BS in Chemistry. Is a PhD in Chemical Engineering possible without first getting an MS in Chemical Engineering?

[Li-S]

I have a BS in Chemistry. Is a PhD in Chemical Engineering possible without first getting an MS in Chemical Engineering? My GPA is only 3.1 because I was diagnosed late with ADD which I did not get the DSP services until I almost graduated. My last 2 quarters, I had a 3.9 GPA so I felt like I would have done better had I received DSP accommodations sooner. I do not want to get a MS in Chemical Engineering because most MS are unfunded and I already have 15K in student loans from undergraduate. Is a PhD in Chemical Engineering possible if I apply to a low ranked program and take undergraduate chemical engineering classes while still in the PhD program? Is this even possible? I am low income, so only PhD funded programs will work for me.

[teerav42]

There are plenty of people who have done this, but you are right about having to take undergrad courses to catch up.

[Quantum Buckyball]

No it would be very difficult. I thought about applying to PhD in ChemEng and the Adcom told me that I was not qualified to apply because I didn't have a BS in ChemEng (lack of critical classes). They said most of their applicants had a MS in ChemEng before they applied for PhD, so I take that the tradition and admission process is different...

 

However, I know a guy from my department dropped out his PhD in Chem program and received a Masters and got accepted to a PhD in ChemEng program at the same school.  

Edited February 23, 2014 by Quantum Buckyball

[Li-S]

There are plenty of people who have done this, but you are right about having to take undergrad courses to catch up.

 

Do you know what schools these people attended? I was assuming few PhD Chemical Engineering programs (probably the low ranked ones) would want to fund a BS Chemistry student with no Chemical Engineering knowledge and risk that student into their PhD Chemical Engineering Program.

[yushish]

The differences between chemistry and chemical engineering at the graduate (research) level are pretty small (sometimes nonexistent). So the only difficult part of making this switch is that you'll have to get through the first year courses -- you might have to take a year of undergrad courses before you can attempt the graduate courses. Some universities (not all) are willing to allow this because a good researcher is still a good researcher, regardless of undergraduate degree.