Day: March 13, 2012

How much does it cost to go to grad school in chemical engineering?

Ph.D. study in chemical engineering is often paid for by research funds obtained by your grad-school faculty advisor, and thus it will not cost you anything if you are able to obtain such support.  In addition to receiving a tuition award, you will typically receive an offer of financial support for your living expenses.

When you apply to graduate school, you will automatically be considered for support, either in the form of a research assistantship, a teaching assistantship, or a fellowship.  These assistantships will usually include full tuition and fees.  It’s a great deal for which good students will often qualify, and it is not usually based on need, rather is based on merit.  There are also very prestigious graduate research fellowships offered by the National Science Foundation for the best students in the country.  If you are able to obtain an NSF graduate research fellowship, you will be highly courted by all the top graduate schools.  You must apply directly to NSF for these fellowships.

M.S. study in chemical engineering can be done either in coursework mode (never supported; you are charged tuition and fees) or in thesis mode (may be supported; may include a living stipend).  The two-year coursework masters has the advantage of being straightforward to get:  you apply, are admitted, take for the necessary courses, get your degree.  There is no research project.  The M.S. thesis path also starts with you applying and taking courses, but students are working from the beginning on a masters thesis that must be completed before the degree is awarded.  There are funded research projects that lead to the M.S., and it is competitive to obtain this funding.

For more on graduate school, please visit the Department’s website on graduate studies.

How can I prepare academically for graduate school in chemical engineering?

The first year of graduate school in chemical engineering typically involves taking advanced courses in transport, thermodynamics, kinetics, and mathematics (partial differential equations).  It may also involve specialty courses specific to your area of chosen specialization. Anything that makes those required courses easier is a good idea.  I feel that at Michigan Tech we do not go far enough in transport, so I recommend that you take the graduate transport class (CM5300 Advanced Transport Phenomena I, 3 credits, Spring, prereq=CM5100) or Polymer Rheology (CM4650, 3 credits), either of which will introduce you to the use of tensors in mathematical analysis.  After that I recommend taking our graduate math class (CM5100 Applied Mathematics for Chemical Engineers I, 3 credits, Fall) or any advanced mathematics course that interests you (some examples might be MA