MS in Chemical Engineering

Engage with research across a broad range of areas in the Department of Chemical Engineering and beyond. Faculty are working on projects in biopolymers, protein engineering, carbon capture, the biochemistry of DNA sequencing, and more, while centers like the multidisciplinary Columbia Electrochemical Energy Center are developing sustainable technologies to address pressing global problems. 

Tackle challenges from many angles to find nuanced solutions. Faculty within Chemical Engineering collaborate with experts at Columbia in other areas, like public policy, environmental science, and public health, which will expand your perspective and help you learn to develop responsible technologies that keep the big picture in mind.

Enjoy access to state-of-the-art research instrumentation and graduate with confidence to work in any setting. You’ll find specialized equipment in faculty labs and shared facilities in the Columbia Electrochemical Energy Center, the Soft Materials laboratory, and the Columbia Genome Center, as well as in the Department of Chemistry. 

 

Take advantage of concentrations in Climate Solutions, Biotechnology and Biopharmaceuticals, Data and Computational Science, and Electrochemical Energy to build experience in areas of growth and increasing importance to addressing global challenges. 

Our dedicated Assistant Director of Graduate Career Placement can provide you with expert advice both during your studies and after graduation. You’ll receive personalized career guidance, application support, tailored workshops, and access to exclusive job opportunities within the chemical engineering sector and beyond.

If you hold an appropriate bachelor’s degree in Engineering and already know you want to undertake a PhD, you can apply to our MS/PhD Track. You will be considered a doctoral student and will be eligible to receive equivalent funding. If you are not successful, you could still be offered a place on our MS program.

Considering launching a startup during your studies or after you graduate? Columbia Engineering Innovation, Design & Entrepreneurship team can help you develop the business acumen to successfully launch your venture.

The team offers specialist entrepreneurship courses, bootcamps, networking opportunities and spaces for prototyping and testing. They also organize competitions with opportunities to win seed funding. 

To be admitted to our Master of Science program, students must demonstrate B-average or better performance in a science or engineering undergraduate curriculum. 

Besides undergraduate GPA, the MS admissions committee also considers GRE scores, letters of recommendation, and a personal statement. 

All MS applicants are expected to have completed General Chemistry I and II, Calculus I, Calculus II, Calculus III (multi-variable calculus), and an Ordinary Differential Equations Course. 

While most applicants for the Master of Science program have an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering, this is not necessarily a requirement. The field of chemical engineering is broad in scope, so we encourage applicants who hold undergraduate degrees in chemistry, polymer science, physics, materials science, or any engineering discipline to apply. 

While the exact program for each student is adapted to his or her previous training, students admitted without a chemical engineering undergraduate degree are normally required to participate in the Scientist to Engineer program. This special program saves the MS student both the time and expense of the undergraduate chemical engineering program. 

A list of application requirements, including materials you will need to submit to be considered for admission into our program, is described here.

A student who is admitted to the MS program without an undergraduate degree that is equivalent to an ABET accredited chemical engineering baccalaureate degree is given Scientist to Engineer (S2E) status. These students must complete CHEN E4001, Essentials of Chemical Engineering A, and CHEN E4002, Essentials of Chemical Engineering B, in their first semester. These courses cover essentials from the undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum in an intensive, accelerated way in 6 credits. These 6 points of credit must be taken and passed in addition to the 30 points of graduate credit required for the MS itself, so that these students need a total of 36 credits to graduate. Typically this can be accomplished in 3 semesters.

After completing CHEN E4001 and CHEN E4002, students admitted with S2E status must also take CHEN E4010, Mathematical Methods in Chemical Engineering, as part of the core requirement, and a graduate-level chemical engineering course with substantial design content as one of their technical electives.

Students in the Master of Science program who later decide they would like to obtain a PhD in chemical engineering at Columbia would need to formally apply to Columbia’s PhD program after completion of their first term at Columbia. Acceptance into the PhD program would not be assured. As such, students would be in competition with all other applicants to the PhD program.

Applicants holding a BS in chemical engineering who wish to pursue a PhD in chemical engineering at Columbia should apply directly to the MS leading to PhD program rather than only the Master of Science program. While it is against school policy to allow application to more than one program/department per term, applicants to the MS leading to PhD program may choose to indicate on their application that they would consider admission to the MS only.