Engineering Undecided: Chemical Engineering Advice

[tatiana]

So I've heard that Chemical Engineering is the hardest type of engineering of them all and beacuse I love chemisrty and I love physics, I figured why not chemical engineering? I'm not sure if that makes sense, is chemical engineering even a good combination of the two? Or am I just putting two and teo togetyer and they are really different? If anyone has any knowledge in this particular area I would appreciate it?!

 

[anubis01]

Its rather subjective which engineering discipline is the hardest, but honestly why does it even matter? As long as you enjoy the material and take your studious seriously, you'll be fine.

 

[tatiana]

I agree your right that if i wouk hard and enjoy what I am doing then it shouldn't matter however, i just want to be sure that I am understanding the idea of a chemical engineer and from there i will be able to base wether or not I should look into it as a career?

 

[CheckMate]

One of my friend is doing Chemical Engineering, he's in his third year and he told me he got only 2 chemistry courses so far in his 3 years.

The question you should ask yourself is this :

" What technologies do I like the most?"
"What kind of solutions would I like to work on?"
"Is engineering the right thing for me? Do I like to design and find solutions to problems?"

Forget about math chem and physics. Yes you will do chem and physics, but you can also take a Science program and still do math chem or physics.

 

[danago]

I can't speak for chemE courses around the world (i assume the situation is similar though), but here in Australia we take hardly any chemistry classes as part of the degree. Most of the courses are in topics like chemical thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer, fluid mechanics, processing modules, control system design etc. Of course there are elements of chemistry in each class, however it seems to be only very basic chemistry.

 

[lisab]

I can't speak for chemE courses around the world (i assume the situation is similar though), but here in Australia we take hardly any chemistry classes as part of the degree. Most of the courses are in topics like chemical thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer, fluid mechanics, processing modules, control system design etc. Of course there are elements of chemistry in each class, however it seems to be only very basic chemistry.

I had a friend who was a super-whiz at chemistry, so he decided to switch to chem E to kick it up a notch. But he found it had very little chemistry, and lots of the things danago lists here...and a big dose of industrial applications, calculations of fluids flowing through pipes, etc. He hated it! He had to come back to chemistry, where he lived happily ever after. OK I made that last bit up.

 

[chill_factor]

depends on your school. my school's ChemE program has 5 free technical electives that count towards your grade, you can take Chemistry classes for those, and they already require general/organic/physical chemistry to the same degree and rigor as Chemistry students. What ChemE lacks is 2 quarters of analytical (plus their labs), 1 quarter of advanced inorganic + lab and 1 quarter of physical chemistry lab + 1 required chemistry theory elective + 1 required chemistry lab elective (though polymer lab counts for both Chem and ChemE).

of course you still need to know: chemical thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, reactor design, process controls, mass balance, etc. but you'll also learn some aspects of CHEMISTRY deeper than CHEMISTRY majors, such as reaction kinetics. what chemistry students learn in physical chemistry is shallower than what ChemE's learn IMO. the only aspect we learn better is quantum and spectroscopy, we just can't compare in kinetics and thermo.

 

[tatiana]

Really, I am supprised that you don't take as many chem courses if your going into chemical engineering, i know that some schools will give you the credits if you pass your AP exams, and because I'm in AP chem right now and i pass the exam, would i basically be taking the chem courses by satisfying those credits?

Also thnaks becuase I also didn't know what other classes you would be taking instead. i might have too look more into this than i thought!

 

[RandomGuy88]

I was MechE in undergrad but my two roommates were chemE and all they did was calculate flows through pipes. Very little chemistry in the actual work they did. It sounded pretty awful to me. They also claimed that ChemE was the hardest but I think it was just because it was so boring

 

[NanjoeBot]

Whats all this nonsense about chemE's not using much chemistry?? At my school we take 3 general chemistry courses, 2 organic courses, and 3 physical chemistry. Plus a couple of chemistry electives if we desire. After that, all of our chemE classes especially thermo, reaction engineering, mass and energy transfer, materials, thin films, polymers, separation processes are all BUILT ON CHEMISTRY~!

