Undergraduate Studies

1. What is biomolecular engineering?
2. What is a chemical engineer?
3. What courses should I take to prepare for a degree in chemical engineering?
4. Who are some notable chemical engineers?
5. Once I'm admitted to the college when do I need to decide to major in chemical engineering?
6. Who can I contact about elective courses?
7. How can I get a chemical engineering advisor?
8. What are the degree requirements?
9. Can I pursue a minor?
10. Can I study abroad?
11. What Co-op opportunities are there?
12. What do I have to do to fulfill the biology requirement?
13. What can I do as a chemical engineer?
14. How can I add or drop a course?
15. What grade option should I take?
16. How can I apply for early admission or early decision in the MEng program?
17. Can I be charged prorated tuition in my last semester?
18. Can I transfer courses taken at another college?
19. What should I take for my liberal studies requirements?
20. Can I apply for the dual degree program?
21. How do I know if I'm in good standing?
22. Where can I get my class rank?
23. What is my major GPA?
24. What awards or scholarships are available to students affiliated with the School?
25. Do you have an honors program?
26. How can I earn distinction?
27. What are the requirements for deans list?
28. I'm having trouble in a course is tutoring available?
29. Who can I contact about doing research?
30. What is a 'Major Approved Elective' and how do I go about selecting it?
    

Chemical engineers design, develop, and operate chemical processes by which chemicals, petroleum products, plastics, food, pharmaceuticals and consumer goods are produced economically and safely with minimal environmental impact.

Take math and science courses, and all the advanced topics that your high school offers.

• Linus Pauling (Nobel Prize - Chemistry Vitamin C)
• John von Neumann (Mathematician and computer scientist)
• Arthur D. Little (Founder consulting company)
• Jack Welch (Former Chairman and CEO, General Electric)
• Andrew Grove (CEO, Intel)
• Frank Capra (Film director)
• Vladimir Haensel (Inventor of Platinum Reforming Gasoline)
• Bob Langer (Professor Biomedical MIT (NAS, NAE, IOM))
• Frances Arnold (Professor Biotechnology California Inst. Technology)
• Charles "Charley" Johnson (quarterback in the NFL until 1975)
• Nancy M. Pimental (co-host/announcer on "Win Ben Stein's Money")
• Bob Gore (inventor of Gore_Tex)
• Roberto Goizueta (Former Chairman and CEO, Coca-Cola)
• Charles (Garry) Betty (President and CEO, Earthlink)
• Kevin Olmstead ("Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" world-record game show payoff winner 2001)
• Bill Koch (Industrialist. Won 1992 America's Cup)
• American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) awardees
• AIChE Institute and Board of Directors Awards
• AIChE Committee Awards
• Cornell University, Chemical Engineering Alumni

During your third semester in the college you must apply for affiliation with a major.

The requirements for affiliation in chemical engineering are:

• At most one grade below C- in chemistry, math, physics, and chemical engineering courses, and
• a GPA ≥ 2.2 in math, science, and chemical engineering courses.

Your chemical engineering advisor can recommend elective courses. You can also refer to our curriculum information sheet for a list of options.

When you affiliate if your current advisor isn't in the school you will be assigned to a chemical and biomolecular engineering faculty member. The advisor will be listed on your approved affiliation form. The form will be mailed to you in January of your fourth term.

You are required to complete a minimum of 127 credits of courses detailed in our curriculum information sheet. List below is a summary of credits:

*If another course is used as an engineering distribution, Chem 389 must be taken as an approved elective. Note that Chem 389 is 4 credits. If it is used as an engineering distribution, the extra credit can be used toward the Approved Electives requirements.

Students in the chemical and biomolecular engineering major may pursue a minor in any of the 16 areas offered by the College of Engineering. The minors most pursued by our students are Biomedical Engineering and Applied Mathematics.

Yes, but you may find it difficult to duplicate the chemical and biomolecular curriculum at your academic destination abroad. Instead, you might consider taking the coop courses during the summer after you sophomore year, then studying abroad during the following fall semester. Because you will have completed the fall semester ChemE courses during the coop summer, during your semester abroad you can complete electives.

There is always a demand for chemical engineering Co-op students. Our students go to work for companies like Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods, Merck, Infinium, Air Products, Eastman Kodak, and General Electric Silicones.

