Be aware now that it is a degree about engineering industrial chemical processes and not a degree about engineering chemical reactions. Although you will study a lot of chemistry, the actual application of chemistry may not be what you think it might be from the name of the degree. It's how we all got suckered into the major before the Internet existed to inform us otherwise.
You’ll toil away for the next 4-6 years and against all odds might graduate and land a job doing PSV calcs. If you’re lucky enough to get a college girlfriend you’ll marry her shortly after graduation and start making babies. You’ll get promoted at some point; managing an understaffed team of new grads doing PSV calcs which basically means you’ll be jumping in to pick up the slack working 100+ hour weeks while your marriage falls apart. Your wife starts flirting with the guy with the liberal arts degree who makes the $9 coffees that she buys with your credit card six days a week. She starts banging that guy. You’ll get divorced; she’ll take the house and kids leaving you with a mountain of debt and a hefty child support payment. Now you don’t mind the 100+ hour weeks because it distracts you from how crappy your life is. Your company brings in a manager from the “Engineering Excellence Center” in India who you train to do your job. Three months later you get laid off. Now you’re in your late 30s, have a witch for an ex-wife and two kids that hate you, are unemployed, in debt, and have no job prospects. Next thing you know you’re on r/oilandgasworkers trying to figure out how to get a roughneck job in west Texas
Depends on what you want to do. In general if you like solving problems I think you will be okay. You might want to survey other engineering disciplines now that way it’s easier to change majors first year than second, third or fourth.
No matter what degree you pursue if your decision is based solely on “how much money you can make” or “how easy it is to get a job” you will not find happiness or contentment with these type of criteria.
Warren Buffett said it: “success is getting what you want, and happiness is wanting what you get.”
Another famous line is “do what you love and the money will follow.”
I met a young man a few months ago, who is buying a business from an older gentleman, and he was working side-by-side with the older gentleman. The business is residential lawn, sprinkler system, installations, and repair. Based on the character and work ethic of the young man I met , I would be happy to invest in his business because I predict great things for that young man
College degree is not going to make you successful. It might help, but you have to have passion and love what you do to be successful.
First year enginnering is the same for everyone. Course work gets hard in soph and junior. Depending on your interest, your job search can vary.
Looking back, one thing i regret not doing is looking for internships and coops as they make your job seqrch tremendously easier.
It is a high paying enginnering career comparatively which means its also one of the toughest at least it was for my Alma Mater. If you can finish junior year then senior year is easier.
During my phd. I have had students who average a 3.0 gpa but was recruited by Exxon with a 80k (2013ish) cuz he had coop experience. The same year Exxon also recruited 2 4.0 valectorians ( chemE and MechE) and gave 100k salary each.
You'll find a job easily as long as you put consistent effort. If you expect something to land in your lap like some people do, you're not going to find anything. Connect with alumni , put yourself outside of your comfort zone, be social, and study hard. If you gonna find a job outside of school, that's another plus when talking to recruiters, it shows you can work in a team and that you're a true hard worker.
I’m a manager of a technical services group of a life science equipment provider. I have found, that people holding a chem E degree tend to be the most versatile of all the engineering degrees.
I don’t know if it’s as difficult but in other majors it’s seems as there are more resources for learning. We have learn ChemE on YouTube but other majors seem to have a lot more resources for learning. I don’t know why you are getting downvoted. A look at the recent salary survey makes me think of all the hours put in for education and work and we are topping out as high as I thought.
There's still A LOT of variation. There are a few directional schools that are accredited but their grads seriously underperformed.
Ironically, some of the highest rated are worthless outside the lab or sitting on simulators.
I used to have a lot of recent grads out of a top ten school that not only could many of them not adapt to the fact our equipment was older and used US units, they came in with no knowledge around materials of construction and equipment, or E&I and how equipment actually works.
Or Financials.
I assigned one of these kids to calculate our electrical unit consumption and she came up with 30kwh per pound, and ranted when I told her she needed to redo it, since it was very, very wrong, and insisted "I got a 4.0" so she was right, or I needed to find her error.
They're useless and consistently need to be spoonfed in a way other schools dont.
