>I also tend to be more of a theoretical thinker and am often bored with engineering practices (the process design/economic/business aspect of it). I thought about majoring in Chemistry or Physics before but realized I still like to apply my knowledge practically and because I want a solid degree as a back-up (I’m currently premed).</p>
<p>With these in mind, would you guys recommend majoring in ChemE or MatSci?</p>
<p>MSE is a fine degree and you shouldn’t have a problem finding a job after graduation. If you want to work in that field, why would you bother studying something else for undergrad?</p>
<p>Not to mention that for a lot of materials engineering jobs a background in physics or chemistry would be a lot less desirable than ChemE.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. Could you elaborate more on the job opportunities for a Mat Sci undergrad. It seems like Mat Sci students suffer from the same thing that BMEs do–that is, all the jobs for them could just as easily be filled by MechEs, ChemEs, or EEs.</p>
<p>Of the friends I remember who got jobs one went to work at a steel mill (fairly traditional materials), one went to L’Oreal to help make their production processes more efficient and green (probably a ChemE could also do that), one worked for Lockheed’s satellite division, and one went to Johnson & Johnson to do some processing related stuff. I know a few other people also went into industry, but I don’t remember exactly what their jobs were.</p>
<p>Here’s the listing for people that have graduated from CMU’s MSE program for the last couple of years: <a href=“http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/career/students_alumni/post-grad-survey/pdf/Materials.pdf[/url]”>http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/career/students_alumni/post-grad-survey/pdf/Materials.pdf</a>
I know the list isn’t entirely complete since I was on the list last year, but for some reason I’m not on it this year.</p>
<p>While there are a lot of jobs that ‘could’ be done by other engineering disciplines none of them could prepare you for all of the various jobs MSE does. You’ll have competition from ChemEs in polymer-type stuff, for example, but shouldn’t have as much in metallurgy, ceramics, and the like.</p>
<p>My son will be in the MatE program at Cal Poly SLO. It is highly regarded and the 2nd largest materials program in the US (according to the head of the depart at CP) We just went to the Open House for CP and we were so impressed with the program. The professors love teaching and the students all seem very happy and interested. They had great projects displayed and tours of the labs. They have an amazing cleanroom and work with nanotech stuff too. The best part about CPSLO is the ties to industry. Graduates from this school are highly saught after and are able to get jobs in many companies doing a variety of things. The program is very “hands-on” because it is a polytechnic school. They of course teach theory as well, but unlike many UCs, the students spend 50% of their time in labs. Freshmen begin working on projects right away. They will make 3 different projects by the end of freshman year.
My son is looking forward to attending and learniing more about Materials engineering.
He likes the idea of learning about a lot of different things and then being able to specialize by his senior year. they also have a 4+1 masters program in Materials.</p>
<p>There is an immense range of jobs for materials graduates.
From the traditional industries of metals, polymers, ceramics and composites, to the more “modern” energy, nanotechnology, medical devices, biomaterials, the coming back of nuclear technology, and the immense world of failure analysis, forensics, corrosion etc. Materials is in the very center of many technologically important problems.
Yes it is possible for a MechE or a ChemE to drift into Materials (and vice versa as well) but the fresh Materials graduate has a completely different set of skills and knowledge than the corresponding MechE or ChemE. Employers are starting to understand this with time. After all Materials is a relatively new discipline.</p>
<p>I’m graduating from VT in MSE in about 2 weeks.</p>
<p>As far as what you learn, in addition to the ‘standard’ engineering classes like statics and deforms generally you’ll get an introduction to the three major classes of materials; polymers, metals and ceramics. You’ll also probably take a class on nano/electronic materials. After that you’ll probably be allowed to specialize in a class of materials, or just keep taking electives from each branch.</p>
<p>MSE seems to have a very good ratio of students:research dollars, at least here. I’ve never heard of anyone having trouble finding undergraduate research to do. Projects that I know of that are going on right now for undergraduate research include biomaterials where they’re somehow coaxing a bacteria to make a polymer capable of replacing ligaments, metals where they’re milling tungsten and iron to create a material with properties that you otherwise wouldn’t find, and microwave processing where they’re using microwaves to cure a polymer onto a wood surface. There are other projects going on also, but those should give you an idea as to what we do.</p>
<p>As far as who hires us, a lot of companies do. Material production companies such as steel and aluminum companies hire us, although they aren’t hiring a whole lot right now. A lot of people go into government jobs such as procurement and the nuclear regulatory board and stuff like that. I know that Rubbermaid interviewed a few of us, and design companies like rolls royce and boeing have hired a few too.</p>
<p>As far as compared to ChemE, the generalization that I heard from a ChemE major that wanted to get his masters in MSE is that they’re the same thing, except ChemE deals with liquids and MSE deals with solids. Not sure how accurate that is,b ut something to think about.</p>