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Can you get a career as a forensic scientist with a chemistry and/or chemical engineering degree?

I am currently in college studying chemistry as an incoming freshman and I know that I love chemistry, I have a passion for STEM, and I want to make a future career from this. However, I don't know if graduating with a chemistry degree or chemical engineering degree is more valuable in the future when trying to get jobs in the science/research field. This year I want to be dedicated, successful, prosperous, and focused on hard work and building my experiences.

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Christine’s Answer

Oh wow! I don't think you need a chemistry degree to be a in forensics but as a chemical engineer I can tell you you will have a LOT of options job wise and you will definitely make a livable wage, but honestly believe a more than just livable wage with a chemical engineering degree.
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Robert’s Answer

Chemistry and Chemical Engineering sound similar, but they are quite different! See my answer to https://www.careervillage.org/questions/474474/what-type-of-work-do-chemical-engineers-do-at-different-companies, but most importantly understand that while electrical engineers design electronics, mechanical engineers design mechanical things, and so on, chemical engineers DO NOT DESIGN CHEMICALS! They design (and manage) mass-production facilities, most involving chemicals but not always. ChE is much more math-intensive than is chemistry, though some chemistry sub-fields (physical and computational, in particular) come close.

You can get a job in forensics with a chemistry degree, but it will be easier with a true forensics degree (available at many universities). A chemical engineering degree is not very good preparation for a job in forensics, unless perhaps you are overseeing a mass-analysis lab, and I would say it is appreciably harder to obtain than either a chemistry or a forensics degree; it is certainly more math-intensive.
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