Vendetta133

I have a question regarding internships at UCLA. I got accepted into both Cal and UCLA (leaning towards UCLA since the environment has a much more pristine feeling to it, and the school is gorgeous)

I'm a chemical engineer and was wondering if UCLA has just as many internship opportunities (from big companies like Chevron, Concophilips, etc) as UC Berkeley in my particular branch of engineering and in general?

Hopefuly TB54, flopsy or anyone else can shed some light on this topic.

flopsy

UCLA Chemical Engineering got recruitment from Chevron, ConocoPhillips, bp, Schlumberger and a few others this year.

Recent Chemical Engineering on-campus info-sessions from AIChE:
UCLA AIChE Student Chapter

TB54

Does UCLA have internships with big companies? Yes. Will everybody get their internship of choice? No.

Take whatever internship you get offered in my opinion.

I had an internship offer with a small environmental engineering firm and they offered me 15 bucks an hour. I was mad they offered so little I rejected their offer and ended up with nothing for the summer.

My friend went with a small downstream refining engineering firm, got offered 13.50 an hour. In the end, this internship got him his job with Chevron and he makes 10k more than me. (Not to mention we're in different applications of chemical engineering, but still)

Moral of the story? Don't shoot yourself in the foot.

Companies that give out internships (off the top of my head)
Tesoro
ConocoPhillips (heard all UCLA ChemE who got offered rejected it)
BP
Chevron
Baxter

Thing is, most companies don't hire interns unless after your junior year due to learning what ChemE truly is during your junior year. For UCLA ChemE, we have our own counselor or liason to industry who helps with jobs, Mr. Bill Beard. He's such a great guy and he knows the ropes about getting a job and promotions (used to be the recruiting manager for Arco which is now BP).

Schlumberger can bite me. They put me on an oil rig for 48h straight for a job interview, I hated it so much. I read reviews and what people truly think of Schlumberger/Haliburton, treat you like a dog and work you. Sure you get a lot of money but it blows, not a fun career.

- TB54 aka "We're making 20 million a year on our biodiesel and not tanking, sucka!"

flopsy

Why?

TB54

Good question. Their plants are located in Carson. Perhaps location but BP is also located in Carson.

Chevron is located in El Segundo. Don't see much ExxonMobil, don't know why. Tesoro is independant and Aera is like a daughter company of Shell and Exxon (If memory serves me correct).

My best guess, cause ConocoPhillips is Coco for Coca Poofs?

- TB54

GrassPuppet

TB54, you make ChemE sound so depressing

TB54

Forget to mention, some people think all chemical engineers either go to petroleum or manufacturing, this is not true.

Some chemical engineers go intern at biotech firms (Genetech/Amgen/Zymogen/Applied Biosystems), some go intern for government (LADWP, Department of Water Resources, EPA), some go intern for food/beverage companies (Coke, Pepsico, Frito-Lay, Anheuser-Bush).

A degree in chemical engineering will take you places, you're not limited at all to chemical facilities.

For example, my job, I work for a civil firm. Another ChemE, his job is working at Cisco Systems.

I was considering doing insurance or real estate at some point if I don't like engineering in the industry. You have the fundamentals of analysis and problem solving, not limited to engineering.

Did you know the chef, Ming Tsai, whom is a very popular and wealthy chef, has a B.S. in MechE from Yale? Despite the fact he has two degrees from the Ivies, the ability to problem solve is the role of the engineer, and he applied this to his multi million restaurants in New York.


As for depressing:
What I liked most about chemical engineering at UCLA: the friendships, the camaraderie and the fun I had when it was difficult.

To give you an idea about camaraderie, in your senior design class, you and your group members will be working around the clock to make a working production plant.

Last Sunday, all the senior ChemEs were in SEAS 2nd floor, people were going insane about the project, having fun also and also ordering massive amount of pizzas for ~40 people. My group got in at 2pm, left at 11pm, we were an early group, our presentation/design was one of the best. For groups that were not so lucky, they stayed till 11pm-4am, some of their designs were great and some weren't.

Defending your senior design sucks sometimes. We had to present our design to Chevron, Biodiesel Commitees and Chair of ChemE. For some groups, they were daring to shove their design into Ph.D.s and industry people like a screw you ordeal (supercritical reactor with 400atms of pressure and 800C, insane amounts of electricity needed). Our group designed a dual reaction system which enabled us to keep pressure and temperature low (15 atm for highest, 1atm majority of times, 60C).

I will be posting a full review of the ChemE department, courses and what not after I graduate, so stay tuned!

- "5 more weeks till freedom" TB54

P.S. - It's true Cal has a better chemical engineering program but don't let that decide why you want to go to UCLA or Cal. Let the environment and which program you feel you can fit in the best decide. I will say ChemE is not an easy major hence why we're paid the highest for starting engineers (haven't head of any EE/MechE at UCLA breaking 70k starting). So regardless if you go to Cal or UCLA for ChemE, it won't be a breeze either way.

ChemE at UCLA prepares you how to work hard and efficiently. Many ChemEs who take non ChemE classes breeze through many of the classes (Chem 156, MIMG 101/101L, etc).

I haven't see any non-ChemEs take ChemE classes for breadths, this could be because ChemE is too structured or just too difficult or both or neither.

Vendetta133

I really appreciate your input on the subject, and honestly I feel that UCLA has a slightly more laid-back social atmosphere and would actually fit me perfectly. And another thing, just the fact that you (TB54) have described such a diverse group of students in ChemE is also great aspect of UCLA.

I'm also was curious about the social life as UCLA engineer , especially being to buy season tickets to the Football games and being able to go!

Also, how's AICHE?

r30028

flopsy i think i might have heard you say something like this before, but i cant remember, around how many cs/cse students are left in your graduating class around senior year? Does it shrink more after freshman year?

MadeInChina

yup, it does.

edit: that's not what she said.

flopsy

The CS/CSE student body has an attrition rate of about 25%-33%, but mostly during freshman year. We'll see how many are left at this year's commencement (maybe 100?).

TB54

How's AICHE? Great if some of the guy officers would stop staring at the cleavage of one of the more promiscuous female officers and actually get to work. Moldau probably knows who I am talking about.....

Is anybody going to the Order of the Engineer ceremony? I just want to go for the ring and license plate and leave.

- TB54

flopsy

volleyaddict

im really sorry if this has already been asked, but...

im currently undeclared (physical science to be exact), but i think i want to go into civil or environmental engineering. Would trying to get into the engineering college from the college of l&s be a nearly impossible feat? Also, would not being declared as an engineering major my first quarter or however long make it difficult to get on track for engineering?

laserbase

^^^tessa r. ? is that u volleyaddict?