What is the difference between a chemistry major and a chemical engineering major in college?
It’s been my experience that there is a striking difference between chemistry and chemical engineering. A chemist will study a lot of science, similar to and extensively building on the chemistry that you’ve had in high school. A chemical engineer, however, will study heat and fluid and mass flow, and a lot of engineering principles. A chemist will work for a chemical company, and in a lab, will determine that you need to mix X plus Y and Z under pressure P and temperature T for time K with catalyst M to get the chemical you want. The chemical engineer will then decide how big a tank you need, how you’ll heat it, how you’ll pressurize it, how to move the reactants into the tank, and how to get the product out.
