In the 110 years that a chemical engineering (CHEN) curriculum has been offered at CU-Boulder, a lot has changed.
The CHEN curriculum was first offered in 1904 through the Department of Mechanical Engineering. While the first two CHEN B.S. degrees were granted in 1908, it was not until 1936 that CU-Boulder’s Department of Chemical Engineering was established.
The number of undergraduate students enrolled in the department wavered in the 150-350 student range for decades prior to 2006; that year, a second department degree, Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBEN), was offered to students. Since then, department undergraduate enrollment has increased 150%, going from 278 students in 2006 to 695 students in 2014. These new enrollments now make ChBE one of the top ten largest departments in the nation.
CBEN enrollments have been slightly higher than CHEN enrollments since 2010. Currently, 363 students are pursuing a CBEN degree while 332 are pursing CHEN.
Undergraduate female enrollment in the department has held relatively steady in the past 25 years, ranging from 30%-45%. These values greatly exceed those of the College of Engineering and Applied Science (24%) and the nation (20%).
Interestingly, there is a significant gender disparity between the CBEN and CHEN degrees, with the former 40%-50% female and the latter 25%-35% female since 2007. The current 153-person ChBE freshman class, in fact, is 55% female in CBEN and 38% female in CHEN.
The department’s Ph.D. enrollment has increased significantly since the first degree was granted in 1951, moving from 31 students in 1978 to well above 100 students each of the past five years.
Female enrollments have dipped recently but generally risen in the department, ranging from 35% to 45% in the past 10 years. As with the undergraduate program, the percentage of females in the department is much greater than the college average of 25%, which itself is slightly above the national average of 24%.
Source: Engineering Workforce Commission of the American Association of Engineering Societies, Engineering and Technology Enrollments.
Graduates from the class of '13. Women currently make up 49% of the CBEN major and 30% of the CHEN major, far outstripping the college average of 24% and national average of 20%.
