Best Chemical Engineering Degrees

The University of Notre Dame is a Catholic research university in South Bend, Indiana. While the school began as an all-male institution, first enrolling women undergraduates in 1972, Notre Dame has expanded into a top institution of close to 9000 undergraduates, a Division I football team, and a loyal alumni network.

In addition to their core classes, students at Notre Dame specialize in one of three concentrations—Biomolecular Engineering, Materials, and Energy—by taking four upper-level courses in one of the areas. In their senior year, students have three different opportunities for undergraduate research, each of which build upon the next, resulting in an undergraduate research thesis.

Unique to Notre Dame, this degree offers students the opportunity to travel abroad to England, Ireland, Australia, Spain, and Italy within their four-year degree, giving students a chance to broaden their worldviews and apply their knowledge in other research settings. Back in South Bend, students are ensured a solid education by a team of world-renowned faculty. The National Research Council recently ranked Notre Dame among the top 25 in the country for quality of faculty.

Notre Dame is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and a member of the North Central Association (NCA).

Founded during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, Georgia Institute of Technology began as an effort to boost the industrial economy. Since then, the public research institution has grown into one of the top ten public universities in the United States, with an engineering program ranked 9th in the world.

The chemical engineering program at Georgia Tech offers three different degree options: the standard B.S. in chemical engineering, a B.S. in chemical engineering with a focus in biotechnology, and a five-year B.S./M.S. degree in chemical engineering. The last option is typically only available to students who enter the program with a number of AP credits from high school.

In addition to solid coursework and research opportunities, many students stay connected to others in the field by participating in numerous chemical engineering student organizations, including Omega Chi Epsilon National Honor Society for Chemical Engineering, Society of Women Engineers, National Society of Black Engineers, and more.

Georgia Institute of Technology is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

As the oldest state university, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is a public research institution with a long history of cutting edge research in the STEM fields and beyond. Its student body of almost 44,000 students (both undergraduate and graduate) are divided between its four campuses.

Students aiming to complete the B.S. in Chemical Engineering must pass 50 credits at U-M, including 30 technical credits of upper-level engineering courses. Within the department, many students customize their degree, adding on minors—such as Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Engineering or Interdisciplinary Design degrees—or a dual degree in or outside the sciences.

The University of Michigan works hard to make it easy for motivated students to enter its undergraduate program regardless of financial capabilities. The department offers over fifteen different scholarships to help give undergraduates the chance to reach their professional potential. Students also are given the opportunity to work within the department for credit or pay through research, internship, and TA positions.

The University of Michigan is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC).

Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the University of Virginia is not only a top research institution located in Charlottesville, Virginia, but also a World Heritage Site and bursting with historical significance. According to the most recent U.S. News & World Report, it ranks 3rd among public universities.

The B.S. in chemical engineering at the University of Virginia emphasizes the vast professional opportunities awaiting its graduates by offering three separate curriculum within the department: the Broad Curriculum, the Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering Curriculum for students wanting to specialize, and the Pre-Med Curriculum for students aiming for medical school.

Alongside strong undergraduate research opportunities, UVA maintains state-of-the-art equipment in their laboratories, including UV spectrophotometers, a three-dimensional tracking microscope, high pressure liquid chromatographs, IBM workstations for simulation and visualization, and more. Students choose to work with specific faculty members on extensive research projects throughout their four-year stay at UVA.

The University of Virginia is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

A top private, research university in Los Angeles, California, The University of Southern California has a long history of producing leaders in entrepreneurship and business leadership. Along with its top research opportunities, USC houses the world’s most powerful quantum computer, which gives undergraduates and graduates a unique access to cutting-edge research.

The number of courses required for the basic B.S. in Chemical Engineering is 129 units. However, students who decide to specialize in a concentration must take 133 units. In addition to the Chemical Engineering major, the department offers undergraduates the option of adding on a minor in Petroleum Engineering (with an added 16 credits).

