If you are deciding between majoring in biology or chemical engineering, you might want to know more about what each major has to offer. This post will show you the key facts about each major and help you to decide which would be a better degree for you.

At a glance:

Chemical EngineeringBiology
Payscale reported
average pay
$81,140$71,112
Job opportunitiesAverage/GoodAverage
Types of jobs
you can qualify for
Chemical engineer
Project engineer
Process engineer
Manufacturing engineer
Production engineer
Environmental engineer
Lab assistant
Physician assistant
Biomedical engineer
Nurse
Physical therapist
Veterinarian
Optometrist
High school teacher
Difficulty of the
major
HardHard
Key things to note

There are only around 32,600
chemical engineering jobs in
the US. This could make it
difficult to find a job and you
will likely need to relocate.

Average predicted job growth.

Good reported job satisfaction.

Good pay.



It can be difficult to find
a job with just a bachelor’s
degree in biology. A
master’s degree or
PhD is often required.

Other easier majors
can be better for
medical school.

The major can become
more employable if
combined with a more
applied minor.

It is a major that can
give good job satisfaction
once you can find a job.
Source for biology pay and jobs
Source for chemical engineering major salary and jobs

There are a number of things to consider when choosing between the two degrees. Below, are details about each major, their differences and reasons to choose one or the other.

Details about a biology degree

Below are some of the key details about a degree in biology.

Pay

According to Payscale, the average pay for a person with a degree in biology is $71,112. This is better than the average across all majors. However, something to consider, is that the average will be being increased considerably by people with master’s degrees and PhDs in biology.

Jobs

Biology can be a somewhat general degree that is not specialized towards specific job roles. As a result, it is often necessary to combine biology with a more applied minor or to get an advanced degree after graduating, in order to make the major more employable.

In a ZipRecruiter survey, it was found that 35% of biology graduates regret choosing the major due to difficulty finding a job without an advanced degree.

With that being said, the major can be a gateway towards jobs in a number of different fields, but it will often require some extra studying to become employable in those fields.

According to Payscale, people with a degree in biology often get jobs as:

  • Lab assistant
  • Physician assistant
  • Biomedical engineer
  • Nurse
  • Physical therapist
  • Veterinarian
  • Optometrist
  • High school teacher

Note that many of these jobs will require at least a master’s degree.

Something to be aware of is that many of the jobs that require advanced degrees do have strong predicted job growth (source). This is encouraging if you are set on getting an advanced degree in biology. However, something to be aware of is that if you change your mind halfway through, it could be difficult to find a job with just a bachelor’s degree in biology.

Difficulty

Biology is a difficult major. The biology classes themselves can be difficult and the major will usually require math, statistics, physics, and chemistry classes. Overall, you should expect to have to put a lot of time into the major. However, when compared with chemical engineering, you can expect biology to be less math heavy.

Classes

Classes you can expect to take in a biology major can include:

  • Calculus
  • Statistics
  • Chemistry
  • Introduction to physics
  • Introduction to biology
  • Molecular biology
  • Ecology
  • Genetics

You can look here to see an example degree sequence.

Things to consider

Alternative majors can allow you to enter medical school but also have good job opportunities. In fact, because it can be difficult to get a high GPA in biology, alternative majors can actually be better for medical school because having a high GPA can help a lot.

To get the more desirable jobs, in biology, it is often necessary to get a PhD. If you do choose the major, it would help a lot to consider combining it with a more employable minor in order to improve your job prospects after graduation.

When deciding on whether or not you should major in biology, it would help to consider whether or not you are set on going to graduate school as well and the types of jobs you want. If you are set on going to graduate school and you want a job that will require a master’s or PhD then a biology major would become more worthwhile.

Details about a chemical engineering degree

Below are some details about a degree in chemical engineering.

Pay

According to Payscale, the average pay of someone with a degree in chemical engineering is $81,140. This is similar to the average pay you will find with most other engineering majors and it is higher than most other majors including biology. Also, according to the BLS, the median pay of a chemical engineer is $108,770.

Job prospects

The predicted growth rate for chemical engineering jobs is 4%, in total, over the next decade and the number of chemical engineering jobs is said to be 32,600 (source). This means that chemical engineering only has average predicted job growth. Also, compared to other engineering majors, 32,600 is not a lot of jobs. This means that it is more likely that you will have a hard time looking for a job in chemical engineering and that you will be more likely to have to relocate.

However, as mentioned above, the median pay of a chemical engineer is high, so when you do get a job it can pay well. Also, they tend to be relatively secure jobs so you should be able to keep your job for a decent amount of time once you get one. Also, most people find them to be interesting jobs with good job satisfaction.

According to Payscale, common jobs for chemical engineering majors includes:

  • Chemical engineer
  • Project engineer
  • Process engineer
  • Manufacturing engineer
  • Production engineer
  • Environmental engineer

Difficulty

Chemical engineering is a difficult major. It will include a lot of math and physics and the chemical engineering classes themselves can be difficult. You can expect to have to put a lot of time into the major.

Classes

Some classes you can expect to take in chemical engineering can include:

  • Calculus
  • Linear algebra
  • Differential equations
  • Physics
  • Thermodynamics
  • Kinetics
  • Chemistry
  • Biology

You can look here to see an example degree sequence of chemical engineering.

Things to consider

One thing to consider is that chemical engineering is not the same as chemistry. In chemical engineering, you will be focusing more on creating systems to create chemicals, fuel, drugs, food, and other products (source). Whereas, a chemist will be more focused on things such as studying substances at the atomic and molecular level in a lab (source).

While other engineering degrees will pay a similar amount and often have a wider job pool available to you, you might prefer chemical engineering because of the types of jobs you can work in. It would help to do a lot of research on the types of things you could be working on and to see if it is something you would enjoy.

Conclusion

As mentioned above, a chemical engineering degree should qualify you for chemical engineering jobs that pay well and have high levels of job satisfaction.

If you are interested in chemical engineering, it would also help to consider alternative engineering degrees which can also have very good job prospects such as electrical engineering and computer engineering.

While chemical engineering is a good degree to get, it might still be the case that it might not be for you. It is a degree that involves a lot of mathematics including calculus, discrete math, differential equations and linear algebra as well as physics. With that being said, if you are not great at math right now, you can quickly improve your math skills using the website khanacademy.org.

While it can be difficult to find jobs with just a bachelor’s degree in biology, there are still some reasons why you might want to get a biology degree.

The first reason is if you want to get a job that requires a master’s or doctoral degree in biology. If you do, then a bachelor’s degree in biology would be more worthwhile.

Also, if you have a very strong interest in the subject, it would also make it more worthwhile for you to major in biology. However, it would also help to minor in something that is employable at the bachelor’s degree level.

Author

I created and currently manage College Corner. I received a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. My goal is to help current students do better in college and to help future students plan for college. You can read more about me and my website here.