<p>I love chemistry and math. My parents suggested Chem Engineering as a college major. Is anyone out there a chem eng major? How do you like it so far? I've heard many women who start out as engineering majors often change majors before they graduate. If anyone has experienced this, I'd appreciate your perspective.</p>
<p>I know a student who is a chemical engineer. He doesn't particularly love chemistry though. He had to take courses like physical chemistry and orgo. However, ChemEs don't get as deep into chemistry like a chemist would. Most of his work in his senior design class deals with designing equipment for a chemical manufacturing plant. So while a chemist may be concerned with the formulation of a raw material or finished product, it is the job of the chemical engineer to figure out how to process that stuff on a large scale (stuff like pharmaceuticals, paints, resins, etc.).</p>
<p>People of both sexes often change their majors to different engineering majors or to non-engineering majors. I went from computer science to mechanical engineering. I wasn't good at writing complex computer programs and discrete math was too confusing to me.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm a junior in chemical engineering. He's pretty much right. You need to take O Chem and P Chem, but...you won't use it after college...I do a co-op at DuPont...the machines do everything...you are just kind of there. Nothing like I thought it would be. You are just there to make sure the processes are running smoothly. However, if you think grad school is in your future, the chemistry will be much more important. And yes, it is true that chemical engineers don't get the hardcore chem background that a chemist will. You'll just need Gen Chem, O Chem, P Chem, and maybe Analytical Chem. At Pitt it is an elective to take Analytical Chem, but some universities make A Chem mandatory.</p>
<p>If you like a challenge (to put it mildly), you will like chemical engineering.</p>
<p>I'm thinking of chemical engineering as well, I plan to major in that at Berkeley. Can someone explain more specific in the long run, some exaples of jobs that chemiacl engineering lead to? Thanks.</p>
<p>Charman20, </p>
<p>Can you elaborate a little more on your experience at DuPont? What exactly did you do at your co-op? Do you think someone with a B.S. would do something a little more interesting or involved? I am very interested in doing ChemE.</p>
<p>could you work for a drug company(pfizer, merck, etc) with a chemE degree?</p>
<p>whats the salary there?</p>
<p>Yes, pharmaceutical companies use chemical engineers to process all of the drugs on a large scale. Typical entry level ChemE salary is in the low $50,000s. Some earn more, some less.</p>
<p>Yes chemists can make up the drug but it's the chemical engineers that have to manufacture it on a wide scale and make it safe, efficient, and profitable. I personally thought I'd be more interested in chemistry and I still am. You just use chemistry knowledge among other things like math, physics and other stuff.</p>
<p>I'm going to be on my second rotation this summer...every time you come back for another rotation you get a little more responsibility and by the third term you are doing entry-level chemical engineering work.</p>
<p>During my first rotation, I was working with DuPont's environmental consultants. I did a few things while I was there.</p>
<p>1) Made up simple spreadsheets that showed (according to New Jersey State and Federal Environmental Regulations) which processes were emitting too many nitrous oxides, sulfur oxides, and fluorocarbons.</p>
<p>2) Summarized the environmental regulations for the plant site, so our own personnel could do monitoring for leak detection and repair. (As of right now, we still have an outside source doing our monitoring...they are expensive...and unreliable...they suck.)</p>
<p>3) Periodic checks of the chemical storage areas on site to make sure we have no leaking....you know...WASTE...</p>
<p>Environmental stuff....isn't really interesting to me...plus...it really didn't involve any engineering whatsoever. I wanna know why I need Quantum Mechanics and Statistical Thermodynamics...maybe I'll never know...:(</p>
<p>i heard chem engi is a alot more abt phy + math rather than chem?? if u love chem, shud do chemistry not engi??
and do chem engi earn well?? i heard they do but one of the prev posters said in low range.....</p>
<p>It is but you still need chemistry. It is called that for a reason. I thought about chemistry but I really wanted engineering b/c I like the direction of the work and stuff better. And chemEs are the highest paid bachelors degree straight out of college. The average that was low to mid-fifties is the highest average out there!! But engineers dont' advance much if they stay on the floor so advanced education like MS or MBA would likely garner some more money after you have started work with a company you enjoy.</p>
<p>Thanks for responding Charman. What school are you at, do a lot of people do co-ops there? Is it preparing you well for your career/grad school?</p>
<p>Perhaps a concrete example would give you a better idea about chemE vs chemistry.</p>
<p>One of my design projects (actually 2 projects but I can only vaguely remember one) at Northwestern involved processing some feed stream with various chemicals and achieving certain purity (like 99.9% or something insanely high) of one (or two; don't remember exactly) of the chemicals that can be sold for certain $ per weight. (So for example, I have a raw stream with a mixture of A, B, C, D, E with each contributing 20% by mass and you need to somehow process it so that you can get a pure E in your product stream). We have to consider the economics and watch out the cost (esp energy cost). The goal is to maximize the flow of product stream with the specified purity (low quantity would result in economic deficit; lower than specified purity violated the primary goal and you could say bye to A and hello to C!) while keeping the energy cost reasonable (you don't want to end up spending more on energy than you can earn from selling your product!). The purity, quantity, and operating cost seemed to work against each other and you have to find that delicate balance to maximum the first two while minimizing the third. </p>
<p>For this project, you would need background in chemistry so you can deal with mass/molar mass/volume/composition/density and be aware of how temperature and pressure affect chemical/physical properties of the compounds you deal with. </p>
<p>The chemE background is needed because you would need to know how the equipments that process your stream works and how to make them more efficient so the energy cost won't skyrocket. For this project, several types of equipments are needed and the most important ones are the "distillation column" and you need to understand how it works and achieves separation. You'd also need to know how heat exchanger works if that's what you use for temperature control (recall that temperature affects the behavior of chemicals). You also need to understand pretty well about mass balance (as the process involves diverting and recyling streams and you need to keep track of where and what amount each chemical goes; they don't simply just disappear or come out of nowhere; in the case of reaction; mass balance utilizes concept of stoichiometry). If reaction, other than just separation, is involved (as now I remember it was the case for my second project) also, then you need to know about reactor design. These are not typically taught in chemistry courses.</p>
<p>Sam Lee, thank you very much for posting your project! I, too, am going into ChemE and will be starting at Berkeley in the Fall. It was a tough call for me with Chem vs ChemE, but ChemE seemed to be a little more versitile when I was looking at the two so I decided on ChemE (double major MATE). From your post, it sounds like I made the right decision! </p>
<p>Thanks!!
