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Roland
Student
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Should I major in chemistry for my bachelor's degree and then narrow the field of study for postgraduate education?
I am torn between going into a specific major relating to chemistry, like chemical engineering, or just going into a general chemistry major. On the one hand, I would have a little bit of a head start in graduate school, but on the other hand, I would have more flexibility if I realize I do not want to study chemical engineering. #Fall25
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3 answers
Joseph Neilson
Radiation Detection Physicist
245
Answers
Oxford, England, United Kingdom
Updated
Joseph’s Answer
I can only speak from my experience with Physics rather than Chemistry, but I suspect the situation is similar. My feeling from my studies is that specialisation at undergrad level is great if you're looking to go straight into industry from undergrad, if you're looking to jump straight into a PhD, or if you're super-confidently committed to a particular subfield and you want to learn as much as you can about it - but the flexibility of going more general can often be a better bet.
In terms of getting a headstart for grad school, I'm not sure how much that really applies - yes I guess there's a bit of advantage from an application and admissions perspective but I'd say on the academic material side, that's not so much the case. Postgrad degrees are generally open to student of a selection of different undergrad courses, and they therefore for any taught components they have to assume close to the lowest common denominator of knowledge across the subjects they accept students from. Unless you think you'd benefit from being taught the same things twice, I'd say you're less getting a head-start, and more setting yourself to be duplicating classes.
I personally opted for a course which blended a wide generalist approach with specialist option modules for interest - less by specific choice and more that's the way the specialism I wanted to study was generally packaged at the time, but it served me well. I wanted to follow an astrophysics specialism, and thus opted for a "Physics with Astrophysics" degree. The system here is a bit different to the major-minor system you might be going into, but I'd guess that might be somewhat comparable to a pure-physics major with an Astro minor.
I ended up being quite glad of having the generalist physics core of my degree, because it made it quite easy for me to pivot into a different subfield (nuclear) for postgrad Masters when I found in the later years of my undergrad that the higher-level astro content wasn't really for me.
In terms of getting a headstart for grad school, I'm not sure how much that really applies - yes I guess there's a bit of advantage from an application and admissions perspective but I'd say on the academic material side, that's not so much the case. Postgrad degrees are generally open to student of a selection of different undergrad courses, and they therefore for any taught components they have to assume close to the lowest common denominator of knowledge across the subjects they accept students from. Unless you think you'd benefit from being taught the same things twice, I'd say you're less getting a head-start, and more setting yourself to be duplicating classes.
I personally opted for a course which blended a wide generalist approach with specialist option modules for interest - less by specific choice and more that's the way the specialism I wanted to study was generally packaged at the time, but it served me well. I wanted to follow an astrophysics specialism, and thus opted for a "Physics with Astrophysics" degree. The system here is a bit different to the major-minor system you might be going into, but I'd guess that might be somewhat comparable to a pure-physics major with an Astro minor.
I ended up being quite glad of having the generalist physics core of my degree, because it made it quite easy for me to pivot into a different subfield (nuclear) for postgrad Masters when I found in the later years of my undergrad that the higher-level astro content wasn't really for me.
Thank you a lot for taking time to answer my question, it really means a lot and certainly helps out with this decision!
Roland
Katie Burell
North American Quality Management Director at ASR Group
62
Answers
Baltimore, Maryland
Updated
Katie’s Answer
If you are torn between chemistry and chemical engineering, you may want to look into dual degree programs. I went to school with several students who did this.
Georgia Tech, my alma mater, offers a dual degree program with 20+ schools. You do 3 years at your home school and finish up with 2 years in the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech. You earn two Bachelor’s degrees—one from each school.
You may want to see if the schools you are considering participate in these types of programs.
Georgia Tech, my alma mater, offers a dual degree program with 20+ schools. You do 3 years at your home school and finish up with 2 years in the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech. You earn two Bachelor’s degrees—one from each school.
You may want to see if the schools you are considering participate in these types of programs.
Karin P.
Lecturer, Academic Advisor, Career Coach
1093
Answers
Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany
Updated
Karin’s Answer
Hi Roland,
Chemical engineering is not a specialization within chemistey. They are two distinctly different degrees and career paths.
If you have a "science brain", chemistry is a good broad undergraduate degree. If you have an "engineer brain", chemical engineering is a good undergraduate degree. I have seen a bunch of students fail out of a chem eng degree and absolutely excel in chemistry! It probably happens in the opposite direction as well.
Chemistry has many different specializations (organic, inorganic, computational, medicinal, analytical, environmental, materials, etc). Basically, chemists work to synthesize new compounds and analyze known compounds and their properties. They work at the lab scale.
Chemical engineers design processes and equipment to produce chemicals at large scale. They deal with energy and material balances in a chemical plant. They don't deal with the fundamental chemistry, but how to scale things up to production level.
I hope this helps! All the best to yoy!
KP
https://www.acs.org/careers/chemical-sciences/fields.html
Chemical engineering is not a specialization within chemistey. They are two distinctly different degrees and career paths.
If you have a "science brain", chemistry is a good broad undergraduate degree. If you have an "engineer brain", chemical engineering is a good undergraduate degree. I have seen a bunch of students fail out of a chem eng degree and absolutely excel in chemistry! It probably happens in the opposite direction as well.
Chemistry has many different specializations (organic, inorganic, computational, medicinal, analytical, environmental, materials, etc). Basically, chemists work to synthesize new compounds and analyze known compounds and their properties. They work at the lab scale.
Chemical engineers design processes and equipment to produce chemicals at large scale. They deal with energy and material balances in a chemical plant. They don't deal with the fundamental chemistry, but how to scale things up to production level.
I hope this helps! All the best to yoy!
KP
Karin recommends the following next steps:
Thank you, I did not realize that chemical engineering and chemistry were that distinct from one another.
Roland
You are very welcome!
Karin P.
This is an excellent answer
I am a chemical engineer and would recommend this as a major
Michael Trocchia