If you are a junior interested in pursuing a major in chemical engineering you undoubtedly know what it is, but for the sake of redundancy let’s break it down a bit. Chemical engineering is a field within engineering that works on and develops chemical products and processes using chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Students who go into chemical engineering tend to be wicked smart, detail-oriented, and deeply curious. As a junior, it can feel like college is right around the corner, but also so far away that it’s hard to wrap your mind around the idea. But as a prospective chemical engineering major you need to increase the sense of urgency in the name of building a strong application.
Chemical engineering is a very competitive major, and only the best of the best are able to pursue chemical engineering at a top school. The top schools for chemical engineering in the US include MIT, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Washington University in St. Louis, California Institute of Technology, and more that we break down here. Getting into one of these top schools requires impressive grades and equally exceptional standardized test scores, but that actually isn’t enough. Ultimately, who you are outside of the classroom matters just as much as what you accomplish on your transcript.
In this post, we’re going to help you make the type of impact on your applications, as a junior, that can lead to a top-tier acceptance to a school with an outstanding chemical engineering program. When we work with students, we use every moment we have with them, whether it is years, months, or weeks, to guide their academics and activities towards great success. Below, will give you a peek behind the curtain to see the things that we prioritize when it comes to activities, and how to put them into action.
We are experts at helping motivated students get into exceptional schools. Learn more.
We’ve broken the key activity areas for students interested in chemical engineering into four ‘buckets’, or types of activities. Ideally, our students do at least one thing in each bucket, but if that isn’t possible to accomplish before application season it is important to pick two to truly emphasize and double-down on. Deciding what to prioritize can be hard, but that’s where expert guidance helps.
CLUBS & TEAMS
Juniors who are interested in chemical engineering should, at the outset, be participating in engineering-related clubs and teams like a robotics team, Quiz Bowl team, or Science Olympiad team. The activity not being directly or solely related to chemical engineering is not a reason to avoid it. Instead, you need to be leaning into the science and mathematics activities you do have access to. Now, we expect that you are already on these types of teams. If you are not, you need to join today. It will be hard, though, to gain a leadership role given the truncated timeline of your membership.
So, there are two approaches. If you are a member of a science, engineering, or math club or team already, you should be aiming for a leadership role. If you are not, you need to join but also shouldn’t invest too much time in it given that a leadership role senior year is unlikely. Instead, you’ll want to invest additional time in an internship and an independent project.
INTERNSHIPS
As a junior interested in chemical engineering, it is important to line up an internship that is connected to engineering in some way. This can take some creativity, and it does not have to be flashy. You may live somewhere with few options, or you may live somewhere with many options but lots of demand from students like you. Ultimately, each of these situations can be addressed in a creative way if you commit to the goal of getting an internship.
If you know a firm or company you’d want to intern for, the next step is to make a resume and cover letter and, if possible, find someone who can give you a warm introduction. If you don’t know a firm or company to contact about an internship, start by looking small and close to home. Maybe there is a construction engineer you could intern with, or a company that is adjacent to chemical engineering even if that isn’t precisely what they do. Either is a great scenario if you make the most of it. We’ve done this dozens of times with students interested in chemical engineering.
INDEPENDENT PROJECTS
By junior year, you should also be considering an independent project related to chemical engineering. If you haven’t been working on something already, it’s a bit late to aim for a big national or international science or engineering competition. However, that doesn’t mean that pursuing such a project isn’t worth doing. In fact, it is imperative. Pursuing independent research or projects doesn’t typically show teamwork or collaboration, which is why clubs, teams, and internships are so important, but it does show deep curiosity and drive to engage with the subject of chemical engineering before arriving on a college campus.
If you aren’t sure about what to do for a project, we encourage our students to set up a time to meet with their favorite STEM-subject teacher. A conversation with your teacher about what you are interested in can lead to amazing starting points that themselves can lead to ideas. Those ideas are simply seeds, and it takes time for ideas to grow. This means starting as soon as possible so that you have something to emphasize in your college applications.
SUMMER PROGRAMS
When we start working with juniors, we encourage them to look at summer programs, but not the kind that come up first when you search online for “high school engineering summer program.” Instead, we look for programs that are more selective.
These include free summer math programs that are extremely difficult to get into and only for truly outstanding students, and college summer courses that are really for undergraduates but that accept exceptional high school applicants. Such programs can be hard to find, so you need to start doing your research early. We guide our students through this process, from brainstorming to writing applications, to celebrating an acceptance.
Standing out as a college applicant interested in chemical engineering isn’t, as we’ve said, as simple as doing well in school. You need to go beyond that, and a key part of the process is having an activity strategy that is customized for your interests, opportunities, abilities, and resources. We help students succeed by doing exactly this right alongside them. College admissions is personal, and you are more than a score or a set of grades. You are awesome and creative and curious, and your activities can show that more than any transcript ever will.
If you want a personalized strategy, get in touch.