Pharmacy and pharmaceutical engineering?

[danny]

I'm going to Rutgers next year and their new pharmaceutical engineering course interested me. What is pharmaceutical engineering? What kind of jobs can a pharmaceutical engineer major get you? Is it as difficult as a pharmacy major?

[misa]

This two are in different environment even though they are slightly related. Your career upon graduation:
Pharmaceutical engineering--> engineer/researcher
Pharmacy--->pharmacist
Pharmaceutical engineering I reckon is more or less like chemical engineering, in fact it is a branch of chemical engineering. You'll most probably learn to design a plant or processes to manufacture products, only the difference pharmaceutical engineering emphasizes pharmaceutical products and some biology/chemistry subjects. While pharmacy, you'll deal a lot with biochemistry and biology.
In other words, pharmaceutical engineering is a technical field and closely related to industry. They manufacture the medication products in large scale and find the most optimize way to produce them. Pharmacy is more to pure and human sciences. Pharmacist dispense medications, and it also includes more modern services related to patient care, including clinical services, reviewing medications for safety and efficacy, and providing drug information.
Both are difficult in their own way.
If you prefer biochemistry and biology to math, physics and computer, go for pharmacy because pharmaceutical engineering may involves a lot of calculation and physics concept.
Do some more research so that you can choose the best for you.