How to Finish a Degree in Chemical Engineering in 3 Years, Get into Graduate School, and Get a Job in Engineering
Background
After I graduated from Berkeley this past May and moved to Michigan for my full-time job as an engineer at GM, a lot of people have been asking me how I managed to finish ChemE at Berkeley in 3 years, how much I slept tonight, whether I slept at all, and whether I had a life. I can assure you that I slept more than anyone else I knew of, 7-8 hours a day, enough for me to live and function. I had never pulled an all-nighter ever; I am just not a believer in it. And I did have a wonderful life and I regret nothing.
As the new semester at Berkeley rages on, a lot of people have been struggling with the stress and demand of time from classes, balancing academics with extracurricular activities, jumping among career fairs and info sessions hoping to find a job or an internship. This article not only addresses to the ChemE or engineering community at Cal, but any Berkeley student who wants to know more about time management, becoming more efficient, and pursuing what you love and want for your life.
In 3 parts I will lay out in detail how I finished my degree in chemical engineering in 3 years, got into the Master’s program in Berkeley, and ended up giving it up for a full-time job at GM.
Why did I do it?
Tuition hike, tired of school, challenge myself. I know tuition hike sucks and as an out-of-state international student, it sucks more. So I decided to challenge myself and get out of school early to save my parents money. But I also didn’t want to compromise the world class education here at Berkeley. I took the classes I am interested in and I discovered more about myself. My passion and interest was in environmental/clean technology and renewable energy, and I want to be a leader. This is what I set out to do and learn in college through classes and my internships, what I wrote about in my personal statement to the master’s program that I ended up giving up, and what I am currently doing at GM.
Part 1: How to graduate ChemE in three years
After I graduated from Berkeley this past May and moved to Michigan for my full-time job as an engineer at GM, a lot of people have been asking me how I managed to finish ChemE at Berkeley in 3 years, how much I slept tonight, whether I slept at all, and whether I had a life. I can assure you that I slept more than anyone else I knew of, 7-8 hours a day, enough for me to live and function. I had never pulled an all-nighter ever; I am just not a believer in it. And I did have a wonderful life and I regret nothing.
As the new semester at Berkeley rages on, a lot of people have been struggling with the stress and demand of time from classes, balancing academics with extracurricular activities, jumping among career fairs and info sessions hoping to find a job or an internship. This article not only addresses to the ChemE or engineering community at Cal, but any Berkeley student who wants to know more about time management, becoming more efficient, and pursuing what you love and want for your life.
In 3 parts I will lay out in detail how I finished my degree in chemical engineering in 3 years, got into the Master’s program in Berkeley, and ended up giving it up for a full-time job at GM.
Why did I do it?
Tuition hike, tired of school, challenge myself. I know tuition hike sucks and as an out-of-state international student, it sucks more. So I decided to challenge myself and get out of school early to save my parents money. But I also didn’t want to compromise the world class education here at Berkeley. I took the classes I am interested in and I discovered more about myself. My passion and interest was in environmental/clean technology and renewable energy, and I want to be a leader. This is what I set out to do and learn in college through classes and my internships, what I wrote about in my personal statement to the master’s program that I ended up giving up, and what I am currently doing at GM.
Part 1: How to graduate ChemE in three years
This is the image I took from the College of Chemistry handbook which tells you which courses you are supposed to take in each semester to finish the degree in 4 years. I want to let you know that I didn’t reach the decision of finishing it in 3 years until the end of my 2nd year where I realized that I could push myself and make it happen.
Freshmen year
I came in with AP Calc already finished and didn’t have to worry about 1A and 1B, but I didn’t immediately take Math 53 like most people did. I wanted to have more free time to discover other things outside of class and didn’t want to face the struggle in Math just yet (which I will later face anyways). But academically, my first year wasn’t productive. I took a bunch of fun DeCals and seminars. And I finished whatever other classes I was supposed to finish according to the handbook anyways. Instead of math, I took a breadth elective, so after first semester, I was about average in getting done.
The most important thing about finishing early is to never fall behind. Then, as time progresses, try to squeeze in some extra classes whenever you can. For example, in my second semester, I took a CBE elective. Usually these classes aren’t too difficult or time-consuming, but you’ve got to have the interest in the topic; after all, they are electives, so choose them wisely. I took a class on renewable energy.
