Chemical vs Civil engineering?

You really need to think about which one is more interesting to you than worry about all these things. In general most of this will be the same for both. In terms of which subjects to take at A level, think about what you need to meet the entry requirements and choose other subjects that you're good at and will do well in.

Maths, chemistry and physics would most certainly be better at A level (for either course choice).

Physics is much more useful for engineering than biology. Biology is useful for biotech parts of chemeng, but physics is far more useful.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Hey thanks for the reply. I think I did the same in both subjects (got same AS grade). Basically what I want is any reliable source about the employability and what the courses involve as I love chemistry but what if I don't like chemical engineering? So yeah I'm hopefully going to uni next year and need to make a decision.

Again employability is broadly similar. Doing one course or the other is not going to guarantee employability. You will be as employable as you make yourself. I can't see how the uni website which details what will be taught is a less reliable source than any other!

Im a current Chemical Engineering Masters student.

Which one would have higher graduate : employability ratio (any sources plz) and which course would be recomended to which type of person?
No idea

Any extra reading you would recomended for either of those subjects?'
Chemical Engineering - None. Seriously, don't bother.

Average starting salaries?
Chemical engineering has the highest starting salary from all the engineering disciplines. FTSE 100 companies GSK, Unilever, BP, Exxon, Shell etc all heavily depend on Chemical Engineers for their profitability. (Oil extraction, colloid creation, drug delivery systems etc)

What does the study involve for both of these?
Maths is essential for Chemical Engineering. Some universities require Chemistry in addition, Either option is okay. I have done modules that require physics and some that require biology. Great thing about Chemical engineering is that is it so diverse!

Hey thanks if you don't mind me asking do you like the course? And as you said about modules involving biology or physics, did you get to chose which modules to do or were they all mandatory? And a stupid question, does it involve a lot of chemistry (especially organic)?

Hey thanks for the reply. I think I did the same in both subjects (got same AS grade). Basically what I want is any reliable source about the employability as I don't want to study something and find it there are no jobs for it and what the courses involve as I love chemistry but what if I don't like chemical engineering? So yeah I'm hopefully going to uni next year and need to make a decision.



Hey thanks for replaying and yeah I think I will stick with maths chemistry and physics for next year. Also for the biotech part hopefully the AS bio is of help. And do you study chemical engineering?

Genuinely, I applied to do Chemical Engineering without having a clue what the course entails but I have thoroughly enjoyed the course.

The great thing about Chemical Engineering is that its more diverse than just designing bits and bots like in mechanical Engineering. You take modules in environmental engineering, economics, marketing, project management and all sorts. In my opinion its much more well rounded then the other engineering disciplines.

The course maths concepts are much simpler than the other engineering disciplines. I've seen the maths for Electrical and Mechanical which are complex as ***. Ours is simple, just plugging numbers into equations, mass + energy balances and a few differential equations here and there. More common sense stuff than anything. However the work load is crazy. Makes up for the difficulty.

Barely any organic chemistry. We had one foundation first year module in organic chemistry which was utterly pointless as we have never used any of it again. The kind of chemistry we use is all based around stuff like Hess' law, equilibrium constants, rate of reaction, molar balances that kind of stuff. We don't really care whats going on with electrons bud.

Most of the modules are mandatory. Personally I would pick physics as there are more physics concepts than biology ones. Although there was quite a lot of stuff in second year on bacteria kinetics. I didn't study Biology but had no problems as it was pretty basic. The Physics was pretty basic also tbf.

Yep I'm going into third year of chemeng.

That sounds most sensible Very few people in my class had done biology beyond GCSE. That did mean some found the stuff we did in the short basic biology lecture course we did hard, because of all the new terminology to learn. Having done AS biology would have got you used to the terminology. Not having done A level biology wouldn't disadvantage you as most people wouldn't have either. At least that's the case at my uni. People in my class typically did maths, further maths, physics and chemistry at A level. (Though for many physics was an entry requirement, it probably isn't at other unis).

From AS biology, the cell structure stuff was useful. The genetics and genetic engineering in A2 was useful (but you could just skin through a textbook before starting the course). There's some genetics in AS biology though isn't there?

I wasn't sure I wanted to do chemeng when I applied but I've ended up loving it. Have you considered doing an engineering degree with a general first year where you pick what to specialise in after? That way you could try both civil and chemical before deciding.

I have these few questions which is like to know before setting my mind to one of these 2 options for uni in 2017

Which one would have higher graduate : employability ratio (any sources plz) and which course would be recomended to which type of person?
Any extra reading you would recomended for either of those subjects?'
Average starting salaries?
What does the study involve for both of these?
And a silly one but Maths Chemistry and Physics or Maths Chemistry and Biology for A2?

Both are insanely good for employment, but I'd give Civil the slight edge. A quick look at Unistats will tell you that Civil beats Chemical almost all the time by around 10%. Civil is in my opinion far more employable because you can do almost anything, anywhere.

Starting salaries, Chemical wins by maybe 1-2k quid. It pays better in the first few years but then the two level off together.

Chemical will be much more focused on drugs, compounds, chemicals, fuels, biomolecular stuff etc. Very substance and lab based i'd say.

Civil goes over structures, transport systems, geotechnics, hydroengineering, environmental stuff, and a bit more.

I prefer Civil because there is alot more non-engineering stuff involved such as management, business, and elements of law and economics. A good civil engineer needs to be very client oriented and as such will be more well rounded i think. Also it is pretty awesome to be able to work both indoors and outdoors.

That being said, Chemical is super dope as well!

DONT TAKE BIO. Physics is a must.

I have these few questions which is like to know before setting my mind to one of these 2 options for uni in 2017

Which one would have higher graduate : employability ratio (any sources plz) and which course would be recomended to which type of person?
Any extra reading you would recomended for either of those subjects?'
Average starting salaries?
What does the study involve for both of these?
And a silly one but Maths Chemistry and Physics or Maths Chemistry and Biology for A2?

Chemical engineers have a slightly higher average salary. Chemical and civil both have a lot of physics/mechanics in them, but Chem eng has more (physical) chemistry, though most of Chem eng still is physics.

Maths, chemistry and physics.

Do whichever one you want, both have great employment prospects. It isn't worth choosing the one that'll make you (slightly) richer for 4 miserable years in university

The thing is I love chemistry (at least AS chemistry and organic stuff anyways) and I love maths and like physics. So yeah with chemical engineering it seems like something I want more simply because of chemical part but civil engineering seems interesting also 😖

I doubt there's too much organic chemistry (as we know it) in chemical engineering. Also, there's physicists converting to engineers and vice versa. I'm sure if you wanted to be come a civil from a Chem, you easily could.

In all honesty it's going to be very difficult to become a civil engineering from a chemical background, and vice versa. There's very little overlap between the two disciplines and you don't really see people transfer across disciplines like that in industry. Likewise, physicist to engineer is also very, very rare and probably mainly takes place in the electronics/software sphere.