Hardest courses in Chemical and Biological Engineering
Plan ahead for courses where students have earned lower grades.
Lowest historical GPA first. At least 100 letter grades over the five years through the
selected term. Grades reflect past outcomes, not workload or a guaranteed result.
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17 courses
Ranked courses have at least 100 recorded letter grades.
Process Synthesis introduces inventing processes for large-scale, low-cost processing of materials like water, chemicals, petroleum products, food, drugs, and wastes.
The course required lengthy weekly homework assignments, and exams were described as hard and often too long for the time provided. Students also reported receiving homework on material not yet covered in class.
Students described exams as difficult and noted that one reviewer felt the tests covered topics only vaguely related to classwork, with no practice exams provided.
Analysis of chemical engineering operations involving fluid flow and heat transfer, covering flow through ducts/porous media, particulate motion, and conductive/convective/radiative heat exchange with/without phase change.
Homework and exams were heavily lecture-based, with the textbook serving mostly as a reference. Students recommended heavily utilizing the textbook and TA office hours to prepare.
Mass Transfer Operations covers analysis of chemical engineering operations involving mass transfer, including differential and stagewise separation processes, simultaneous heat and mass transfer, and design of mass-transfer equipment.
Introductory Transport Phenomena covers mass, momentum, and energy transport, including transport coefficients, viscous flow, heat conduction, diffusion, and dimensional analysis.
The class involved a significant amount of homework that often took a long time to complete. Exams were described as tough and expected high standards, though they were generally considered fair and well-prepared for.
Chemical Kinetics and Reactor Design covers analysis of kinetic data, catalytic phenomena, and application of engineering principles to chemical reactor design.
Systematic introduction to dynamic behavior and automatic control of industrial processes. Labs use conventional hardware and real-time digital computers for instrumentation and control.
Project information was scattered across five to six different PDFs, and the class consistently ran behind schedule, requiring students to manage fragmented materials.
Lectures were 75-minute, slide-heavy presentations that some found disengaging, requiring students to actively manage their attention during the long sessions.
Introduction to Chemical Engineering provides an overview of the field, covering career types, industries, and skills needed for degree completion and professional entry.
One student found the exams difficult and niche, noting there were no practice problems or study guides provided, only over 1,000 slides of lecture content to review.
Seminar where Biotechnology Training Program trainees present research and internship work for critical review and discussion of industrial biotechnology applications.