r/ChemicalEngineering • u/Commercial_Effect_25 • May 16 '25
Student Chem vs Chem Eng.
I’m currently a Junior in highschool, and I have a college counselor. He told me he doesn’t think I’m ready for chemical engineering in college bc I don’t have AP Physcisc or AP Calc BC (I currently have Calc AB And Chem this year, AP Stats 4 and AP Precalc 5 last yr). I will take AP Physics C and BC in senior year, but he said that is a bad idea bc I will be under pressure when uni gives me conditional offer. Anyway, he is basically telling me that teenagers like me hoping to apply for Chem E are taking much much more harder classes than me and I shouldn’t apply or else I won’t get in. He suggested me to apply for Chemistry instead… He also told me I should stay away from math related majors ( prob bc he saw that I got a C+ in AP Stats but got a 4) and prob thinks I’m rly dumb and just delusional for wanting to apply for chem Eng. But I can think of any reason WHY I want to apply for Chemistry? I like chemistry, but just chemistry as a Uni major … I don’t rly want to. I know Chem E is mostly thermo and physics, and I’m willing to learn. What should I do?
Update: thanks for everyone’s advice. It rly gave me confidence. I’ll try my best to get into Chem E programs.
2
u/Lanthed May 21 '25
I came from a small school in Oklahoma with the only AP credits that were offered was AP English. The highest math class we had was algebra 2 (sorta equivalent to college algebra). I graduated this year from Oklahoma State University and was accepted to Purdue University as a PhD candidate. I was also offered a position at Georgia Tech.
I did not apply to any large colleges for my undergraduate, so I am unsure what that is like or required for it. But even if you aren't qualified for those Ivy Leave schools for a bachelor's, who cares? I graduated from OSU and am now going to one of the best schools for chemical engineering in the US. I also only applied to 3 and got accepted by 2 of them. Ontop of this, I had job offers but turned them down because I chose to go the PhD route.
You were definitely more qualified going into college than I was, and I did it, so you'll be fine. In my opinion, the secret to succeeding in chemical engineering is just willing to put in the effort.
Best of luck to you and hope this helps.