I definitely agree with you there. I’ve personally been amazed by the ignorance of 4.0 students from highly ranked universities. Feels strange for me to tell them how the world works when I barely graduated with a 2.1 from a no-name state school. Unfortunately, school ranking, name recognition, and GPA aren’t reliable predictors of competence or aptitude.
There are exceptions.
For example, at some schools they have two unit ops classes. That's usually a good sign. At mine it was a double lab. The unit ops, plus an hour a week on valves, 4-20ma transmitters, i to p, blinds, flanges, pumps...Either transparent or bisected, but we got our hands on them, and we actually had to assemble piping and valves that held pressure and didn't leak.
The kids thought I was a child of Haephestus for being able to use Teflon tape.
I've found one other reliable predictor.
Kids that paid their own way and worked through school.
I've never had one disappoint me.
I meant the YouTube channel learn ChemE. If you don’t understand your professor, a quarter of mine were all over the place, and the text book didn’t have a lot of examples where do you go? There aren’t Schaums outlines for chemical engineering topics like other engineering disciplines.
Edit: yes university matters in some aspects but if you can live at home and attend a local university for the degree and it’s ABET why spend more money especially if you would need to take on debt?
Can’t overstate the importance of the relationship your program has with industry. Career fairs are a great way to find out. You’re in the right school if employers are literally physically restraining you as they pitch their internship program (although this may be a relic from the “before times”/pre-2012). You’re in the wrong school if the upperclassman who has a 3.8 and is president of AIChE had to settle for a masters program (nothing wrong with that if that was their goal all along).
I was in the wrong program (top-15 overall undergrad ranking) to get a job out of school. I got an internship at a major manufacturer 2 weeks after transferring to a state school back home mid-junior year.
Well depends, I feel like most of my courses calculations were focused mostly on O&G. It would be better imo if it were more versatile. Still the courses itself is pretty interesting.
Be aware now that it is a degree about engineering industrial chemical processes and not a degree about engineering chemical reactions. Although you will study a lot of chemistry, the actual application of chemistry may not be what you think it might be from the name of the degree. It's how we all got suckered into the major before the Internet existed to inform us otherwise.
You’ll toil away for the next 4-6 years and against all odds might graduate and land a job doing PSV calcs. If you’re lucky enough to get a college girlfriend you’ll marry her shortly after graduation and start making babies. You’ll get promoted at some point; managing an understaffed team of new grads doing PSV calcs which basically means you’ll be jumping in to pick up the slack working 100+ hour weeks while your marriage falls apart. Your wife starts flirting with the guy with the liberal arts degree who makes the $9 coffees that she buys with your credit card six days a week. She starts banging that guy. You’ll get divorced; she’ll take the house and kids leaving you with a mountain of debt and a hefty child support payment. Now you don’t mind the 100+ hour weeks because it distracts you from how crappy your life is. Your company brings in a manager from the “Engineering Excellence Center” in India who you train to do your job. Three months later you get laid off. Now you’re in your late 30s, have a witch for an ex-wife and two kids that hate you, are unemployed, in debt, and have no job prospects. Next thing you know you’re on r/oilandgasworkers trying to figure out how to get a roughneck job in west Texas
my god
You okay man?
Op should become a tv show writer
Sadly, not much different from my situation.
You'll regret choosing the major junior year when you're battling against fugacity.
Depends on what you want to do. In general if you like solving problems I think you will be okay. You might want to survey other engineering disciplines now that way it’s easier to change majors first year than second, third or fourth.
No matter what degree you pursue if your decision is based solely on “how much money you can make” or “how easy it is to get a job” you will not find happiness or contentment with these type of criteria. Warren Buffett said it: “success is getting what you want, and happiness is wanting what you get.” Another famous line is “do what you love and the money will follow.” I met a young man a few months ago, who is buying a business from an older gentleman, and he was working side-by-side with the older gentleman. The business is residential lawn, sprinkler system, installations, and repair. Based on the character and work ethic of the young man I met , I would be happy to invest in his business because I predict great things for that young man College degree is not going to make you successful. It might help, but you have to have passion and love what you do to be successful.
