Our previous work found that chemical engineering students show, in many ways, more
similarities to physical scientists than other engineering students.5
This earlier analysis was
conducted in an effort to understand the similarities and differences between these two groups.
Chemical engineering students are a distinct group in and of themselves. They are not only
significantly different from other engineering disciplines, but, as we have shown in this paper,
they are also distinct from chemists.
We have shown that chemical engineering students have different career goals and interests,
beliefs about technology, abilities in physics and math, and influences on their career choices
than chemistry students. One the one hand, chemical engineers show stronger interest in solving
societal problems in their careers, interest and competence in science, and more positive
chemistry experiences that distinguish them from other engineers and suggest some similarities
to chemists. On the other hand these same chemical engineering students have a stronger interest
and competence in physics and math, more economically and personally motivated career goals,
more positive attitudes about technology and its possible applications, and not as fully developed
laboratory skills than chemists which are more representative of an engineering approach to the
world. These findings along with previous work about chemical engineering students begins to give an overall picture of the types of students sitting in freshman chemical engineering courses
or general engineering courses intending to major in chemical engineering.