How hard is Chemical Engineering?

On TV you often see people at a store that likes to bill itself as so expensive that, if you have to ask, you can't afford it. Chemical engineering and most of the majors listed in this thread fall into that category of major. If you have to ask, it is too hard for you.

It sounds to me like you don't know what you want to study. Until you do, any major on the list so far will be too hard. You might be able to get reasonably good grades but you won't really learn what you need to survive and apply the degree after you graduate.

I bounced around in several of these majors and failed until I found my love of Chemistry. Then I went back and aced several of the courses I had previously failed. Once I knew why I needed them, everything was different.

So get to work and research your options, talk to your professors, try to get an internship. The sooner you know what you have to do, the easier it will be to do it.

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I knew some ME, and I knew some aerospace engineers, and their workloads did not seem similar.[/quote]

I guess I may have a skewed perspective though as I do research...not a 40-50 hours per week kind of position :)

But I have never met an engineer who didn't like their job or didn't have an easy (easy time as in understanding versus time consuming) time with their courses...yet I'm not sure of the drop out rate in those courses? I guess its generally the good kids hanging around the labs and such that I interact with.

As an ME about to enter my senior year, the best advice I can give you is 1) don't slack off in Statics/Mechanics, that shit stays with you all through school; and 2)Become friends with as many other engineers as possible. You need to be able to work on problem sets and projects with people, especially when professors manage to make massive projects and labs due on the same day.

I wouldn't consider myself brilliant in math, have gotten straight B's in college math through diff eq., but we really don't use upper level math too much and you don't need to be brilliant. It's really a matter of doing the homework and problem sets, working with other people when you can, and not giving up when you get stuck.

I've found that the work load varies. Sometimes it's just a few problem sets, maybe 7-8 hours total a week, and sometimes it's a clusterf*** like this week, where I've already been in the computer lab over 24 hours from Sunday. As a major I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who gets calculus, though. Some of the upper level classes are really interesting.

fdgsdfgdsfgf wrote:

Put Engineering below physics chemistry and math. As a math/physics double major, the hardest engineering classes were pretty easy for me, in comparison. And math is harder than chemistry for most people.

You wouldn't have taken the hardest engineering classes as a math/physics major because you would not be able to enroll in them. Try again.

chemical engineers are good, but they are no philosophers!

http://www.ncsu.edu/chass/philo/GRE%20Scores%20by%20Intended%20Graduate%20Major.htm

Part of the difficulty that people haven't really touched on is that everything is graded on a curve. If you want A's, you'll have to get a standard deviation higher than the mean on most tests. I went to a tough engineering school, and the majority of my classes were curved to a B- or B. All the way from freshmen chemistry to junior year thermo and kinetics. Generally senior year is a little easier. I did well, graduated with a 3.8+, and didn't have to work too hard. I studied or worked on problem sets for about 10-15 hours a week. If you're good at taking tests, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

fdgsdfgdsfgf wrote:

Put Engineering below physics chemistry and math. As a math/physics double major, the hardest engineering classes were pretty easy for me, in comparison. And math is harder than chemistry for most people.

I can't imagine you were taking very difficult engineering classes as a non major. Typically the first year of engineering classes are not difficult, it's just the workload. Then, It gets harder towards the end. I'm an Electrical Engineering Major, and the upper level E&M classes are pretty much all physics and math anyway.

Hardest thing about Engineering? easily is the workload, you need a broad understanding of many areas and most classes are technical.

Clearly the most critical part is having a clear schedule for the immense workload. I interned at a large electronics company through Jr/Sr years which was an easy job and I had full access to a lab full of instruments and DEC minicomputers. The old full GI Bill was enough to pay the UC tuition in the olden days. My Mom helped with out with our 2 kids. Still I didn't know half the time if I got a Fail or an A on finals. I was so nervous I would walk back 3 times a day to the profs office to check the board to see how I did.

jjjjjjjjjjjjjj wrote:

chemical engineers are good, but they are no philosophers!

http://www.ncsu.edu/chass/philo/GRE%20Scores%20by%20Intended%20Graduate%20Major.htm

That's funny, since I always found philosophy enjoyable and easy (relative to some weed-out engineering and physics classes), if sometimes thought-provoking too. I took several classes and was considering it for a major, as well as Russian studies, because I loved the Russian philosophers.