Angela.</p>
<p>One additional thought is that many Chem Es are very concerned with process, rather than with equipment design per se. If you look at mechanical, civil, electrical, etc, you see that a lot of the problems have to do with defined inputs and outputs for a single operation. Chem Es will look overall at a very large and complex processes and then divide the operations up, either looking for overall design goals to be met (like crude oil of X composition being transformed into a complex set of products from refined sulfur to jet fuel), or they will (more commonly) come into a business with an established complex process and then work at optimization, where very complex upstream causes have (hopefully) desired downstream effects.</p>
<p>These skills are highly transferable to other venues including management of people, organization of companies, physical distribution of products, and (surprisingly) corporate finance if you obtain some additional technical/functional expertise beyond the undergraduate level. This is one reason why chemical engineering is an excellent "platform degree" from on to build a professional career. No matter what you do later in life, future employers will be impressed by a Chem E degree. Even if you are in sales or distribution or finance.</p>
<p>Is CAD experience (i.e. AutoCAD, SolidWorks, etc.) important for ChemEs? I know a cheme student who is searching for jobs and some employers have asked if he had this experience. He courses and school projects focused on chemical processing, and not equipment design. I suppose that a cheme with some knowledge of mechanical engineering would be very valuable but I don't know how important it is for a cheme to have that knowledge.</p>
<p>I think AutoCad or equivalent is useful to understand, whether you end up preparing drawings or not...it's an industry tool and being familiar with it can only help you.</p>
<p>I also have an interest in ChemE, however at times I feel like there is just some things i need to know about it.. it's true nature, typical lifestyle, etc...
The last thing I want is to prep 5 years for something like ChemE and find that I hate it.</p>
<p>Im interested in knowing what sort of courseload a typical chemical undergrad engineering program would offer. I know i should research universities for that, but I've been doing that and only been finding vague, "you will excel in chemistry, design.. blah blah" But not necessarily any quirks about the courses. For example, what would be the hardest aspect of chemE to learn? to worry about? the one most emphasized in the job world?</p>
<p>Anyone willing to fill me in? thanks</p>
<p>Well, I can kinda tell you up to now... You can expect to take most of the standard engineering undergrad courses (Physics w/calc, calc, diff eq, lin algebra) and add in Organic Chemistry. My first semester of Junior year i'm taking: </p>
<p>Physical Chemistry part A
Materials Engineering intro
Chem Engineering intro
and supplementary work in quantum Physics. </p>
<p>Ahead, I know to expect thermodynamics, more physical chem, transport & seperation processes, chemical process design, dynamics and control,... and more. </p>
<p>Different schools will vary a little i'd suppose. If you have trouble with Chemistry at all, don't bother with this major. If you can apply yourself, enjoy chemistry, and can at least tolerate and do well in mathematics, then you'll probably do ok. Personally, my biggest problem I feel is Physics. I got A's, but I don't feel I have the best understanding, and i've not done any quantum physics (but will next semester.) Chemistry has come pretty naturally to me so far. </p>
<p>:)
-A</p>
<p>Thats interesting.</p>
<p>I really like the whole macroscopic chemistry idea... (i.e. I imagine living in an atom and having to ride electrons on a highway.. etc.), as well as being fascinated with all of the limitless possibilities with chemistry. It seems like I'm getting confused between theoretical and applied science. On one hand, I would love to be a frontrunner in developing fusion reactions, and on the other hand being a frontrunner for getting water-powered cars out on the highways. Perhaps I'm just confused as to the nitty-gritty of what a chemical engineer ACTUALLY does for 10-20 years.</p>
<p>Does that make sense? Perhaps I'm being a dreamer. Whatever the case, I have an insatiable craving as far as challenges are concerned. What do you think that means in terms of ChemE?</p>