I was admitted to UC Davis, UCSD, U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and CU Boulder for environmental engineering (and UCSB for undeclared science), so if any of you go to any of these please say so! How do you like your major/what you study? How math intensive is the environmental branch of engineering? Feeling about job opportunities when you graduate? Really just if you have anything to say about the major don’t hesitate! Thanks!!
Are you sure it is environmental ENGINEERING or environmental SCIENCE that you were admitted into? Looking at the colleges you list, they are more of the science type programs from what I see from their web sites.
There are a couple of paths one can go when talking environmental science or engineering.
- the science route where you deal more with agriculture or wildlife or policy, etc.
- more of a branch of civil engineering, dealing with waste water plants, water supply systems, etc.
- the health and safety side, dealing with managing hazardous chemicals, etc.
Each of these areas have different foci and educational requirements (and different job prospects). What is your interest?
Ya they label it environmental engineering, but I think it really is more to do with civil. U of I calls them the same thing. I think 2 is the way I’m leaning
Many Environmental Engineering programs are part of the CIvil Eng dept.
I looked up the CU (EVEN) program, which I had not heard of even as a local… it is multi-disciplinary flavor (#1). It does look interesting.
http://www.colorado.edu/even/prospective-students
http://www.colorado.edu/even/research-and-employment-opportunities
As a MechE (who started as Civil/Environmental), I tend to favor #2 for better job options (especially w/o grad degree). However, I’ll admit that I ended up down this road a bit by accident 30+ years ago when there was no internet for research, and guidance counselors knew very little about engineering programs. I was really aiming more toward something like #1.
Awesome, can you explain exactly what you do? And which school did you go to?
My experiences are not relevant for your interests, Mike. But hopefully others will chime in.
Originally I was interested in the interaction between air pollution and weather. (I was ahead of my time but didn’t know it). Civil/Environment was not the right field for that (in retrospect - “daaa”), and ChemE was not my cup of tea. So I switched to Mechanical Engineering to have a more degree.
Alright, thanks for the reply
You may find the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Outlook Handbook on Environmental Engineers of interest:
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/environmental-engineers.htm
Keep in mind that this broad outlook covers #1, 2 and 3 above.
I was in the Civil Engineering department in college. You had to define a specialty. Mine was structural engineering. Another choice was the environmental side of things. Most of the class work was common with a few classes in your specialty.
My wife took path #3 as an environmental engineer then moved into management in the same field. Job prospects are probably pretty close for path #2 and #3 with, I’m just guessing, a slight edge to path #2.