Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
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Overview
Chemical and biomolecular engineering is a program that prepares individuals to apply mathematical and scientific principles to the design, development and operational evaluation of systems at the interface of chemical engineering and biology, with an emphasis at the molecular level, such as biopharmaceutical processes, protein engineering, metabolic engineering, gene therapy, biomaterials, cell and tissue engineering, and drug delivery. includes instruction in chemical engineering, thermodynamics, organic chemistry, biochemistry, momentum and heat transfer, cellular and molecular biotechnology, process design, and chemical reactor design.
Highlights
School with the highest reported median starting salary ($91K) with a Bachelor's Degree: Lamar University
Career with the highest median salary ($136K) where most workers have a Bachelor's Degree: Architectural and Engineering Managers
Explore Pathways
Careers for program graduates
Chemical and biomolecular engineering majors work in these careers, which are sized by percentage of majors in the career (at least 1%) and colored by the predominant level of education.
Specialized ManagersChemical EngineersSpecialized EngineersIndustrial and Health/Safety E...Postsecondary TeachersSpecialized Physical Scientist...Software DevelopersChief executives and legislato...PhysiciansArchitectural and Engineering ...Civil EngineersIndustrial Production ManagersProject Management SpecialistsWholesale and Manufacturing Sa...Management AnalystsLawyers, and judges, magistrat...General and Operations Manager...Computer and Information Syste...First-Line Supervisors of Prod...Petroleum, mining, mining safe...Mechanical EngineersChemists and materials scienti...Environmental EngineersElementary and Middle School S...Accountants and Auditors
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Current completions
What level of degree do most graduates achieve, and do they match what your goals?
0100200300Associate's DegreeBachelor's DegreeMaster's DegreeResearch Doctorate
SOURCES:
Completions over time
Have completions for chemical engineering changed over time? Increasing completions may mean you'll likely have an easier time finding a school that offers this degree, with the opposite being true as well.
Show percentages
Number of graduates
0501001502002502010201120122013201420152016201720182019
Research Doctorate
Post-master's Cert
Master's Degree
Postbaccalaureate Cert
Bachelor's Degree
Associate's Degree
Salary and Debt
How are students who recently completed a degree in chemical and biomolecular engineering doing?
Below is the distribution of starting salaries along with accumulated federal and private education loans across schools that offer a degree in the field chemical engineering, which includes chemical and biomolecular engineering.
Median starting salaries
$67K$0$20K$40K$60K$80KBachelor's
Median cumulative loan amount
$23K$0$10K$20K$30KBachelor's
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Context: median salaries
How does the median (middle) salary for chemical engineering majors compare to the median salaries for other college majors?
$93K$0$20K$40K$60K$80K$100K
Distribution: chemical engineering majors' salaries by education level
What is the salary distribution for graduates with a bachelor's inchemical engineering by the level of their highest degree (Graduate degrees may not be in the same field as the bachelor’s)
$85K$108K$103K$79K$0$50K$100K$150K$200KBachelor'sMaster'sDoctorateProfessional
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
Is a bachelor's degree all you need?
Education level of workers with a bachelor's in chemical engineering
Is a bachelor's degree going to be sufficient to make you competative in the job market? We can look at the education level of workers with a bachelors in this degree to see if there is a likely need for a graduate degree. You'll also want to check out the careers section on this page to where they are employed.
This chart shows the level of education of workers with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering. The worker's graduate degree may have been completed in a different field.
Education level of workers
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
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Context: Graduate degrees in any field by undergraduate ACS degree
About 48% of chemical engineering majors chose to also earn a graduate degree (possibly of a different major). The percentage of chemical engineering majors who also earned a graduate degree is higher than about 80% of other fields.
48%0%20%40%60%80%100%
Context: Percentage salary boost obtained with a graduate degree
How important is a graduate degree for earning a higher salary? We can see the difference in salary of workers with a bachelors in this degree to workers with a bachelor’s AND a graduate degree.
21%26%0%10%20%30%40%50%Bachelor's to Master'sBachelor's to Doctorate
Careers
Top careers for those with a degree in chemical engineering
Following are the most frequent jobs held by people who earned a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering (which combines 4 programs), though may not be limited to just those with a bachelor’s.
  1. Specialized Managers
  2. Chemical Engineers
  3. Specialized Engineers
  4. Industrial and Health/Safety Engineers
  5. Postsecondary Teachers
  6. Specialized Physical Scientists
  7. Software Developers
  8. Chief executives and legislators
  9. Physicians
  10. Architectural and Engineering Managers
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Careers for chemical engineering majors
Where do chemical engineering majors work, and how well do those jobs pay? A ** in the job title indicates that the Department of Education recommends this job for this program.
Not so much?
The top ten careers for workers with a bachelor's in chemical engineering
Take a minute to interact with this sankey diagram. Follow the top ten jobs held by chemical engineering graduates through to their most hired majors. Learn where it may easiest to find work. Expand the careers to explore other majors that might lead to the job that excites you the most. *For many majors, the top ten jobs don't even include half of graduates!*
Expand careers
Specialized ManagersChemical EngineersSpecialized Engineer...Industrial and Healt...Postsecondary Teache...Specialized Physical...Software DevelopersChief executives and...PhysiciansArchitectural and En...All othersThis degreeTop 10 Careers
What careers hire chemical engineering majors as one of their top 10?
To the left of this diagram, see all careers that hire chemical engineering majors as one of their top 10 majors, and on the right, see what proportion of openings for the jobs on the left are filled by chemical engineering majors.
Chemical EngineeringAll other degreesChemical EngineersEnvironmental EngineersPetroleum, mining, mining...Materials EngineersIndustrial and Health/Saf...Industrial Production Man...Architectural and Enginee...Chemists and materials sc...Specialized EngineersSpecialized Physical Scie...Biomedical and agricultur...Sales EngineersMarine Engineers and Nava...Natural Sciences ManagersCivil EngineersMechanical EngineersAll other careersDegreeDegree in top 10 employed
Where can I complete this degree
Explore schools that offer chemical and biomolecular engineering degrees and certificates
You can use this table to find schools that offer this program based on location and program level offered. Each entry goes to a school page similar to this one with all our information about that school.
Understanding the columns