USC is known for its vigorous research community; currently, undergraduate students are engaged in research projects related to Advanced Materials, Advanced Computing and Simulations, Nano-bio Systems, and Advanced Studies in Energy and the Environment. The Mork Family Undergraduate Petroleum Engineering Scholarship, awarded to one incoming student with an interest in studying petroleum, provides up to $10,000 of financial aid per year.

USC is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

The oldest and largest public university in the state, the University of Wisconsin is a public research institution in Madison. The university oversees over one hundred research centers and programs, and is one of the national leaders in stem cell research.

Unique to the University of Wisconsin, students are encouraged to participate in international study, co-op programs, and internships during their four-year stay, which gives students real-life experience in the workforce while they are undergraduates. In fact, almost 85 percent of engineering majors participate in a paid internship or a co-op experience.

This program provides both paid and for-credit research opportunities for students; the Special Problems course puts students alongside faculty to research a problem and present a paper, and the Honors in Research course goes even further by requiring students to present a senior thesis to a committee. There are also more than fifty engineering student organizations on campus that students may choose from.

The University of Wisconsin is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.

Considered a “Public Ivy” school, the University of Texas in Austin is a public research institution that enrolls over 50,000 students across its multi-school system. Despite its size, UT Austin is one of the most selective universities in the region, accepting less than 40 percent of its applicants.

With its twenty-three full-time faculty, students of the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering receive some of the top education and guidance in the nation. As early as their second semester, students may apply to become an Undergraduate Research Assistant either for credit or pay. This leads directly into individual research with an advisor.

The after-graduation results for students at the UT Austin is impressive; the average starting salary for graduates of this program is $73,380, with 90 percent of undergraduates going directly into jobs or doctoral programs. The department is committed to helping out students financially, too. Last year they awarded 1.3 million dollars in scholarships to their undergraduates.

University of Texas is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).

Initially founded as a school for science, technology, and agriculture, Purdue University is a public research institution in West Lafayette, Indiana. Though it has since expanded into offering over 200 majors for undergraduates, Purdue has maintained its roots in excelling in the sciences, with an engineering program that consistently ranks in the top ten nationally.

The B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Purdue University offers a challenging, holistic, and varied educational experience. In addition to the 97 credits of required core classes, students may participate in internships, the cooperative education program, or even earn scholarships to study abroad for a semester. The department offers a $1000 scholarship to any ChE student who decides to study at sister schools, including universities in Singapore, Australia, London, New Zealand, and more.

By setting educational objectives for students to achieve within five years of graduation, the department at Purdue displays a long-term investment in their students; some of these goals include publishing scholarly articles, attaining an advanced degree, reaching leadership responsibilities in their professions, and more. Between the flexible curriculum, the research opportunities, and the involved faculty, students are well taken care of at Purdue.

Purdue University is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

Organized into nineteen different colleges and schools, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, sister cities with campuses located three miles apart.

The chemical engineering department at the University of Minnesota typically graduates around 100 students with B.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering each year. While the majority of graduates from this program go directly into the workforce, 22 percent of students from the 2015 graduating class went on to pursue doctorates in chemical engineering.

The program has a strong reputation for its mathematical modeling and computation resources when it comes to research; however, students are given much broader options for selecting their research focus, choosing from fourteen core themes. Internship, study abroad programs, and and co-op opportunities round out this program, making it one of the top choices for aspiring engineers.

The University of Minnesota—Twin Cities is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC).

Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research institution in College Station, Texas, known for its strong showing in sports, research, and engineering. Between two primary research locations—Research Valley and Research Park—the university has almost 3 million square feet of space designated to academic research.

The B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M boasts one of the largest departments in the country, with around 600 undergraduate students enrolled in the major. Students have plenty of space to dive into their research in one of the eighty-eight research facilities on campus. Beyond the core classes, this department offers twelve different areas of specialization, including Multiscale Systems Engineering, Complex Fluids, Nanotechnology and more.

Texas A&M is one of the more affordable programs on our list, mostly in part to the generous scholarships made available to its students. Last year, undergraduates in the department received 304 scholarships, which totaled to $306,000.

