A study at some university was made a few years ago. After the chemical engineering students took their final examination, attended their graduation ceremonies, enjoyed their farewell parties and said goodbye too each other, they headedd off in an impressive variety of geographical and career directions:

45% Of the class went to work for a large chemical, petrochemical, pulp and paper plastics and other materials, or textile manufacturing firms.

Another 35% went to work for government agencies and design and consulting firms (many specializing in environmental regulation and pollution control) and for companies in fields such as microelectronics and biotechnology that have not traditionally been associated with chemical engineering.

About 10% of the class went directly into graduate school in chemical engineering. The masters degree candidates will get advanced education in traditional chemical engineering areas (thermodynamics, chemical reactor analysis and design, fluid dynamics, mass and heat transfer, and chemical process design and control), and in about two years most of them will graduate and get jobs doing process or control systems design or product development. The doctoral degree candidates will get advanced education and work on major research projects and in four to five years most will graduate and either go into industrial research and development or join a university faculty.