Curriculum

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Elective Courses

Elective courses are included in the curriculum to provide an opportunity for each student to explore areas of interest that are not included in the core chemical engineering curriculum.   Normally these elective courses are taken during the junior and senior years of the degree program. 

Technical Electives

Technical elective courses are in general defined as 3000 or higher level courses with significant science and/or mathematical content (i.e. a technical elective is an upper division course in engineering or the sciences such as chemistry, physics, mathematics, zoology, etc.). .

Technical Options and Area Specialization Options

Chemical engineering as practiced is applicable to a very wide range of fields involving specialized technologies.  Rather than including survey courses having a smorgasbord of topics trying to cover the whole range of applications, the BSCHE curriculum requires that the elective courses taken are to have a coherent theme that allows some depth of study. The Department of Chemical Engineering now offers area specialization options that are designed to help a student develop greater competence in a particular area as well as background knowledge outside the major. 

Technical Elective Requirements

For catalog years prior to 2002-2003, a total of 8 credit hours of technical elective courses having a coherent theme are required.  For catalog years 2002-2003 and later at least 15 credit hours of technical elective courses including an advance chemistry option (minimum of 3 credit hours) and a chemical engineering option (minimum of 3 credit hours) are required from an area of specialization option.  

Many students have also applied the technical elective course credits toward satisfying the requirements for minors and certificates in other fields

Technical Elective Approval

All technical elective courses must be approved by the department before a student enrolls in the courses.  For catalog years 2002-2003 and later each student is required to select an area of specialization from which technical courses will be taken. Students must designate the area of specialization, the option courses selected and the advanced chemistry courses that will be taken.  For catalog years prior to 2002-2003, students are encouraged to select an area of specialization as a basis for a technical option. 

Note: An area of specialization completion certificate is not required to receive the BSChE degree.  Some areas of specialization may include more course credits for the completion of certificate than are necessary to satisfy the BSChE curriculum technical elective requirements.  

Courses Not Acceptable as Technical Electives

The following types of courses are specifically not acceptable as technical electives:

• Courses required for the BSChE degree or area specialization option; or, courses substituted for a required courses (i.e. no double counting of course credits is allowed)
• Courses which essentially duplicate any other course applied for credit toward an undergraduate engineering degree even though the course numbers may be different
• Courses in the social and behavioral sciences. Note that these courses can be taken as social and behavioral sciences general education electives.
• Military courses
• Remedial courses 

Students are allowed to take additional courses that do not meet the technical elective criteria, but credits for  these courses do not count toward the BSChE degree.

Non-Technical Electives

There are no requirements for taking non-technical electives in the current BSChE curriculum. Prior to 1993, the UF chemical engineering curriculum required completion of 147 semester credit hours for the BSChE degree. As a part of an effort by the university to reduce the number of credit hours required for completion of all degree programs, the total number of credit hours required for the BSChE degree were reduced to 134 and the non-technical elective course requirements were dropped from the curriculum. 

This does not mean that a student cannot take non-technical courses. For example, a minor such as languages, dance or business may require non-technical courses. However, non-technical course credits do not apply towards satisfying the BSChE degree requirements.

Also note that some general education courses may be applied towards a minor.  For example, a student can take introductory marketing and economics courses as social and behavioral science courses and also apply the credit hours towards a minor in business administration.