Sophomore year
So far, no surprises. In sophomore year first semester, I squeezed in another breadth elective, a class on how to start and run a startup. It was a fun distraction from all the technical classes, especially organic chemistry. I was busy, but I wasn’t fulfilled. This was the first time I took two upper level technical classes in my 5 technical classes. The real challenge seemed to have come in the second semester of sophomore year, but CBE 185 and my breadth elective wasn’t as time-consuming and could be treated as one technical class. I liked my engineering elective class MSE 151 a lot, Polymer Chemistry, and it wasn’t too hard or time consuming either.
Take the class you like, try to squeeze in as many classes you can, but the time consumption on each class is really what matters. The two CBE classes are sometimes related, and you could work on the HW of a class when the lecture is going on. Time has proven that it only works in your favor, both to save time and to strengthen the material in your head.
Junior year
Putting that last comment in the previous section in practice, I took a crazy 6-class schedule + a research internship at a startup this year. I thought the research internship would allow me to work on my classes at the same time, but I was wrong. It turned out to be really fun and time consuming that I didn’t have any time to work on schoolwork during. CBE 142 and 150B are both related to CBE 154, so I decided to take them at the same time; turns out they all reinforced my understanding of the class. The engineering elective I took, CEE 111, also had some repetitive ChemE concepts that I found useful in both the CEE and the ChemE classes. Even though I was taking a large number of classes, they all felt pretty related. And this is the great thing about going to college. You have the chance to both diversify your education and specialize in one thing that applies to many fields.
A few tips to get through certain classes.
1. Do the homework for CBE 142 and 150B while you are listening to those lectures. This trains you to solve those problems in a short amount of time because you are pressured to finish before the lecture ends. But this is the case in an exam! You only get short amount of time, so train yourself to think and solve problems fast! Furthermore, it is easier to do these problems while the concepts are still fresh in your mind and fresh on the board, rather than struggling over them on a Sunday evening when you have exhausted all your energy doing whatever you were doing on the weekend.
2. Start the E45 lab early. Have the title and structure pages written prior to going into the lab, and finish as much as you can as well, such as setting up a data-recording table, writing down the introductions and hypotheses, etc. Then, during lab, work on your lab report LIVE! After all, not all of your time is spent on doing the lab anyways, most of it is spent waiting on the results. So why don’t you use it as a chance to jot down notes and work on the lab report? 80% of the time, I finished all my lab reports before I stepped out of the lab and didn’t have to worry about them for the next two weeks which I was supposed to have to finish them.
My last semester at Cal was both boring and interesting. For one I had to get through all the classes I was supposed to get through, such as the last two ChemE classes, Bio 1A, and quantum mechanics. The last two are required and most people didn’t enjoy taking them (most ChemEs). There wasn’t a lot of room to choose.
So there you are, how I finished ChemE in 3 years. For the most part, I wasn’t particularly busy and I had a decent amount of sleep. The toughest semesters were the second semester of sophomore year and the first semester of junior year. I didn’t take any summer classes because I don’t believe in them. Like literally I don’t think you are supposed to take classes in the summer. It’s very tight and it’s summer!
Freshmen year
I came in with AP Calc already finished and didn’t have to worry about 1A and 1B, but I didn’t immediately take Math 53 like most people did. I wanted to have more free time to discover other things outside of class and didn’t want to face the struggle in Math just yet (which I will later face anyways). But academically, my first year wasn’t productive. I took a bunch of fun DeCals and seminars. And I finished whatever other classes I was supposed to finish according to the handbook anyways. Instead of math, I took a breadth elective, so after first semester, I was about average in getting done.
The most important thing about finishing early is to never fall behind. Then, as time progresses, try to squeeze in some extra classes whenever you can. For example, in my second semester, I took a CBE elective. Usually these classes aren’t too difficult or time-consuming, but you’ve got to have the interest in the topic; after all, they are electives, so choose them wisely. I took a class on renewable energy.
Sophomore year
So far, no surprises. In sophomore year first semester, I squeezed in another breadth elective, a class on how to start and run a startup. It was a fun distraction from all the technical classes, especially organic chemistry. I was busy, but I wasn’t fulfilled. This was the first time I took two upper level technical classes in my 5 technical classes. The real challenge seemed to have come in the second semester of sophomore year, but CBE 185 and my breadth elective wasn’t as time-consuming and could be treated as one technical class. I liked my engineering elective class MSE 151 a lot, Polymer Chemistry, and it wasn’t too hard or time consuming either.
Take the class you like, try to squeeze in as many classes you can, but the time consumption on each class is really what matters. The two CBE classes are sometimes related, and you could work on the HW of a class when the lecture is going on. Time has proven that it only works in your favor, both to save time and to strengthen the material in your head.
