<p>As a senior in high school who is planning to study ChE this thread is somewhat disheartening. I don’t mind so much the fact that ChE will be tough in college, but some people here are painting it as a poor career choice unless you want to work for a big oil company. I do not want to go to Texas and work in an oil refinery every day. My dad majored in Chemical Engineering then went into industry (Kodak then later Baush and Lomb) and I believe he might have worked his degree more like a Mechanical Engineering degree then specifically for oil. Honestly I was “planning” (once again I use this work very loosely) to follow a similar career path to him and work in industry not for an oil company. Is this a bad idea and tough to do? Is ChE not that good of a career choice? Maybe I’d be better off just doing Mechanical Engineering?</p>