During the Co-op experience you learn how to conduct and prepare for a job search. Graduating seniors report that conducting an actual job search, and going through the interviewing process were the most valuable aspects of the Co-op program.

You can earn a good salary while on Co-op. (Based on the most recently available data, the monthly range is $2,400 - $2,600)

You will gain a valuable experience in managing you money as you finance your housing, transportation, clothing, entertainment, and other living expenses. (Historically, the hiring company provides one roundtrip ticket from home to your work location.)

You will be exposed to corporate culture and politics. From this you will gain insight into the kind of work environment and/or organizational structure you may want to either work in or avoid after graduation.

You will have improved options after graduation. The Co-op experience will not only give you an advantage over students with no Co-op experience, but it will also be a plus should you choose to pursue graduate school instead.

You will gain more self-confidence as you interact daily with engineers and other professionals.

There are six options for completing the School's biology requirement:

1. Advanced Placement - a score of 5 on the CEEB AP exam or a score of 7 on the IB Higher Level exam,
2. four credits of a pre-med biology sequence; BIOG 101+103, BIOG 102+104, BIOG 105, BIOG 106, BIOG 107, or BIOG 108,
3. microbiology - BIOMI 290 (3 credits),
4. biochemistry - BIOBM 330 (4 credits) - academic year, or BIOBM 333 (4 credits) - summer session, or
5. biochemistry - BIOBM 331 (3 credits) and BIOBM 332 (2 credits).
6. biomolecular engineering: fundamentals and applications - CHEME 2880
   

Our curriculum prepares students for professional practice in areas of chemical and biomolecular engineering: chemicals, polymers, petroleum, utilities, pharmaceuticals, foods, biotechnology and electronic materials. Within these fields, chemical engineers work in research, process design, product development, marketing and sales, construction and contracting, management, and process operations. Because chemical engineers are educated broadly with an emphasis on chemistry not found in other engineering disciplines, they are called upon to solve a wide variety of technical problems.

You can add a course on-line by using the Student Center during the first 3 weeks of the semester. If a course has restrictions such as permission of instructor required, you will need to complete an add/drop form. You can pick the form up at the Engineering Registrar's Office in 158 Olin Hall. Once you complete the form and obtain the necessary permission you must return it to the Engineering Registrar's Office for processing. You have 7 weeks to drop a course using the on-line system.

It is important to note that this grade option (letter grade or S-U, satisfactory/unsatisfactory) may be restricted by College policy. Only a liberal studies distribution or an advisor-approved elective may be taken with an S-U option. And only one course per semester may be taken with an S-U option.

Students find that an S-U option in a liberal studies course removes the emphasis on a letter grade and decreases the anxiety of exploring broader topics, either in the choice of course or the choice of course material to emphasize within a course.

If you have 8 or fewer (but greater than 0) undergraduate credits remaining for your last semester as a Cornell undergraduate student, you can apply for early admission into the Master of Engineering Degree Program. There are several advantages to participating in the early admit program and we encourage students who are interested to see Shelby Clark, Manager of Student Services, in 358 Olin for application materials and the Early Admission Petition and Course Record Form.

For students who are not eligible for early admission, we offer an early decision program. The early decision program allows students to apply to the MEng program at any point in their senior year and receive a response as to admission status for the following fall term. Please see Shelby Clark-Shevalier, Manager of Student Services, in 358 Olin Hall for application materials and requirements.

No. Although this was once allowed, this option is no longer availble.

You can transfer up to 18 credits from an accredited institution. Before you take the course you need to pick up a transfer credit form from the Engineering Registrar's office in 158 Olin Hall. You will need a copy of the course description or syllabus.

If you are taking a course to satisfy a mathematic, science, engineering major course, or first-year writing seminar requirement you must obtain approval from the department offering an equivalent course at Cornell. You are not required to get approval for liberal studies requirements.

Submit the completed form to the Engineering Advising office in 167 Olin Hall. Once the course is approved the form will be held until you complete the course. It is your responsibility to send an official transcript directly to the Engineering Registrar's office in 158 Olin Hall. You will not receive credit for a course with a grade of less than C unless a higher minimum grade is specified by the approving department.