Junior year
Putting that last comment in the previous section in practice, I took a crazy 6-class schedule + a research internship at a startup this year. I thought the research internship would allow me to work on my classes at the same time, but I was wrong. It turned out to be really fun and time consuming that I didn’t have any time to work on schoolwork during. CBE 142 and 150B are both related to CBE 154, so I decided to take them at the same time; turns out they all reinforced my understanding of the class. The engineering elective I took, CEE 111, also had some repetitive ChemE concepts that I found useful in both the CEE and the ChemE classes. Even though I was taking a large number of classes, they all felt pretty related. And this is the great thing about going to college. You have the chance to both diversify your education and specialize in one thing that applies to many fields.
A few tips to get through certain classes.
1. Do the homework for CBE 142 and 150B while you are listening to those lectures. This trains you to solve those problems in a short amount of time because you are pressured to finish before the lecture ends. But this is the case in an exam! You only get short amount of time, so train yourself to think and solve problems fast! Furthermore, it is easier to do these problems while the concepts are still fresh in your mind and fresh on the board, rather than struggling over them on a Sunday evening when you have exhausted all your energy doing whatever you were doing on the weekend.
2. Start the E45 lab early. Have the title and structure pages written prior to going into the lab, and finish as much as you can as well, such as setting up a data-recording table, writing down the introductions and hypotheses, etc. Then, during lab, work on your lab report LIVE! After all, not all of your time is spent on doing the lab anyways, most of it is spent waiting on the results. So why don’t you use it as a chance to jot down notes and work on the lab report? 80% of the time, I finished all my lab reports before I stepped out of the lab and didn’t have to worry about them for the next two weeks which I was supposed to have to finish them.
My last semester at Cal was both boring and interesting. For one I had to get through all the classes I was supposed to get through, such as the last two ChemE classes, Bio 1A, and quantum mechanics. The last two are required and most people didn’t enjoy taking them (most ChemEs). There wasn’t a lot of room to choose.
So there you are, how I finished ChemE in 3 years. For the most part, I wasn’t particularly busy and I had a decent amount of sleep. The toughest semesters were the second semester of sophomore year and the first semester of junior year. I didn’t take any summer classes because I don’t believe in them. Like literally I don’t think you are supposed to take classes in the summer. It’s very tight and it’s summer!
Part 2: How to get into graduate school (master’s) and I got my job at GM
I put these two in the same section because they are much related. Note that getting into a master’s program is very different from getting into a PhD program. Having done no research at all, I would have gotten into no PhD program at all. But I was capable and lucky enough to get into the Master’s Program at Berkeley, also known as the Product Development Program, PDP. This experience also ties into how I got my job at GM. The main theme of this part is, diversify your work experience around a single goal or a theme.
I put these two in the same section because they are much related. Note that getting into a master’s program is very different from getting into a PhD program. Having done no research at all, I would have gotten into no PhD program at all. But I was capable and lucky enough to get into the Master’s Program at Berkeley, also known as the Product Development Program, PDP. This experience also ties into how I got my job at GM. The main theme of this part is, diversify your work experience around a single goal or a theme.
I grew up as an environmentalist and an engineer who wants to work on renewable energy, clean tech, and sustainability topics. In my freshmen year, I found an internship at the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Sustainability (CACS) working on Green Labs. I was really lucky because I liked the Office of Sustainability Facebook page and I saw their post and applied. I went through one interview and the job was mine. I really liked what I do, because it gave me a chance to work on sustainability on campus, something I had done before in high school and wanted to continue working on in college.
After a school year of work experience and a summer internship, I decided to pursue a specific area, water reduction. I took the startup class that I mentioned before and started a small company with 4 classmates. We were making a device that would regulate the irrigation system at home and in gardens based on weather forecast. Although our startup didn’t succeed in the end because all my co-founders left to pursue full-time jobs, I learned a great deal about how to pitch a startup, how to run it, how small teams function efficiently, and how the technology creation process works.
That following semester, I switched my focus to waste reduction. I took the class MSE 151 polymer chemistry, hoping to learn more about plastics and the recycling of plastics. In March of my second year at Cal, I got an internship offer from Miniwiz, a company in Taiwan that recycles wastes into sexy products and architecture, and a company I have been following for a long time. It is also related to my first internship, because before leaving my internship at Shanghai Roots and Shoots, I had introduced Miniwiz to Shanghai Roots and Shoots and suggested that they could request the Miniwiz products for their fundraisers.