The school list includes a few facts about each school that give you an idea of the educational quality each school might offer:

  • Student-Faculty Ratio: A small number of students per full-time instructor suggests individual attention for each student and an up-to-date curriculum.

  • Satisfaction Rate: A high percentage of returning first-year students should correlate with satisfaction (schools call this their retention rate).

  • Repayment Rate: A high repayment rate means most alumni earn enough to make progress repaying loans within 7 years of leaving.

We also show the total enrollment for the school as measured by full-time-equivalent (FTE) students enrolled annually.

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Related Programs
Top 10 similar programs
Following are related programs, ordered by those with the highest number of completions. You can explore a full list by pressing the more details button.
  1. Mechanical Engineering
  2. Electrical and Electronics Engineering
  3. Civil Engineering
  4. Chemical Engineering
  5. Computer Engineering
  6. Biomedical Engineering
  7. Engineering
  8. Industrial Engineering
  9. Aerospace and Astronautical/Space Engineering
  10. Materials Engineering
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Careers for chemical engineering majors
chemical engineering is part of a larger collection of programs: Engineering. Is there a different program that's close to chemical engineering that might be a better match for your interests? You can use this table to see a little about the programs that fall under this umbrella. If you click on any of the table headers, that will sort the table by that column, or click on a row and see Ididio's profile for that program.
Gender
Gender of recent graduates
Of all people with any degree in chemical and biomolecular engineering earned in the last academic year, 38% were women.
Gender
Men
Women
SOURCES:
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Completions over time
Have completions by gender changed over time, or at specific levels of education?
Award level
All levels
050100150200250Number of graduates2010201120122013201420152016201720182019
Women
Men
Context: Gender representation
How does the gender distribution in this major compare to all other majors?
27%73%0%20%40%60%80%100%WomenMen
Context: Percentage women
This major has a lower percentage of women than 68% other programs.
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary with this degree? The closer the bar are, the less discrepancy there is.
$97K$83K$0$50K$100K$150K$200K$250KWomenMen
Context: Salary inequity
For chemical engineering graduates, men have a 17% higher median salary than women, This is near the middle of salary differentials within each program's graduates.
17%17%0%20%40%60%80%100%
Race/Origin
Race/Origin of recent graduates
Here is an overview of race/origin for all chemical and biomolecular engineering graduates from this last academic year. We found a higher percentage of international graduates in this program than in 91% of other programs.
Race/Origin
White
Black
Pacific Islander
Hispanic
Asian
American Indian
Multiracial
Not Reported
International
SOURCES:
Fewer details
Completions over time
Have completions by race/origin changed over time, or at specific levels of education?
Award level
All levels
050100150200250Number of graduates2010201120122013201420152016201720182019
International
Not Reported
Multiracial
American Indian
Asian
Hispanic
Pacific Islander
Black
White
Context: Percentage of Minority Graduates
Minority students comprise a higher percentage of graduates than in 78% of other programs.