Pharmacy or Chemical Engineering

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hey! So glad to hear you switched to a teaching career! Is it with the Ministry of Ed?

Yup but theres really quite a while ago like in mid 2000s when there was high demand for teachers. Heard moe has stricten their requirement now for non NIE degrees holders

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yup but theres really quite a while ago like in mid 2000s when there was high demand for teachers. Heard moe has stricten their requirement now for non NIE degrees holders

Oh dear! I applied under untrained teachers. Hopefully something will come true ><

Having these two choices as top two was very common during my year. I matriculated in 2015 too, most prolly same batch with TS if he went into chem engineering in the end.
Common because this choices were common for someone who wanted to go the science route with chemistry in mind

I’m not too sure about pharmacy, but from what I gathered this course has little/low recognition within Singapore. Either you travel out for further studies or base yourself overseas. Pharmacists are as respected as Doctors overseas and paid much higher overseas too. Here in sg you are more likely to end up in dispensary in Hospitals/clinics and underpaid. Course is super memory intensive. Most of the time memorise stuff, study finals, vomit in exam and forget everything thereafter.

2015 batch was the last batch that required straight As (or close to that) to enter the chem engineering course. Couple of reasons: software boom and bad oil prices.
If you are entering this course because this is one of your choice which has “chemistry” I suggest you head down to open house or research about this course and the modules you have to take. There is little to low chemistry in this course. You have been warned.
Generally if you want to pursue career options in this path then 2 main routes - refineries and pharmaceuticals. I’ve asked and researched around and it seems oil and gas majors pay much more compared to pharma companies in SG. Your big break would be to get hired at these oil majors or switch industry.
I mostly have regret for taking up this course tbh, but in terms of career options engineering is definitely better than Pharmacy as technical skills are mappable to many other industries. Business math will seem elementary to you. You are equipped with basic programming skills which many SG companies need (I expect this criteria to be more stringent in the next few years - basic programming will be a necessity on your resume for technical jobs).
If you are considering engineering courses because you still do not know what to do in life (which is that I did as well), then perhaps consider other alternatives too because chem engineering is a slightly niche field.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Having these two choices as top two was very common during my year. I matriculated in 2015 too, most prolly same batch with TS if he went into chem engineering in the end.
Common because this choices were common for someone who wanted to go the science route with chemistry in mind

I’m not too sure about pharmacy, but from what I gathered this course has little/low recognition within Singapore. Either you travel out for further studies or base yourself overseas. Pharmacists are as respected as Doctors overseas and paid much higher overseas too. Here in sg you are more likely to end up in dispensary in Hospitals/clinics and underpaid. Course is super memory intensive. Most of the time memorise stuff, study finals, vomit in exam and forget everything thereafter.

2015 batch was the last batch that required straight As (or close to that) to enter the chem engineering course. Couple of reasons: software boom and bad oil prices.
If you are entering this course because this is one of your choice which has “chemistry” I suggest you head down to open house or research about this course and the modules you have to take. There is little to low chemistry in this course. You have been warned.
Generally if you want to pursue career options in this path then 2 main routes - refineries and pharmaceuticals. I’ve asked and researched around and it seems oil and gas majors pay much more compared to pharma companies in SG. Your big break would be to get hired at these oil majors or switch industry.
I mostly have regret for taking up this course tbh, but in terms of career options engineering is definitely better than Pharmacy as technical skills are mappable to many other industries. Business math will seem elementary to you. You are equipped with basic programming skills which many SG companies need (I expect this criteria to be more stringent in the next few years - basic programming will be a necessity on your resume for technical jobs).
If you are considering engineering courses because you still do not know what to do in life (which is that I did as well), then perhaps consider other alternatives too because chem engineering is a slightly niche field.

very good info shared!
im also a year 4 engineering undergrad (2015 intake) not from chemical eng but i have many friends and seniors both from pharmacy or chem engineering.
i feel the reason why Pharmacy has a good IGP is because 3 main reasons:
1)most of them i know are medicine rejects (hence they were all close to 90 RP at A levels) and are aiming for postgrad medicine school
2)They want to work for big pharma companies or they are really interested in healthcare
3)They plan to work overseas as pharmacist

so this generally explains why Pharmacy has a good IGP and is competitive in the course because if you want to do a Postgrad medicine you need a first class for sure, Duke NUS has a minimum criteria of 4.2 CAP from what i last saw 2 years ago, and also to work for big pharma as a pharmacist major, definitely require u to be in the top 75 percentile maybe?