That internship was more than rewarding. I learned about materials science and processing, and I learned how to build a product, the business development, marketing, and technical side of it. Moreover, I had a blast in Taiwan that summer. Knowing that I would probably stay in the U.S. for my first full-time job, I decided to go abroad for my first two internships. It was also that summer that I realized I could finish my degree in three years, so I plunged forward.
That internship was more than rewarding. I learned about materials science and processing, and I learned how to build a product, the business development, marketing, and technical side of it. Moreover, I had a blast in Taiwan that summer. Knowing that I would probably stay in the U.S. for my first full-time job, I decided to go abroad for my first two internships. It was also that summer that I realized I could finish my degree in three years, so I plunged forward.
During that summer, I got reconnected with the CTO of ChemiSense, a startup company in Berkeley, who were co-founded by 4 of my classmates from the startup class that I took. The company was making a wearable chemical sensor for air pollution monitoring and as a health product. I loved the idea and concept, and I took some of my time off work doing preliminary scientific research for them, and at the end of the summer, I had already gotten an offer from ChemiSense for an on-campus internship when I return to Berkeley in Fall for my last year in school. Thus begins my aforementioned research internship.
All of these experiences helped shape my story here at Cal, my wonderful three years. I put it in words for my personal statement to the graduate program PDP here at Berkeley, with a focus on improving the environment in corporate sustainability, water consumption, waste reduction, and air quality monitoring. I also displayed a strong focus in engineering, research, development, and entrepreneurship. I didn’t stay in one field, because I wanted to learn more about the different fields there is. But I had a unifying theme, sustainability and environment.
All of these helped me get into the PDP, where they are looking for individuals who can tell a story about what they did and how they relate to their future goals. The application required 3 letters of recommendation; I submitted 6. My GRE wasn't ideal/perfect. My GPA wasn't a 4.0
All of these helped me get into GM, where they are looking for people who are not only good engineers, but also good problem solvers and good learners. All of these experiences gave me material to talk about, to relate to, to elaborate with in answering their behavioral questions. Ask me more if you want to know what they asked.
What’s next?
I like what I am doing at GM now, but I wouldn’t say I would always like it. And I wouldn’t say I would stay here forever either. GM is a great company and it’s the first large company I worked for. Globally we have 220,000 employees, whereas the total number of people I have worked with in all my past work experiences combined is less than 220. GM is a place where if you want to learn and know about something, you can. GM’s resources can host experts and specialists in certain areas, but can also host entry-level engineers who don’t know much about an area but want to learn. I am working on the next generation of battery electric vehicles (BEV) which is growing in popularity and demand, as well as the importance to reduce our reliance and consumption of fossil fuels in transportation. As a side job, I am also helping GM internally to reduce waste consumption such as in cafeterias and dining halls.
All of these experiences helped shape my story here at Cal, my wonderful three years. I put it in words for my personal statement to the graduate program PDP here at Berkeley, with a focus on improving the environment in corporate sustainability, water consumption, waste reduction, and air quality monitoring. I also displayed a strong focus in engineering, research, development, and entrepreneurship. I didn’t stay in one field, because I wanted to learn more about the different fields there is. But I had a unifying theme, sustainability and environment.
All of these helped me get into the PDP, where they are looking for individuals who can tell a story about what they did and how they relate to their future goals. The application required 3 letters of recommendation; I submitted 6. My GRE wasn't ideal/perfect. My GPA wasn't a 4.0
All of these helped me get into GM, where they are looking for people who are not only good engineers, but also good problem solvers and good learners. All of these experiences gave me material to talk about, to relate to, to elaborate with in answering their behavioral questions. Ask me more if you want to know what they asked.
What’s next?
I like what I am doing at GM now, but I wouldn’t say I would always like it. And I wouldn’t say I would stay here forever either. GM is a great company and it’s the first large company I worked for. Globally we have 220,000 employees, whereas the total number of people I have worked with in all my past work experiences combined is less than 220. GM is a place where if you want to learn and know about something, you can. GM’s resources can host experts and specialists in certain areas, but can also host entry-level engineers who don’t know much about an area but want to learn. I am working on the next generation of battery electric vehicles (BEV) which is growing in popularity and demand, as well as the importance to reduce our reliance and consumption of fossil fuels in transportation. As a side job, I am also helping GM internally to reduce waste consumption such as in cafeterias and dining halls.