I’m planning to (most likely) stay in California for college, The colleges I’m planning to apply for are UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, UC Irvine, UC Davis, UC Riverside, Cal Poly SLO, and Cal Poly Pomona.
I know Berkeley has a super great but competitive engineering program, so that’s definitely my reach school. I also know that UCSD doesn’t have Civil Engineering, but they have Structural Engineering. Exactly how different is structural engineering? Also, I know Cal Poly SLO’s engineering is much better than most of the UC’s, but my parents think going to a UC school would “look better,” even though I’m pretty sure that’s not the case.
Anyway, is there a certain ranking of these colleges in terms of civil/structural engineering?
Thank you!
All of these schools would be good for civil engineering. Berkeley is particularly well known, but also particularly selective (as you know). The Cal Polys (especially SLO) have great reputations and job placement in this field; the only difference is that the “Cal Poly” brand does not have as much recognition as the “University of California” brand outside of California and the Western US.
Structural engineering is generally regarded as a specialized subdiscipline of civil. Structural deals with “structures”, like buildings and bridges. Civil engineering includes structures, but it also deals with non-structural things like roads, pipelines, drainage systems, foundations, water supply systems, and environmental cleanup.
Some civil departments probably have a “structural engineering track” in their BSCE programs that would be similar to the UCSD structural engineering degree. However, civil departments would likely have other tracks, like a “transportation engineering track” or a “water resources engineering track”, that would not be available in the UCSD program.