But if u want a comparison between pharmacy or chemical engineering, as said by the previous poster, i do agree chemical engineering is a way better major (even tho a lousier IGP) due to flexibility of jobs when you grad, and you can qualify for Duke NUS as well with a good CAP. Pay for chem engineer is generally higher as well, but of course to qualify for Oil majors usually need a 2:1 or 1st class CAP. Many seniors from chem eng qualified for the local bank MAPs as well, so you can see the variability here, havent seen a pharmacist major in the finance industry yet.

If you compare both mediocre grads from pharmacy and chem engineering, i believe in such a scenario, the chem engineering grad still has more flexibility and better pay.

year 4 scrub so take this opinion lightly

Yes, many enter pharmacy with the goal of eventually making it into post grad medicine. My friends included. However, they tend to forget that they are now competing with the cream of the crop. Many were A students before uni but because they are now competing amongst themselves, inevitable some of them will no longer be A students. These students give up after the first or second year. Of course, these cases are not exclusive to pharmacy, many in computer science are like that as well now, but i shall refrain from commenting too much because im not too clear of the situation there.

For any fellow chem eng juniors/potential chem eng students, leave your queries. i should be lurking around these forums and will eventually get to answering them haha. What the poster above said is true, a significant number of my coursemates/seniors have managed to clinch MAPs in other sectors as well, me included.
Reason being the current job market is quite bad for non-technical/programming students but engineering (thankfully) trains you the basics at the very least. Some employers are willing to nurture you provided you have the basics down.

In my years, chemical engineering is also full of medical school rejects, but usually are those who took physics chemistry and some dont have biology background which pharmacy major requires. Not too sure now if it is still the same, as pharmacy doesnt require this anymore. There are substaintial number of people in these two courses with grades slightly missing the grades cutoff for medicine and dentistry (maybe 1 less A) thus they were rejected even before interview stage.

Obviously chem eng.

Pharmacy students end up being pharmacists at Watson/Hospitals. Always a second class citizen to doctors, where is the progression?

Chem Eng has doors to big Pharma, big oil. Variety is wider and more room for progression

can share with you about chem eng since im from it and pharm cause my friend was in it.
chem eng less than 5% is chemistry, mostly is physics and i wouldnt even say math. we learn things like fluid mechanics (how fluids behave in pipes etc, turbulent flow, laminar), heat transfer (different methods of how heat moves and how to calculate the amount of heat), distillation columns (how to design them to get a certain purity) i believe these are the main concepts

for pharm, ive seen my friend just memorise test after test and regurgitate. honestly, i would nv pick pharm over chem eng. you have so much more versatility. to do chem eng stuff (pharm, o/g, food, semi con) can even go out to banks and financial industry.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Obviously chem eng.

Pharmacy students end up being pharmacists at Watson/Hospitals. Always a second class citizen to doctors, where is the progression?

Chem Eng has doors to big Pharma, big oil. Variety is wider and more room for progression

Dont think pharmacist are second class citizens to docs. When docs themselves are 2nd citizens to admin.

Chem eng is 2nd class to com sci also.

But i would choose chem eng.
Pharmacy bottom 10th percentile igp still maintain at AAAA, while chem eng is BBC/B

Chem eng really easier to enter at BBC/B
So if you AAAA, with nus bell curve system
with the chem eng lousy igp, easier to score also in chem eng but gonna be a slaughter in pharm.

A resultant 1st honours chem eng gonna open more doors.

So depends on your focus. Your focus is on how easy to get the first class. My focus is how much the job pays (annual package, starting salary, pay increments).

In the workforce, your degree class only brings you to the interview desk. I dare say second upper chem eng grads earn more than pharmacy grads. But don't trust me, trust NUS' survey.

And I also agree chem eng is second class to com sci. But that's not the scope for discussion. If you can get into com sci, please, go for it. That's the future.