<p>TB54, you make ChemE sound so depressing :(</p>
<p>Forget to mention, some people think all chemical engineers either go to petroleum or manufacturing, this is not true.</p>
<p>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). </p>
<p>A degree in chemical engineering will take you places, you’re not limited at all to chemical facilities.</p>
<p>For example, my job, I work for a civil firm. Another ChemE, his job is working at Cisco Systems.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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).</p>
<p>I will be posting a full review of the ChemE department, courses and what not after I graduate, so stay tuned!</p>
<ul>
<li>“5 more weeks till freedom” TB54</li>
</ul>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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). </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>Also, how’s AICHE?</p>
<p>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?</p>
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</p>
<p>yup, it does.</p>
<p>edit: that’s not what she said.</p>
<p>
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?). :rolleyes:</p>
<p>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…</p>
<p>Is anybody going to the Order of the Engineer ceremony? I just want to go for the ring and license plate and leave. </p>
<ul>
<li>TB54</li>
</ul>
<p>
:rolleyes:</p>
<p>im really sorry if this has already been asked, but…</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>^^^tessa r. ? is that u volleyaddict?</p>
<p>I got into bioengineering program in UCLA and UCSD. I heard that BE in UCLA is relatively new and less integrated. Some students even dropped this major since it is not fully developed. In some classes, students do not even have text books in UCLA. So is it true? Compared to UCSD who believes its bioengineering program ranks national 2, does UCLA have that bad program? Are there lots of internships for bio in UCLA? I am still looking forward to going to UCLA since it has nice campus@</p>
<p>I agree, I think if you want BioEngineering you should go an established school like UCSD. UCLA is still at a nascent stage regarding the major, and one of my friends who is a BioEngineering major is finding difficulty getting classes and thinks that he made a bad decision regarding the major.</p>
<p>Hi everyone
I am writing because I feel extremely disenchanted with my education here. I’m a 3rd year engineering student and have a 3.3 gpa. I wake up every day, saddened by the thought that I will soon be in Boelter Hall. I put in hours of work each day, to get slammed by intellectual snobs/profs in the form of low grades on my assignments. It’s gotten to the point where I truly hate, yes I said hate, going to class and hearing professors babble. I have experienced two seperate engineering majors here, and have not met one professor who I truly thought was a good teacher. I do not feel as though I’ve learned anything very useful, except in Bristow’s “Technical Management Breadth” series. I am depressed by the fact that I have to do calculations every single day of my life. In fact there’s not a single thing in my life while I’m on campus that does not make me genuinely sad. I also become angry because I feel like I’m being cheated out of my time here, receiving a lousy education from profs and TA’s that really couldn’t give LESS of a rats ass about anyone here but themselves and their research.</p>
<p>UCLA has presented me with a 3.3 GPA in engineering, as well as several high paying internships at various engineering and petroleum firms throughout California. Cool. Despite this, everyday I spend in Boelter is hell. I am very serious. All I really want is to learn something meaningful and useful from someone who truly cares about the students, and in 3 years I have not found it at this place.</p>
<p>Often times I wish I had gone to Berkeley. At least when you go through hell there, you can brag about how you survived arguably one of the toughest engineering programs in the world, and grad schools know that. I get the feeling UCLA is ridiculously challenging, although professionals and prestigous grad schools view UCLA as a second rate undergrad. So where’s the value? Hard work, mediocre rep. Or am I just plain wrong? This is definately a possibility.</p>
<p>Does anyone feel the same way I do?</p>
<p>Don’t think you’re a ■■■■■ because you used coherent sentences and expressed a true concern.</p>
<p>Depends on your major. </p>
<p>When you mentioned Petroleum, there’s only two majors that the downstream companies hire, mechanical and chemical. I don’t think you are in chemical because most of the chemicals know life as a ChemE is hard and it’s not easy however they bond together over it. Mechanical is huge, no sense of camaraderie in my opinion.</p>