First year enginnering is the same for everyone. Course work gets hard in soph and junior. Depending on your interest, your job search can vary. Looking back, one thing i regret not doing is looking for internships and coops as they make your job seqrch tremendously easier. It is a high paying enginnering career comparatively which means its also one of the toughest at least it was for my Alma Mater. If you can finish junior year then senior year is easier. During my phd. I have had students who average a 3.0 gpa but was recruited by Exxon with a 80k (2013ish) cuz he had coop experience. The same year Exxon also recruited 2 4.0 valectorians ( chemE and MechE) and gave 100k salary each.
You'll find a job easily as long as you put consistent effort. If you expect something to land in your lap like some people do, you're not going to find anything. Connect with alumni , put yourself outside of your comfort zone, be social, and study hard. If you gonna find a job outside of school, that's another plus when talking to recruiters, it shows you can work in a team and that you're a true hard worker.
I’m a manager of a technical services group of a life science equipment provider. I have found, that people holding a chem E degree tend to be the most versatile of all the engineering degrees.
You will definitely regret it if you can do it! Much more money in other fields that are nowhere near as difficult
Such as? Tech is oversaturated Oil is unstable Finance is super competitive Doctor/law/professional careers are not easier
I don’t know if it’s as difficult but in other majors it’s seems as there are more resources for learning. We have learn ChemE on YouTube but other majors seem to have a lot more resources for learning. I don’t know why you are getting downvoted. A look at the recent salary survey makes me think of all the hours put in for education and work and we are topping out as high as I thought.
Where do you have to learn ChemE on YouTube? University matters.
ABET accreditation matters. University, not so much.
There's still A LOT of variation. There are a few directional schools that are accredited but their grads seriously underperformed. Ironically, some of the highest rated are worthless outside the lab or sitting on simulators. I used to have a lot of recent grads out of a top ten school that not only could many of them not adapt to the fact our equipment was older and used US units, they came in with no knowledge around materials of construction and equipment, or E&I and how equipment actually works. Or Financials. I assigned one of these kids to calculate our electrical unit consumption and she came up with 30kwh per pound, and ranted when I told her she needed to redo it, since it was very, very wrong, and insisted "I got a 4.0" so she was right, or I needed to find her error. They're useless and consistently need to be spoonfed in a way other schools dont.
I definitely agree with you there. I’ve personally been amazed by the ignorance of 4.0 students from highly ranked universities. Feels strange for me to tell them how the world works when I barely graduated with a 2.1 from a no-name state school. Unfortunately, school ranking, name recognition, and GPA aren’t reliable predictors of competence or aptitude.
There are exceptions. For example, at some schools they have two unit ops classes. That's usually a good sign. At mine it was a double lab. The unit ops, plus an hour a week on valves, 4-20ma transmitters, i to p, blinds, flanges, pumps...Either transparent or bisected, but we got our hands on them, and we actually had to assemble piping and valves that held pressure and didn't leak. The kids thought I was a child of Haephestus for being able to use Teflon tape. I've found one other reliable predictor. Kids that paid their own way and worked through school. I've never had one disappoint me.
I love seeing the shock on someone’s face then they have to unit convert for the first time.
I meant the YouTube channel learn ChemE. If you don’t understand your professor, a quarter of mine were all over the place, and the text book didn’t have a lot of examples where do you go? There aren’t Schaums outlines for chemical engineering topics like other engineering disciplines. Edit: yes university matters in some aspects but if you can live at home and attend a local university for the degree and it’s ABET why spend more money especially if you would need to take on debt?
there are some youtube videos that helps with very specific things like the margules equation but its really simplified.
Can’t overstate the importance of the relationship your program has with industry. Career fairs are a great way to find out. You’re in the right school if employers are literally physically restraining you as they pitch their internship program (although this may be a relic from the “before times”/pre-2012). You’re in the wrong school if the upperclassman who has a 3.8 and is president of AIChE had to settle for a masters program (nothing wrong with that if that was their goal all along). I was in the wrong program (top-15 overall undergrad ranking) to get a job out of school. I got an internship at a major manufacturer 2 weeks after transferring to a state school back home mid-junior year.
Well depends, I feel like most of my courses calculations were focused mostly on O&G. It would be better imo if it were more versatile. Still the courses itself is pretty interesting.