Texas A&M is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

The University of Delaware is a private research institution, and the largest university in the state, with sister campuses in four other locations. Its College of Engineering generates a high amount of research, with an annual research expenditure of 55 million dollars.

Requiring a total of 126 credits to complete the degree, the B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Delaware University aims to give students a holistic, interdisciplinary education. At least 18 credits are set aside for classes in the humanities and social sciences, while the remaining credits are divided within major-related courses.

First-year engineering students can expect class sizes of around 50 to 100 people, though in the upper-level courses, the class sizes shrink to around thirty to 40 students, taught by one of the 32 faculty members. Through its RISE program (Resources to Insure Successful Engineers), the University of Delaware is committed to recruiting a diverse student population to its program.

The University of Delaware is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

The smallest school on our list, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology is a private college in Terre Haute, Indiana that specializes in science, mathematics, and engineering. Its engineering department offers not only an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering, but also degrees in civil, computer, electrical, mechanical, and biomedical engineering.

On top of a core curriculum of 194 credits, chemical engineering majors at Rose-Hulman may choose to specialize in one of the three areas of concentration—Advanced Chemical Engineering Analysis, Energy Production and Utilization, or Industrial and Process Engineering—which usually includes three or four additional classes.

Within its core courses in chemical engineering, the program also incorporates numerous independent research projects to students. Some current student projects include gas-liquid microfluidic flows, polyelectrolyte multilayer films, biodegradable drug delivery vehicles, and more. The small class sizes at Rose-Hulman allow for focused one-on-one interactions between students and its 11 faculty.

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission.

The University of Houston, a state research university in Texas, is the flagship institution of the four-university system. Research at the university is divided into six interdisciplinary “clusters,” or subject groups, spread amongst the forty different research centers on campus.

Students enrolled in the B.S. in Chemical Engineering degree at the University of Houston complete 126 credits, typically within four years. If students opt to apply to the honor’s program, they take classes specific to that program, which are primarily upper-level chemistry and math courses with more emphasis on research.

Meeting the increasing demand for skilled professionals in the oil and gas industry, this program offers undergraduates the option to minor in Petroleum Engineering, which requires them to take 16 credits in petroleum engineering courses. In addition to six outside scholarships, awarded twice a year, the Cullen College of Engineering also awards a large number of merit-based scholarships to undergraduates.

The University of Houston is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

One of the nation’s largest research universities, the Florida State University is a public institution that is also considered a land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university. In fact, it was recently named one of the top-five US institutions for research in biotechnology.

The B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering at Florida State University offers three options: chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, and chemical-materials engineering. Most students in this program finish within four to five years. The curriculum includes an impressive list of electives, including kinetics and reactor design, distilled spirits processing, and lots more.

Juniors and seniors have the chance to engage in the Undergraduate Research Program (URP), which is a two-tiered program that allows top students and honor students to gain quality experience in their field. Some current student research projects include the study of crystal growth for magnetic systems, glycerol electrooxidation, and co-processing fossil and biomass oils. The size and scope of the research facilities at Florida State University make it an appealing choice for many.

Florida State University is accredited by The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).

Located in Tucson, the University of Arizona is a public research institution that enrolls over 42,000 students each year. Despite the size, the university finds ways to create smaller communities, like its Honors College, which provides a space for around 4,500 of its top students.

The Chemical Engineering undergraduate program at the University of Arizona is housed in tandem with its Environmental Engineering program. Depending on their interests, students are guided into a customized curriculum, with classes that put more emphasis on environmental engineering, premedical studies, or biomedical engineering. Research within this program is divided between three categories: environment and sustainability, semiconductor and thin film materials manufacturing, and biotechnology.

As an alternative to the core four-year plan, ambitious students are given the opportunity to complete the Accelerated BS/MS Program in chemical engineering, which makes it possible to work on a master’s degree while students are still undergraduates. If they stay on track, students can finish both degrees in five years, giving them a sizable advantage in the work force.

The University of Arizona is accredited by Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA).