What's the hardest chemical engineering class?

Hey guys! I'm a junior and I'm pretty sure I'll be majoring in chemical engineering in college. I want to mentally prepare myself, so what's the hardest chemical engineering class you've encountered or heard about? I'd love to know what I might be getting into!

Hi there! Chemical engineering is a challenging and rewarding major, so it's great that you're looking into it. While the level of difficulty for each course can vary depending on your background and the specific professor you have, there are a few courses that stand out as particularly challenging for many students in chemical engineering:

1. Transport Phenomena: This class is about understanding and applying the principles of momentum, heat, and mass transfer to various chemical engineering problems. It can be challenging because it involves complex mathematical concepts and requires a solid foundation in subjects like fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and mass transfer.

2. Chemical Reaction Engineering: This course dives into the design and analysis of chemical reactors, by examining the kinetics of chemical reactions and various reactor types. Students often find this course difficult due to the complex mathematical models required to describe and predict reactor performance.

3. Process Control: In this course, students learn how to control and optimize chemical processes by manipulating variables like temperature, pressure, and flow rates. The difficulty arises from the need to understand advanced mathematical concepts, like Laplace transforms and control theory, as well as apply them to real-world chemical engineering problems.

4. Thermodynamics: Thermodynamics is a fundamental course in chemical engineering that focuses on energy conservation and the relationships among properties like temperature, pressure, and composition in chemical systems. The main challenge comes from grasping abstract concepts and working with multi-variable equations.

5. Separation Processes: This course covers the principles and techniques used to separate the components of mixtures in chemical processes, including distillation, absorption, extraction, and more. The difficulty lies in understanding the intricate mechanisms behind each process and applying advanced mathematical models to design efficient separation systems.

Keep in mind that your experience might be different, and a course someone else finds difficult could be easier for you, or vice versa. It's essential to stay engaged, ask questions, and get help when needed, as this will make your journey through chemical engineering much more manageable regardless of how difficult any particular course is generally regarded to be. Good luck in your chemical engineering endeavors!