ChemSci

Hi,

I'm currently majoring in Chemical Engineering in my first year of college; however, I've been having a conflict with my interests. I've been gaining a lot of interest in Material Science and Engineering focused more on polymers. I like Material Science a lot, but I also enjoy Chemical Engineering. My university offer a minor in polymer science and engineering, but I feel like I wouldn't be able to enjoy it as much if I didn't major in it? I was thinking of double majoring, but I know that's a large work load.

Would doing two majors be worth it or stick with one major and add a minor?

TaciturnType

Don't do two majors, especially if they're both engineering majors. It will be an unnecessary stress on your life that will confuse employers and result in you having wasted time studying in a field that you won't use after you graduate.

Materials Science is sort of a combination of mechanical and chemical engineering. I find it's a less standard subject, but in general it focuses more on the mechanics and dynamics of materials and how they're created, whereas chemical is more about heat and mass transfer and fluid/thermodynamics.

You should definitely talk to some people in your school's MSE department if it's sounds interesting. From my own experiences (cheg major considering MSE), I've found that chemical engineering is a more fundamental major, so it keeps more options open. Unless you really like the ferrous metals and electronic materials part of MSE, you can probably cover the same things with a minor or electives.

naturaldistaster

I would personally stick with ChE. I feel like you can do almost everything someone with an MSE degree does but still have your options open. Like one of my professors, his research is about flexible memory and solar cells, but all of his degrees were ChE.