Comparing Chemical Engineering: UT, UH and Rice, Texas tech (San Antonio: top schools, universities)

[charisma828]

Hello folks,
I 'm preparing for applying for graduate school in chemical engineering major.
I know UT has the highest reputation among those schools but it is also hardest to get admission from UT.
Could any one shortly introduce and comparison of these schools?
Including schools' reputation, job offer after graduation, difficulty of getting an admission or more information...
Thank you in advance.

[feconi]

UT Austin is definitely the best for ChE among these schools, but also the most selective. TAMU and Rice are also good. You will have great job opportunities after graduation from any of the three. I can't really comment on UH, other than to say in general it is a notch or two down from UT, Rice, and TAMU.

PM me if you want more info--I went to grad school at UT Austin for ChE.

[TwelfthAG]

It's odd that you would mention Texas Tech and U of H and not Texas A&M. A&M's Chemical Engineering program is ranked 17th in the nation by US News and World Report.

UT is a Top 10 Program
A&M is a Top 20 Program
Rice and U of H are Top 40 Programs
Texas Tech is off the map.

[joqua]

Originally Posted by charisma828

Hello folks,
I 'm preparing for applying for graduate school in chemical engineering major.
I know UT has the highest reputation among those schools but it is also hardest to get admission from UT.

You're correct IF you are speaking ONLY of UT Austin. But UT has excellent ChE programs at other fine campuses - in particular UT San Antonio and UT El Paso. Historically, the latter have been much easier go gain acceptance to.

PS Pure chemistry graduate degrees are offered through the College of Science - not the College of Engineering.

[TexasVines]

Originally Posted by joqua

You're correct IF you are speaking ONLY of UT Austin. But UT has excellent ChE programs at other fine campuses - in particular UT San Antonio and UT El Paso. Historically, the latter have been much easier go gain acceptance to.

PS Pure chemistry graduate degrees are offered through the College of Science - not the College of Engineering.

actually I would say the ChE programs at UTSA and UTEP are much harder to get into than UT Austin

BECAUSE THEY DON'T EXIST

UTSA College of Engineering | The University of Texas at San Antonio

• Biomedical Engineering (http://engineering.utsa.edu/BME/index_replace.html - broken link)
• Civil and Environmental
• Electrical and Computer
• Mechanical Engineering

UTEP Academic Programs (School and College)

but other than that I am sure they are "fine" programs

the chemical engineering programs in Texas are

Rice
UT Austin
UH
Texas Tech
Texas A&M
Texas A&M Kingsville
PVAMU
Lamar

UTD is in the process of exploring the addition of a ChE program, but it looks to be a few years off yet

since the OP is going to graduate school in ChE my strong advice would be to choose a particular area of ChE that you wish to study and then make your decision based on the faculty at a particular university that best match the specific area of an EXTREMELY broad field of study

I would hate to choose a school based on reputation when I am looking to study fermentation science only to find out that the vast majority of their professors are in the polymers area...or looking to study ceramics only to find a department filled mostly with metallurgist

Don't forget to look into Materials Science as well.......UTEP and UTA and several other universities in Texas have Materials Science departments.......some Texas universities have both ChE and Materials departments.....again you would want to look closely at the faculty specializations in those departments so you don't go somewhere to study dental amalgams only to find a bunch of professors dealing with semiconducting materials

Originally Posted by TwelfthAG

It's odd that you would mention Texas Tech and U of H and not Texas A&M. A&M's Chemical Engineering program is ranked 17th in the nation by US News and World Report.

UT is a Top 10 Program
A&M is a Top 20 Program
Rice and U of H are Top 40 Programs
Texas Tech is off the map.

anyone that uses US News and world reports to discuss the rankings of a Chemical Engineering program......or really any engineering program for that matter.......well lets just say their level of intelligence is too low to be measured with any known scale

[feconi]

Originally Posted by TexasVines

anyone that uses US News and world reports to discuss the rankings of a Chemical Engineering program......or really any engineering program for that matter.......well lets just say their level of intelligence is too low to be measured with any known scale

Such disdain for a "cherished" source--and staggering wit to boot--it would be perhaps quite interesting to know how US News ranks the institution(s) you represent...

For terminal M.S. students the program is perhaps as important as the advisor. For PhDs the advisor matters most, but you're kidding yourself if the program and its associated prestige are irrelevant. Indeed, there is danger in chasing a well-known "lone wolf" advisor at a less reputable institution.

Notwithstanding the fact that top faculty tend to cluster at the top schools, name recognition is important no matter what career path one chooses after graduation (and vitally important in academia).

Like it or not, those rankings portray how a lot of people in industry and academia view things--feel free to discard them if you find their adherents to be of subpar intelligence--personally, given my experience in graduate school, I'd take the advantage, be it big or small, that the rankings represent.

[DanielWayne]

UH chemical engineering is pretty good. Not UT level, but still traditionally this is always one of the stronger programs at UH:

UH Cullen College of Engineering

[mche]

UH is ranked 18th in the National Research Council Ranking that just came out. UT Austin is in top 10. Rice and A&M are outside the top 40.

I encourage to visit the NRC site. By the way, this is way more objective than the US News and WR which is a beauty contest basically.

[hesham.wahid]

Hi , my name is Hesham, I am planning to take a master degree in chemical engineering to become a process engineer in the petroleum engineering segment. I am wondering about which university I should apply to as well and came to the university of texas at austin and university of houston.
I would really appreciate your help if you have reached a decision
Please get back to me on hisho_@live.com

[sxrckr]

I always thought Rice University was the closest we had to an Ivy in Texas? I mean, you say you're from Rice and some people about fall over themselves. Won't get that same reaction with the other schools. Not sure if that changes by degree path though.