You can always talk to your faculty advisor about your choices. We've included the liberal studies distribution requirements which begin with the class entering in 2003. Students who entered before that may choose to use the new requirements.

Global and diverse societies require that engineers have an awareness of historical patterns, an appreciation for different cultures, professional ethics, the ability to work in multi-faceted groups, and superior communications skills. Cornell has a rich curriculum in the humanities, arts, and social sciences, enabling every engineering student to obtain a true liberal education. A minimum of 6 courses (totaling at least 18 credits) is required, and they should be chosen with as much care and foresight as courses from technical areas.

The 6 courses must be chosen from at least 3 of the following 6 groups. At least 2 courses must be from the first three groups (CA, HA, LA).

At least 2 of the 6 courses must be at 200-level or higher.

A full listing of acceptable courses is available in Engineering Advising, 167 Olin Hall.

Students registered in the College of Engineering, the College of Arts and Sciences, or the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning may apply. Once your application is approved you will begin the dual-degree program in your second or third year. You need to contact the Engineering Advising office in 167 Olin Hall to apply as an engineering student. Ordinarily students need at least ten semesters to complete a dual-degree program.

To be in good standing in chemical engineering you need to maintain the following academic standard:

• Cumulative GPA ≥ 2.2
• Semester GPA ≥ 2.0
• GPA ≥ 2.2 each semester in required chemical engineering courses
• Accumulation of at most one grade below C- in required chemical engineering courses during the undergraduate program
• No failing grades

The college ranks engineering students by class (i.e. juniors, seniors) every year at the end of the spring term. You may obtain your class rank in the College from the Engineering Registrar in 158 Olin Hall.

The School ranks each class by cumulative GPA and semester GPA. You may obtain your ChemE class rank from Carol Casler in 120 Olin Hall.

This is an ill-defined quantity occasionally requested by interviewers. You may interpret this as your average grade in ChemE courses. Or you may interpret this as your average grade in all courses required by the major, such as Chem 389, Chem 357, and the biology requirement. Or you may interpret this as your average in every course except liberal studies.

Choose a format and state your definition on your resume.

Among the awards and scholarships are the ABB Lummus Global Essay Awards, the AIChE Othmer Award for Academic Excellence, the American Institute of Chemists Award, Merck Engineering and Technology Fellowship, the Procter and Gamble Technical Excellence Award, the Rodriguez Outstanding Student Award, the Scheele Outstanding Junior Award, and the 3M Fellowship.

These awards are described in the Engineering Student Handbook

The School does not offer an honors program. When this issue was considered by the faculty, the School's position was summarized by one faculty member, "Every Cornell degree in chemical engineering is an honor."

There are two ways to earn distinction in the college. One is based on GPA and the other on your semester GPA for the last four semesters.

You will be awarded the following level of distinction with a cumulative grade point average of:

• Cumulative GPA ≥ 3.50 - Cum laude Cumulative
• GPA ≥ 3.75 - Magna cum laude
• Cumulative GPA ≥ 4.0 - Summa cum laude

Another way to earn distinction is by earning a semester GPA ≥ 3.50 in each of the last four semesters of attendance at Cornell (including an Engineering Co-op summer term if applicable). You must take at least 12 letter-grade credits and have no failing, unsatisfactory, missing or incomplete grades in each semester.

All GPA calculations are minimums and are not rounded.

To receive a dean's list citation you need to achieve a semester GPA ≥ 3.50 (without rounding). You must take at least 12 letter-grade credits and have no failing, unsatisfactory, missing or incomplete grades in the semester.

It's important that you start early to search for the support you need. Getting help early in the semester can prevent struggles later.

The course professor is a good place to start. Make it a point to attend office hours and get to know your professors. It is best to go in with specific questions about course work, but it's also OK to go in with more general concerns.

Teaching Assistants (TAs), if your course has them, are often another good source of help and support. Don't be afraid to make use of their office hours or ask for an individual appointment.

The College of Engineering offers more resources.

It's best to contact faculty members in your department to learn about research opportunities. You can also contact the LIFE program in 167 Olin Hall about the Alumni Undergraduate Research Program, or consult the resources provided by the College of Engineering. Undergraduates may also apply for funds through the National Science Foundation (NSF).