Any Chemical Engineering Graduates and Chemical Engineering Students at Unis

Hi,
I'm a prospective Chemical engineering student and I would like to know about
1. How much mechanics is involved in CE ? ( cause I LOVE mechanics) :smile:

2. How many hours you study after lectures ? :tongue:

3. How much Chemistry is involved ? ( again I Love chemistry ) :smile:

4. What do you recommend to go over again from your Advanced Level studies before coming to Uni ? :confused:

5. How many hours per day would you recommend to study after lectures?

6. How do you find uni life for an chemical engineering student ?

Thanks :colondollar:

Reply 1

Roving Fish

Moved from Uni Life to Chemistry (This fits in either engineering or chemistry) forum.

Reply 2

University of Bath

Official Rep

Original post by richee1

Hi,
I'm a prospective Chemical engineering student and I would like to know about
1. How much mechanics is involved in CE ? ( cause I LOVE mechanics) :smile:

2. How many hours you study after lectures ? :tongue:

3. How much Chemistry is involved ? ( again I Love chemistry ) :smile:

4. What do you recommend to go over again from your Advanced Level studies before coming to Uni ? :confused:

5. How many hours per day would you recommend to study after lectures?

6. How do you find uni life for an chemical engineering student ?

Thanks :colondollar:

Hi,

I'm a second year Chemical Engineering student at Bath so I should be able to answer your questions!

In Chem Eng there's not really any of the classical mechanics that you might have studied at A-Level. However there's a lot of focus on fluid mechanics, which builds on some of the principles from classical mechanics. I've really enjoyed this part, especially how it ties in with things you learn in physics and chemistry. I'd recommend having a little look at it online to see if it interests you!

During the term, I mostly work on coursework/lab reports rather than working on lectures. However the department advises that you should spend two hours working at home per lecture, but you can do as much as you like. If you do less during the term you just might have to do more revision in the holidays before exams.

There's a lot of chemistry in the stuff that I've studied so far. But I would stress that it's mainly physical chemistry rather than organic chemistry, so it depends which bits you enjoy most.

I didn't do too much before going off to university, and that was fine as my first lectures were just going over things covered at A Level. However that may vary from course to course so it might be worth asking if there's any reading they want you to do over the summer.

I've had a lot of fun so far. Certainly at Bath, even though there's a fair bit of work, there's still lots of free time to play sport etc. Speaking to friends at other universities, it seems that the workload definitely varies but all of them find time to do other things.

Hope that's useful! If you've got any more questions, just quote me.

Tim

Reply 3

neosynth

Original post by richee1

Hi,
I'm a prospective Chemical engineering student and I would like to know about
1. How much mechanics is involved in CE ? ( cause I LOVE mechanics) :smile:

2. How many hours you study after lectures ? :tongue:

3. How much Chemistry is involved ? ( again I Love chemistry ) :smile:

4. What do you recommend to go over again from your Advanced Level studies before coming to Uni ? :confused:

5. How many hours per day would you recommend to study after lectures?

6. How do you find uni life for an chemical engineering student ?

Thanks :colondollar:

Yo I'm a chemical engineering graduate,think the above post does a good job but thought i'd put myself out there for you if you need another opinion.

1. Above sums it up well, I would say if you enjoy mechanics then engineering will be a good choice for you. The key principle that chemical engineers rely on is the idea that mass and energy can't be created or destroyed. This feeds into loads of concepts pretty much analogous to the force balances you'll see in A-Level mechanics.

2. For me this depended on how much coursework we had on and how difficult the module was, so it's a very personal decision. I knew people that would do 8am-11pm days daily just focusing on ChemEng and I knew people that just went to lectures, put 3-4 hours or minimum effort into coursework then crammed for exams and pray that picked their mark up.

3. Not as much as most people expect. In earlier years you do some physical chemistry then the chemistry becomes more about understanding concepts and it doesn't go too far beyond A-Level. For example - calculating heat evolved from reactions to know what type of cooling needs to be applied to a reaction. I reckon chemical engineers understand the limitations of chemistry better than most chemists tbh.

4. No. Everybody comes from different school backgrounds, most of 1st year is making it a level playing field.

6. I found it okay. I won't lie, engineering is a lot of work and you have to give up more time than most other subjects. You also have to work with other people a lot, so it can be down to luck how much/little work you have to do depending on the groups strength. Theres pros to having a lot of work though, it means you get to know your course mates a bit more than other courses. Another thing to mention is the gender ratio for chemical engineering is pretty fairly split so there's probably a more diverse dynamic than other engineering disciplines.

Hope that helps :smile:

Reply 4

username2983974

Original post by University Of Bath

I'm currently choosing my A-levels, and I'm considering not choosing Physics. Do you think it's bad idea and did Physics a-level helped you a lot during your Chemical engineering studies? I will take Math (with mechanics) and chemistry and I have also done Physics IGCSEs. Chemical engineering is one of the few engineering courses where many universities require you to have chemistry and math a-levels but not physics. As for my third a-level choice I'm thinking of history or law in case I want to study law in the future, not something science-based.

Reply 5

Nevo

Original post by dcc100

Hi, I'm aware you did this post a little while ago but I just saw it and I wanted to say that I am currently in my 3rd year at Newcastle University and I failed physics AS (I know), and I definitely haven't felt like I am behind anybody else that has done physics A-Level, and if you're not sure whether to do it or not then I say don't! Most stuff that is a bit physics-y is the mechanics.. but you can do that in a-level maths anyway! Hope this helps!

Reply 6

Sk2001

Original post by Nevo

Hi, I'm aware you did this post a little while ago but I just saw it and I wanted to say that I am currently in my 3rd year at Newcastle and I failed physics AS (I know), and I definitely haven't felt like I am behind anybody else that has done physics A-, and if you're not sure whether to do it or not then I say don't! Most stuff that is a bit physics-y is the mechanics.. but you can do that in a- maths anyway! Hope this helps!

Hi. I am also considering chemical engineering at uni and am starting year 12 in September doing Maths, Chemistry and Economics A Level. I'm just wondering what A-Levels you did and what did you say about not doing physics in your UCAS personal statement. I'm assuming everyone else did Physics, and I'm afraid that might put me at a disadvantage.

Reply 7

Nevo

You'd be surprised how many people haven't done physics- there was loads, I did maths chemistry and computer science. And I didn't even address it in my personal statement I didn't see the point.