I want to go into Petroleum engineering, but how?

this is not a question for letsrun. talk to a college advisor, preferably for the grad school you're interested in.

i know that colorado school of mines has petroleum engineering, as do schools in texas on the gulf coast. maybe alaska or something.

go to the CSM website and call their admissions office.

You need to take some geology and chemical engineering. If your school doesn't have chemical engineering, then take statics and kinetics.

You won't get into a PhD program with your grades, but I'm sure that you can find a one or two year master's pprogram somewhere if you have the bucks.

It is not true that you have to stick with your ug major in grad school.

Another option is just to transfer into PEng undergrad now at Texas, Texas A&M, LSU, OkSU, Wyoming etc.. It would probably take two years to graduate, but you'd be in that position no matter what you do.

You can get into a petroleum engineering program with a masters in chemistry. They'll make you take some pre-requisites, but they'll be happy to take your money.

Wyoming has a great program, but running there kinda sucks (although it is 7000 ft), I'd look at Colorado School of Mines, and I think even South Dakota School of Mines have programs, and are better running communities.

Very few schools have Petroleum Engineering programs. They are mostly in states with all the petroleum. Texas, Oklahoma, Penn St, California, North Dakota, New Mexico, North Dakota. You can find these schools with a little Google searching. I don't think many have online programs. You basically have to move to these places to do the programs.

It may also help if your GPA for the last 60 credits is better than 3.0. If not, complete your degree, keep taking technical courses and getting A's, and get your GPA for last 60 credits up.

thanks for the advice thus far.

several questions I have:

1) Why does running in wyoming suck? Too cold? (colder than Colorado, SD, or ND?) Too much snow? Just seems like the 7K elevatio would be a bonus, but I've never been to wyoming so I don't really know.

2) I think most engineering companies have a rule about hiring people with a 3.0 gpa or under (as in they don't do it lol.) As a chem major I have a 3.0 (without going into excuses, I think with better time management and not working I could have probably been 3.2 or 3.3--but it is what it is.) I know petroleum engineering will be more difficult than the chem classes I have taken. Is it feasible to think I can manage a 3.0 with engineering classes, or at the least very close to 3.0?

3) My extracurriculars are ok. I speak 2 foreign languages fluently (actually fluently) due to extensive time lived overseas during several summers/years over my college career. Does this actually help at all, in any way?

thanks for the help.

I come to LRC and not a college advisor because I'm only in the beginning stages of this, and don't know a lot of details yet. I want to learn on my own some first.

Also a lot of people here have been in engineering/known people in it, and I can get a variety of responses, not just one.

1. I didn't say running in Wyoming sucks. I love my little Wyoming town, and I have lived in some running heavens (Missoula, Bozeman, Victoria BC), but in Laramie, the weather is really unpredictable and the worst part is the wind which is unrelenting.

2. As a petroleum engineer, you likely won't be working for an engineering company. Oil companies all claim that they have some proprietary 'secret sauce' that enables them to reach more product, so they don't farm out the petroleum engineering part. They'll farm out civil and environmental, but not petroleum. I also think that GPA is looked at, but if you are also involved in things like ASCE or SPE (society of petroleum engineers), and are active in those organizations, and seek out opportunities to gain experience in the entire means-end chain by working as an intern, or a roaming pumper in a field (This is where the opportunity is in Wyoming as you can get hired easily for one of these positions, and that will look very good on any job application), your GPA can be a little less competitive. Experience matters.

3. Foreign languages do help. Particularly Spanish (there are many Spanish speaking contractors working in oil fields in the US) and Arabic...I know quite a few petroleum engineers that regularly go to UAE and Dubai. Other languages also likely help, but to a lesser degree...it all depends on the operations in that country, like I imagine Russian could be useful, as well as some African languages.

Other things to consider is just applying for petroleum jobs. Your back-ground in chemistry may give you enough to get a job in safety, water treatment, or as an environmental PM, all of which make a very comfortable living (can easily get to 6 figures by the time you are in your 30s). Those jobs split time between office and field (70-30% maybe). As a petroleum engineer, you may be stuck in a refinery you whole career.