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Any Chemical or Materials Science Engineers here?

T

Trevelyan

Diamond Member
Well I'm currently enrolled in Chemical Engineering and I just don't know if it's right for me. Basically I'm hoping to become a Biomedical Engineer after undergrad, but I may want to break to get a job before getting my degree.

I have the same amount of credits for either Chemical Engineering or Materials Science Engineering and I can't decide which to go into.

Can anyone with experience in either please give some pros and cons of each? Maybe tell me what I should expect so if I don't like _____ I shouldn't do this major.
 
I'm a chemical engineer by degree, but I have a great interest in material science as well.

How far are you into your program? What school are you going to?

Chemical engineers are VERY versitile - you can tailor your undergrad to specialize in one area, or you can take a variety of things to be able to do many different things. If you want to do biomedical, definatly pick up a biochemistry class, take some BioE classes if your school offers them. At my school, we could take Biochemistry to satisfy a chemistry requirment and BioE classes to satisfy some general engineering requirements. Talk to your advisor, they may be able to help you.

Does your school have a co-op program? If they do, even if it's not mandatory, look into that. There's a lot of awesome companies that hire students for co-op positions, I know of several in the biomedical industry (I co-oped for one myself). ChemE can vary a lof from school to school, a lot of the enjoyability depends on faculty and the courses they offer. I don't really enjoy math, but it's a (small) part of my job so I deal with it. A lof of the calculus I've learned I don't really use day-to-day, it's very rare actually. Some of it (differential equations especially) come into play if you take any control classes or go into that industry.

You should definatly try and get an internship or a co-op the first oppertunity you have, I was on the fence about ChemE after my Freshman year, luckily I was ahead of the game and secured my first co-op for the summer after my Freshman year (we don't normally start for another year, I wanted a cool summer job). I found out I loved doing R&D and focused my efforts on that the rest of my college career. I'm working now until grad school starts this August.

 
To answer your questions MrBond, I'm at Univ of Florida, in the middle of my Sophomore year. I suppose getting an internship would be sweet, but I wouldn't know where to look, especially around here.
 
Im a junior in Chem Eng. Some fields that you can go into are but not limited to: Nanomaterials, Semiconductors, Process control, Polymer Science...

If you are interested in Bio Med, or Med, or Bio, you may want to consider minoring/ double majoring in Biology.
 
I'm a ChemE. ChemE's usually have the highest starting salary after getting your BS, so thats one of the perks. You can go into almost any industry, even non-engineering since we went through hell and back in college. Word of advice, do a co-op or internship while in school, companies are looking for real life experience.
 
If you want to go into Bio at all, ChemE is a much better bet than MSE.
Just take a bunch of bio/biochem classes, and see if you can help out a prof with his research (depends on the university, some of them won't touch undergrads).

BTW, Microbiology is GREAT 🙂
 
Well the Materials Science here is supposedly the 9th in the nation, and they offer a dual MS/BS for Materials Science and Biomedical Engineering, which is a plus. I dunno, the Chem Engineering just seems harder than what I'm ready for, a lot of higher level chem that I just don't know if I'm cut out for.
 
Yeah...if you are thinking BME consider ChemE. I'm a Biomedical Engineer in the middle of my 2nd year and my current professor has his B.S. in ChemE (And M.S. and PhD in BME) so I would assume there is a closer relation. That and it just seems to ME that BME is like a focus of ChemE...but a focus so important and so wide it get its own major. Good luck in what ya do
And not sure about difficulty, but it seems the general word is BME is harder because you have to be versed in a variety of fields...that and it sjust harder here b/c the program is only a few years old and some ChemEs who just graduated said that they just "tried to dumb down the grad level courses since those were established for a while" but it still was just as hard as before 😛

Either way...you are an engineer and really can't go wrong

Perssonally though I'd take ChemE over MSE becuase I was deciding ChemE or BME
 
Alright well I kind of have this other problem, I just don't know if I can actually BE A GOOD ENGINEER. I mean, I make really good grades and have a great GPA and don't have a problem understanding things, it just seems that some of the stuff I'll be learning is way over my head and I have this fear that I won't be able to do it when it comes time to get a job.

Any other engineers have this kind of problem? Did you find that you got all the training you needed and it wasn't as terrible to learn the tasks of your job?
 
Also, anyone care to tell me what kind of stuff they do in their job? As in, is it enjoyable? Do you like going to work?
 
Well, I have to disagree with everyone above a little bit and say I think that MSE would be a better choice. The research group I was in for my Masters, my advisor was half time between ChemE and MSE. There were 5 grad students and I was the only MSE of us. Not only did I learn and know pretty much everything that they did, but I could do a whole lot more in a lot more fields.

I also have to disagree with the idea that you should do ChemE for biomaterials. Some of the best reasearch in that field right now is being done by MSE people. Every heard of BioGlass made by Larry Hench...yup a Materials guy.(well ceramic technically I think, but they are pretty close fields)

Right now my research group is doing Biomaterials, Crystallization processes, Fuel Cells, Laser Systems, and Fiberglass. Along with a number of other side projects with everything from fluorescent materials to optics to ultra high temperature materials. So the materials field is just about everywhere. Really think of it this way, if you can touch it...it's material.

By the way, if you are really interested in Biomaterials, guess who runs the Biomaterials Center at UF, the MSE deparment.

Also, salary ranges vary so much by university that it's tough to judge. At both my current and former universities, MSE majors made MORE starting out than ChemE's did.

In the end, I'd have to say you really need to think about what type of work you want to do and where you want to do it. People from both majors can tell you that theirs is the best, but you really need to decide what you want to do, the opportunities are there for both. Also, I would suggest not breaking for a job would be best. It really is difficult to get back once you leave. Maybe as a deciding factor start looking at the two departments at UF for an undergrad research position and use the experience from there to try to decide where you'd like to go.

Also, I've met some of the UF MSE people at a couple of conferences, and they're pretty good.
 
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