Just like math. Linear thinking and logic. To each his own though. As to the guy who floated calculus out there as the benchmark, I have to disagree. Calculus wasn't difficult, but I knew I couldn't handle engineering. Chemistry was fun though.

jjjjjjjjjjjjjj wrote:

chemical engineers are good, but they are no philosophers!

http://www.ncsu.edu/chass/philo/GRE%20Scores%20by%20Intended%20Graduate%20Major.htm

Besides, I'm not sure what your point is with that list. Physics and engineering are at the top of the qunatitative reasoning section you provided, which is exactly where I'd suspect they would be. Not so much with philosophy.

Train Engineer wrote:

I knew some ME, and I knew some aerospace engineers, and their workloads did not seem similar.

I disagree, but it probably depends a lot on the school and the program.

I am a "plain" design ME, and I know plenty of guys who were aero or fluids, and the workload is not necessarily significantly different. Some of the aero or fluids stuff is more abstract, and you'll spend more time doing some types of things (PDEs, simulation) and less time on other types of things that a design ME might do (fatigue, material properties, tolerances, blah blah).

I see aero as a more "math-y" option for guys who lean that way but don't want to be in the pure sciences.

The reality is that the difference in workload between majors can be significant, but I think that the difference in workload based on what you CHOOSE to do is even bigger. A slacker engineer could have a smaller workload than a hard-working Communications major, for example.

Sagarin wrote:

Besides, I'm not sure what your point is with that list. Physics and engineering are at the top of the qunatitative reasoning section you provided, which is exactly where I'd suspect they would be. Not so much with philosophy.

I meant calculus as the mathematical benchmark. If you struggle in calc, you probably don't have the math skills to be an engineer. Obviously there's some other skills.

By the way, if you had trouble with an intro Physics class, you should know that a lot of them are used as weed out classes. Mine was a pain in the ass because of the problem sets and crappy teaching. That brings me to another problem with engineering, which is: the teaching can be awful. Nobody goes into engineering to teach, so the profs are all research oriented and sometimes don't give a damn. I've had many classes where the professor did nothing but derive formulas every class, and thought that was helpful.

Depends on how smart you are....second to that, it depends on your workload. If you're taking 20 credit hours per semester it's going to be harder than someone taking 14 or 15.

And it depends on the school, the professor, etc. Lots of things can influence the difficulty. Does the school grade on a curve? If so you probably have a better chance of at least finishing the program with satisfactory performance.

The core classes are things you should master before you even get to college (physics, calculus, basic chemistry). You should not go into any kind of engineering if you haven't already taken AP Calculus and possibly AP physics.

For perspective, kids in China learn trig in elementary school and calculus by middle school.

Also, if you didn't ace high school chemistry, do not bother going into chemical engineering unless you got a B in high school chemistry at a school like Stuyvestant, Thomas Jefferson High School in Virginia or some other elite high school where the high school workload is like a college workload.

The better prepared you are BEFORE college. If you're not at most a high school sophomore then you have very little time to prepare if you're not already on a track to take AP calculus and physics in high school.

Chem E is the hardest major by far. It is especially hard if you go to a massive top-ranked state university like UT Austin.

Why are you fools responding to a 10 year old thread bumped by a bot?

FFS - BM responded 3 separate times.

Arnold was AWOL wrote:

Chem E is the hardest major by far. It is especially hard if you go to a massive top-ranked state university like UT Austin.

Aerospace engineering is probably harder. The amount of math you need to know to do well at aerospace is much more advanced than ChemE.