<p>Get use to the fact that you get up at 8am to get to Boelter and leave by 6pm, it’s a job at times. Does it suck? Yes. But if you stop complaining, do something about it and stop claiming “i’m working while facebooking,” things will get better. I try to avoid checking my gmail/fb/etc while at Boelter, faster I get things done, faster I can get out. I don’t like the “dungeon” and I’m pretty sure you don’t either, so delay the facebooking till work is done to get out.</p>
<p>Flopsy or GrassPuppet can probably cite you the link where Dean Boelter wanted engineers to only have 2 hours of free time per day.</p>
<p>College is a time where you grow up. You set your responsibilities, your goals, yourself basically. You learn to deal with things you don’t like (get it done with and get the hell out), and learn to develop a passion for things you like.</p>
<p>In my case, I hated some aspects of chemical engineer (being stuck to a production plant for instance). I took civil/environmental engineering classes, loved them, did well and got a job in that field, I use both chemical and environmental engineering aspects in my job, absorption and strippers (take your dirty mind out of the gutter) to remove pollutants.</p>
<p>Edit: You make friends also to pass the time, usually in the same major as you because they know what you are feeling. 3rd year is the transition from lower division to upper division. You can no longer just repeat/rinse methods to get As, rather, you must truly understand the concept and apply it to get a good grade (majority of times). Also, find something you love to do to balance with the mundaneness of engineering.</p>
<p>Read Tremblay’s advice, it helps:
[Systems</a> Career Check - Departments - UCLA Magazine Online](<a href=“http://www.magazine.ucla.edu/depts/trajectory/marc-tremblay_challenges-for-grads/]Systems”>http://www.magazine.ucla.edu/depts/trajectory/marc-tremblay_challenges-for-grads/)</p>
<ul>
<li>TB54</li>
</ul>
<p>
</p>
<p>It was BoelterHall that pointed it out.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Source: [CourseWeb@HSSEAS</a> | Academic Integrity Policy](<a href=“http://courseweb.seas.ucla.edu/public_files/integrity_policy.htm]CourseWeb@HSSEAS”>http://courseweb.seas.ucla.edu/public_files/integrity_policy.htm)</p>
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</p>
<p>Awesome. UCLA has presented me with a 4.0 GPA in history however I haven’t gotten one high paying internship or potential job w/ it. You have, what, 1 year left? If I could do it all over again I’d do engineering, hands down, because it really sucks having a degree that doesn’t guarantee a job that is not only high paying and stable but also has great growth potential. </p>
<p>Lax says quit your *****in!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The world isn’t fair Lax! I say quit your *****in! :D</p>
<p>I actually loved UD history classes, especially eccentric Corey (did well in her class too). If I had an option to take a 5th year and a minor, I would do history as a minor just for kicks.</p>
<p>If you’re sick of engineering, do what I want to do.</p>
<p>I was planing to be a dim sum cart pusher for 3 days after I graduate. I’ll go work at Empress Pavillion in SGV. Shu mai, har gow, char siu bao anybody? Don’t need to pay me in money, I’ll take egg tarts/turnip cake as payment.</p>
<ul>
<li>TB54</li>
</ul>
<p>
In any case, you’re better off then ~75% of the Chemical Engineering majors at UCLA, and better off than ~75% of the Chemical Engineering majors at UC Berkeley for that matter. In absolute terms, the majority of Chemical Engineering jobs are closer to UCLA than UC Berkeley – could they have been as available from Northern California? As for disillusionment with classes, you’re in your third year and the worst courses are actually behind you, so don’t worry. From what I’ve heard, the best Chemical Engineering courses are just ahead – where you can design and implement your own projects and defend them to industry representatives – they are what define the mythical esprit-de-corps among Chemical Engineering majors. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>" In any case, you’re better off then ~75% of the Chemical Engineering majors at UCLA, and better off than ~75% of the Chemical Engineering majors at UC Berkeley for that matter. In absolute terms, the majority of Chemical Engineering jobs are closer to UCLA than UC Berkeley – could they have been as available from Northern California? "</p>
<p>~flopsy</p>
<p>Could you elaborate on that? Those two sentences were rather intriguing! (for me atleast)</p>