What exactly makes a chemical engineering major hard? Internships?

<p>Is it the content, the amount of courseload? Also my aunt told me that chemical engineers have a lot of job opportunities and she was talking about internships and how they are very good? How much do these internships pay, what do you do, and when are they usually offered?</p>

<p>Here is the Chemical and Biologigal Engineering Handbook for Princeton. Note the additional math and chem classes required for a Chem E when compared to other branches. The handbook may also have other points you find interesting.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/cbe/undergrad/Undergrad_Handbook.pdf”>http://www.princeton.edu/cbe/undergrad/Undergrad_Handbook.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Internships at this school are posted online throughout the year and there is a job fair (actually this week) for internships as well. Keep in mind that the first several semesters are devoted to general science (physics, chemistry, biology) and math (5 courses in four semesters [which can be reduced if you have scored a 5 on AP Calc]) before engineering truly begins.</p>

<p>Internship pay varies widely. I’d say in general for something like ChemE you should expect in the range of about $30 an hour but I don’t know for sure. Internships are hard to get between your freshman and sophomore year (not that it’s impossible and you shouldn’t try, but it’s not common and you shouldn’t be discouraged if you don’t get one) but you definitely want one between your sophomore and junior year. You’ll be looking for these in the fall before you would start. For instance, if you were looking for one starting in May 2015, you’d start looking in September or October of 2014. Many companies will still hire in the winter but there are a few that won’t and some opportunities will already be taken, so don’t start too late. </p>

<p>Some private companies MIGHT pay 30 bucks an hour but the average summer salary for students at Lake Jr.'s engineering university is 19 bucks. And the list is full of quite well known firms; Boeing, Cargill, John Deere, the US Department of State etc.</p>