We cover a pretty broad spectrum of science and technology, anyone who says that all chE's do is calculate flow through pipes, doesn't know what they are talking about.

 

[danago]

Whats all this nonsense about chemE's not using much chemistry?? At my school we take 3 general chemistry courses, 2 organic courses, and 3 physical chemistry. Plus a couple of chemistry electives if we desire. After that, all of our chemE classes especially thermo, reaction engineering, mass and energy transfer, materials, thin films, polymers, separation processes are all BUILT ON CHEMISTRY~!

We cover a pretty broad spectrum of science and technology, anyone who says that all chE's do is calculate flow through pipes, doesn't know what they are talking about.

Can i ask where you are studying? Your course sounds like what i was hoping for when i enrolled into ChemE. At my school, and most others that i have looked at in my country, we only take two pure chemistry classes--one covering inorganic and physical chemistry and the other covering organic chemistry. I will do courses on reaction kinetics and reaction engineering next year, but i think that is as far as it goes for me.

And i agree with your comment about the misconception that we only study pipe flow; that is just one part of the fluid mechanics and/or heat transfer courses.

 

[NanjoeBot]

Danago, I am at Oregon State University. We are, however, on a trimester system so 3 courses takes 1 year. I am not sure if three courses at my school are equivalent to two courses at a semester college, i suspect it is.

 

[Dembadon]

As others have mentioned, it really depends on the program. At my university, The Department of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering offers a B.Sc. with an emphasis in one of the following:

• Biomedical
• Environmental
• Materials Science
• Process and Energy

The biomedical path requires more chemistry courses than the others. (Physical Chemistry I & II w/labs; Organic Chemistry I & II w/labs; and Analytical Chemistry)

I'd suggest getting more information from the programs to which you're hoping to be accepted.

 

[chill_factor]

Really, I am supprised that you don't take as many chem courses if your going into chemical engineering, i know that some schools will give you the credits if you pass your AP exams, and because I'm in AP chem right now and i pass the exam, would i basically be taking the chem courses by satisfying those credits?

Also thnaks becuase I also didn't know what other classes you would be taking instead. i might have too look more into this than i thought!

to make it clear: you're still taking 9 quarters (3 years) of chemistry.

you're just not getting the 4th year.

 

[tatiana]

Whats all this nonsense about chemE's not using much chemistry?? At my school we take 3 general chemistry courses, 2 organic courses, and 3 physical chemistry. Plus a couple of chemistry electives if we desire. After that, all of our chemE classes especially thermo, reaction engineering, mass and energy transfer, materials, thin films, polymers, separation processes are all BUILT ON CHEMISTRY~!

We cover a pretty broad spectrum of science and technology, anyone who says that all chE's do is calculate flow through pipes, doesn't know what they are talking about.

So since your a chemE major, then could i ask you what types of jobs your looking into or which type of jobs can be associated whing majoring in chemE that don't include calculating the flow of water through a pipe!

 

[tatiana]

Whats all this nonsense about chemE's not using much chemistry?? At my school we take 3 general chemistry courses, 2 organic courses, and 3 physical chemistry. Plus a couple of chemistry electives if we desire. After that, all of our chemE classes especially thermo, reaction engineering, mass and energy transfer, materials, thin films, polymers, separation processes are all BUILT ON CHEMISTRY~!

We cover a pretty broad spectrum of science and technology, anyone who says that all chE's do is calculate flow through pipes, doesn't know what they are talking about.

to make it clear: you're still taking 9 quarters (3 years) of chemistry.

you're just not getting the 4th year.

i gotcha well either way it still makes sense to work to getteh credits for my AP classes otherwise id just be wasting my time in high school, i could be saving money inthe longrun

 

[NanjoeBot]

So since your a chemE major, then could i ask you what types of jobs your looking into or which type of jobs can be associated whing majoring in chemE that don't include calculating the flow of water through a pipe!

Im looking into developing sustainable energies and materials.

Something interesting though is that in the past 5 years 70% of the ChemE graduates from my school have apparently gone into microelectronics. I live in the northwest USA.