<p>So, just some information about me:</p>
<p>I have spent most of my life involved in robotics (summer camps, school teams) and technology, and while I know a good deal of coding, it's not really what makes me happy. It's just a skill I like having and am good at. I'm more of the builder on the team, and actually I work best as the team leader, understanding my teammate's strengths and working in whatever area needs it. </p>
<p>Environmental concerns are also really important to me as well, and I've been involved in some environmental action clubs and stuff. I can see myself in a lab, researching and developing new technologies, and trying to create things for world greenness. </p>
<p>I do enjoy chemistry and biology a lot. But from what I've heard, ChemE is like petroleums and beauty products and what not, which really doesn't interest me, unless I've heard wrong. And biomedical engineering has that medical side to it, which is fine, I'm all for helping people too, but really environmental issues are what drives me. Idk if BME can lead to green work later, if I focus in grad school. Nanotech sounds really interesting to me too, but that's getting a bit ahead of myself. :P</p>
<p>Basically I'm wondering if there's an engineering major out there that has a future in research/development in labs for real-world green solutions that can combine technology and test tubes with maybe some mechanical design splashed in. I just have no idea what's the path to get to those labs. </p>
<p>It's a bit of a conundrum when it comes to college essays too, since robotics seems to hint at mechE or EE, but my interests lie with the environment and lab work and I don't know how to link them together. </p>
<p>Thanks for reading this guys! Really appreciate it :D</p>
<p>bumpity bump bump ;)</p>
<p>I would take a look at Materials science and engineering. Perhaps you won’t be building robots (directly anyway), you can work on everything from semiconductors to polymers to biofuel, etc. Its the perfect blend of chemistry and physics from my understanding. RacinReaver, a material scientist on this forum often recommends [Materials</a> Science and Engineering: An Introduction: William D. Callister Jr., David G. Rethwisch: 9780470419977: Amazon.com: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Materials-Science-Engineering-An-Introduction/dp/0470419970/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380760786&sr=8-1&keywords=materials+science+and+engineering]Materials”>http://www.amazon.com/Materials-Science-Engineering-An-Introduction/dp/0470419970/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380760786&sr=8-1&keywords=materials+science+and+engineering) to look inside of it to see if there are topics that interests you. I have read it and it really inspired me to pick my possible future major.</p>
<p>You most likely won’t know your real calling until taking some courses. So look for a school with various engineering majors and mostly common freshman core classes. Most engineering programs will fit this bill.</p>
<p>A friend of a friend is very happy designing sewers for a major western city… There’s some serious computational fluid mechanics and civil engineering involved. I will echo the sentiment that until you try you can’t know. Even cosmetics (chem E) can be wildly entertaining. See if you can do general engineering 1st and even 2nd year and make up your mind then. It’s not like you’ll dive into engineering courses from day 1.</p>
<p>I got into Civil Engineering by accident, finished it but did not care for it. Tried Computer Science, liked it, finished, tried Electrical Engineering, bailed (math, ugh), then topped it all off with Human Factors Engineering. I work in consumer electronics R&D. But, this brings up my second point, if you want to work in R&D, a 4 year degree is just for starters. You’re looking at an MS and beyond for real fun opportunities. I have friends who design, say, graphics coprocessors, but those dudes are all PhD’s…</p>
<p>darkaeroga, did you go through Callister on my recommendation? The advice you gave is exactly what I’ve been saying on here for the last too many years. :)</p>
<p>Environmental concerns doesn’t mean you can’t do a major like ChemE. There’s a lot of growing interest in industry and the research sector in more traditional fields to move towards “greener” technologies and techniques since they tend to save money in the long run. There’s a field called “click” chemistry that’s grown somewhat recently. The idea is to go back and look at these really long and involved commercial processes and see if we can come up with ways which require fewer, less toxic, or better reagents in order to generate less waste (which, in general, decreases the overall cost of the process).</p>
<p>Why not environmental engineering? Many schools, including mine, have programs in it.</p>
<p>thanks for your recommendations. :D</p>
<p>I’ve been looking it up, and I’ve heard that chemE can lead to a lot of interesting jobs, like Racin Reaver said. maybe that or environmental engineering. can enviroE prepare me for grad school? it seems like a limited field. </p>
<p>I’m aiming for UC schools (i <3 cal!), at most of which its pretty hard to change your major once you get there, and they like to see a connection between ur EC’s and major…and i’m finding it difficult to articulate that for myself, let alone the essays.</p>
<p>Like Turbo, I sort of did civil engineering by accident 
I wanted to deal with pollution and weather interactions… probably insightful for early 1980s. But I was rather clueless (hey, there was no internet then). I didn’t realize that my CivE environmental would be geared toward sewage treatment. What I wanted to do required ChemE… not my cup of tea. I transferred to MechE sophomore year w/o losing any credit.</p>