Chemical Engineering or Chemistry?

[loretaytay]

I will be attending college this fall as a freshman, so I'm trying to decide on a major. My first choice of a major was chemistry because I had planned on going to medschool, but now I am also considering majoring in chemical engineering.

What are the major differences between the two? What kind of opportunities would I have in each field, meaning what kind of careers would I be most likely to enter?

 

[Monocles]

Chemists tend to focus on creating new chemicals and applying already existing chemicals to processes. Chemical engineers tend to focus on how to mass produce the chemical. The line is blurry though - exception definitely exist.

 

[LewisEE]

With Chemical Engineering you have a shot of getting a job out of Undergrad. If you do Chemistry, it has to be a bridge to something higher, whether that be Medschool or Grad school or what have you.