BS Requirements

Contact Us

Erica Diaz
Student Affairs Manager
Chemical Engineering Department
erica@engineering.ucsb.edu
Engineering II, Room 3357A

GEAR Catalog

For complete academic requirements, view the 2022-23 General Engineering Academic Requirements (GEAR) catalog for all departments within the College of Engineering. 

Bachelor of Science, Chemical Engineering

Preparation for the Major

The following 106 units are required:

  • Chemical Engineering 5, 10
  • Chemistry 1A or 2A, 1AL or 2AC, 1B or 2B, 1BL or 2BC, 1C or 2C, 1CL or 2CC, 6AL, 6BL, 109A or 109Ah, 109B or 109BH
  • Engineering 3Mathematics 3A, 3B, 4A or 4AI, 4B or 4BI, 6A or 6AI, 6B
  • Physics 1, 2, 3, 3L
  • College of Engineering General Education Requirements
  • and 32 units of non-major electives

Students who are not Chemical Engineering majors may be permitted to take lower division chemical engineering courses, subject to meeting prerequisites and grade point average requirements, availability of space, and consent of the instructor.

Upper-Division Major

The following 81 units are required:

  • Materials 101 or 100B
  • Chemical Engineering 107, 110A, 110B, 132A, 120A, 128, 132B, 120B, 132C, 119, 120C, 140A, 180A, 140B, 152A, 180B, 184A, 184B
  • Chemistry 113B, 113C
  • 15 units of departmental electives, with at least 9 of the 15 in College of Engineering departments ChE, ECE, Materials, ME

Requirements: Total 187 units

Courses required for the major, inside or outside of the Department of Chemical Engineering, may not be taken for the pass/not passed grading option. They must be taken for letter grades.

TECHNICAL ELECTIVE UNITS

All students, as part of our ABET Chemical Engineering Accreditation, must complete a Technical Elective Worksheet outlining how they plan to satisfy the technical elective requirements for their BS degree in Chemical Engineering.

The minimum number of units required to fulfill the Technical Elective requirement for graduation is 15; these 15 units must be selected from the attached List of Approved Courses.

Notes:

(1) At least 9 of the 15 total units must be taken in the ChE, ME, ECE or MATRL departments.

(2) The 6 additional units must be taken from the approved list of courses below.

(3) Only three units of ChE 196/198 (Independent Research) can be counted towards technical elective requirements; additional units and other 198-199 units will be counted as free electives. ChE 99 does not count as TE credit.

(4) If the course is not on the approved Technical Electives List, please fill out this Request Form for a department evaluation to articulate the units.

After reviewing the list of approved courses and deciding on which courses to take, complete the Technical Elective Worksheet.

After completing the top portion of the form and listing the courses that you have taken or plan on taking to fulfill the Technical Elective requirement, sign the form and return it via email to Erica Diaz or cheinfo@engineering.ucsb.edu for Department approval. Changes can be made to your list of technical electives after the form has been turned in. It is not necessary to complete a new worksheet with updated coursework.