<p>I can attend the University of Washington for Mechanical Engineering
or
Washington State University for Chemical Engineering</p>
<p>Ultimately I want to go do drilling/reservoir work for an oil company. Which degree should I go for?
What about school name? Will it be more beneficial to attend UW over WSU? I have heard UW gets a lot more recruiters out there and has a more respected/prestigious program.</p>
<p>Would it still be possible to get internships at places like BP, Schlumberger, Shell, etc from a school like WSU and doing ChemE?</p>
<p>Why specifically mechanical at UW and chemical at WSU? Both schools have both programs.</p>
<p>UW is a better school but you have to apply to your major after sophomore year and some engineering majors can be pretty selective. WSU is a safer bet if you’re not confident in your ability to maintain a >3.5 GPA your first two years.</p>
<p>Well I am accepted as a mechanical engineering student at UW and accepted at WSU for chemical. These are the only two that I can complete in two years(I am a transfer).</p>
<p>Since you want to do drilling/ reservoir work, go with chemical E which means you are forced to attend WSU.</p>
<p>WSU starts in 3 weeks. If your desired field of work is ChemE, then the right degree is much more valuable than the slight difference in perceived prestige. Go to WSU, do well, and be proud of that choice. Those of us who understand the difference will not see it as a compromise.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. But is reservoir and drilling/ petroleum engineering fall more towards chemical engineering work or mechanical engineering work?</p>
<p>Reservoir, as in drinking water and hydro power, or as in geothermal power? Oil reservoir management? Hydro would be most directly related to Civil Engineering, but will have a cross-section of different engineering and science disciplines involved. My brother is CivE, works on water projects, and it would be unusual for him to cross paths with an ME. Oil and energy companies would be more likely to hire Chemical or Petroleum engineers.</p>
<p>Chemical Engineering is more likely to end up in large-scale projects like drilling and petroleum. Again, those are big projects and will have a lot of people of different backgrounds. An ME friend went to work for Mobil and never got near an actual drill.</p>
<p>UW is the more prestigious school of the two, but for engineering, prestige is negligible at the undergraduate level. The reason being that undergrad programs are highly structured and generally consistent between schools - you learn physics, solids, fluids, diff eq, calc, etc… all of these courses will be virtually identical at any school. These are the building block courses after all.</p>
<p>The real difference enters in at the graduate level, where prestige is more important since prestige often attracts research money. And since grad programs are less structured than undergrad programs (meaning theres more variation between schools), it helps to go to the school that gets more research money (and better projects as a result).</p>
<p>More importantly here, you need to decide which field you want to go in to first. Then decide which school you like better… which has a better personal fit?</p>
<p>Reservoir as in the oil industry, where they find out how much oil is in the ground using modeling and decide which equipment to use, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help Magnetron. It seems like I would be better fit for ChemE since it lends itself to drilling/reservoir- the extraction part in oil industry a lot.</p>
<p>Fractalmstr, I just wanted to know which degree would help me land a job at a major oil company working in the drilling and/or reservoir areas, specifically doing that work since that is what I am most interested in, the extraction part of the industry.</p>