High School Tips to Prepare for Chemical Engineering Major

It is never too early to prepare for your journey to grad school. High School Preparation can make a significant contribution to a student’s success in Grad school classes. The chemical engineering curriculum is strongly science and mathematics oriented. Thus, high school preparation background must emphasize a complete mathematics background including algebra, geometry, trigonometry, analysis and calculus. At least one year of chemistry and one year of physics is required. The SAT and ACT is also required for admission.

It is very important that you finish high school with strong grades. Also, you need to make sure that you do well on your standardized tests, to help ensure your admission.

The graduate school for chemical engineering major needs a strong grounding in the following classes: English (4 units), algebra (2units), Geometry (1unit), Pre-calculus (1unit), Advanced Chemistry and Organic Chemistry (1 unit), and Physics (1 unit). The following subjects are also important in chemical engineering education:

- English- with significant emphasis on writing and literature

- Social studies- with emphasis on writing essays

- Foreign language- ought to develop four basic skills i.e. reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehensions

- Advance Placement Courses: AP courses provide students with the opportunity to earn college credit in high school, which will free up the freshman year of college schedule and allow you to choose more courses related to your major, rather than general education requirements.

- Liberal arts courses:  help students in some of the necessary work of the chemical engineer, such as writing reports or white papers.

Subscribe to technical journals to keep up to date with the practical applications of chemical engineering.

These courses will assist with your grad school preparation and make it easy for you “to hit the ground running”.

Science and Math: Strong foundation of these two subjects is mandatory in order to get into the best grad school. Math is a language, shorter and more efficient than other languages. It is a tool to create mathematical models that describe physical phenomena and evaluate the merit of different possible solutions. Science helps chemical engineers understand the constraints inherent in a problem and develop possible approaches for a solution.

Good Writing and Oral Presentation Skills: Chemical engineers must be able to communicate the results of their work - to their peers, supervisors, upper management, subordinates, and the outside world. You could have the most wonderful idea, but if you can't convince others of its merit, your idea will die on the vine. The key, which many chemical engineers and scientists just don't realize, is not to dazzle the audience with innovation techno babble, but to be as clear, terse, and to the point as possible. So, students must develop their communication skills right from high school.

People Skills: Must possess ability to work with others in the team. Team work spirit must be there. Also, students must have the ability to persuade others to approach things differently.

Problem-Solving skills: The students must possess an eagerness to identify complex problems and review related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.

Computer Skills: The students must be computer literate. They must be aware of computer-aided design technology for designing and research work.  High school chemical engineering aspirants can take classes like introduction to computer science or advanced placement computer science to develop their computer literacy and design skills.

Creative: Creativity is necessary, especially for chemical engineering. Chemical Engineering requires understanding of the elements and chemicals. The ability to intuit how to make innovative products is a trait needed for chemical engineering.

Attentiveness: Chemical engineering requires focus on safety and attention to the lab environment. Chemicals can sometimes fuse together and create unexpected results so the study of this field demands attentiveness of the people involved or willing to be a part of this discipline.

A job that lets you use mathematics, science, or computers would be a good preparation for chemical engineering. These experiences are infinitely valuable, and could be the key to get into the best grad school or further in the job.

Volunteering is a great way to make yourself stand out in the application process. Local Community work helps students to gain workplace skills and apply classroom learning to real-world problem solving. It’s a valuable contribution to society and one’s career goal.  If you can get some experience under your belt, universities will be more impressed when they take a look at your application.

You can add an extracurricular resume, listing all of your after school activities. Include sections for school activities, awards and honors- both academic and extracurricular, community service, and work experience (if any). Having at least one club or activity related to your grad school major will make your application much more appealing.

Your high school transcript, which demonstrates your high school grades, classes and GPA, will most likely be the first piece of information a college admissions officer will go over. This complete record of your coursework, grades and credits provides concrete evidence of whether you're prepared to go to a particular college or not. When planning for college, you must keep this in mind as you take classes, study and later get grades -- the work you put into it will directly impact your ability to get into colleges. So, focus on high school courses and make your base strong.

The applicants must take standardized test to enter undergrad and graduate courses in the USA. Standardized tests act as a yardstick for educators to evaluate students and their performance. So, its preparation must be started from the junior year of your high school. Standardized test scores of ACT or SAT are vital for assessing an applicant to Chemical Engineering. IELTS / TOEFL is required for international students and all other aspirants whose native language is not English.