Civ Eng

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Hey guys, I was really into searching colleges and all that stuff earlier in the summer. I had hoped to shoot for an ivy league, but since then I've come back down to reality and don't care that much (is this bad?). </p>

<p>But basically I'd like some general information on what civil engineers do, their collge experience (how hard are classes/leisure time), starting salary?</p>

<p>I originally was debating between mechanical and civil (I'm leaning towards civil now, but everything is still open since there's so much time to declare a major). I'm going to be a senior in high school next year. The classes I'm goign to take are: Physics Honors (no ap at my school), Religion (required), AP English, Precalc Honors, Ap Art History, Ap US History.</p>

<p>Also I plan on getting a masters, would structural engineering be a good choice if I'm interested in that and does it go well with a civil eng undergrad degree?</p>

<p>Well I hope this isn't too broad or unclear in anyway. I'm just looking for some info on the udnergrad and grad (for structural) and what the job opportunites are after. I live in NJ so I'll probably get a job in NJ or NY or somewhere close.</p>

<p>Basically I'm looking at schools that have good eng programs but aren't ivy league prestige. Some stuff I like right now are : Boston U, Northeastern, Rutgers (only because of in-state). Anyone have any input on these schools for civil engineering, or any other recommendations for schools to look at on the east coast (mid to north if possible). Another factor with all the schools is I don't want to have 140k in loans to pay off.</p>

<p>Anyway, thanks for anyone that helps me out.</p>

2

<p>:everyone looks at aibarr:</p>

<p>Okay then...</p>

<p>I got my undergrad in civil engineering at Rice and then got my masters in structural engineering at UIUC. It's a fairly natural progression. Structural engineering is a subdiscipline of civ.</p>

<p>Anyhow! What I'm currently doing as a structural engineer is 1) failure analysis (when things go wrong, they call us), and 2) structural design. If architects are the plastic surgeons and makeup artists of the structures world, structural engineers are the orthopedic surgeons. Structural engineers do the calculations to figure out how beefy the columns and beams have to be, and account for the flow of forces throughout the structure. </p>

<p>Civil engineering, as a whole, is a very broad field. Civs are in charge of all sorts of things: airfield design, bridge design, roadway construction and layout, striping and signing of roads, figuring out what to do with all the water when it rains, pipes, land development, etc. etc. etc... Lots of different facets to the field. Plenty of different things to do, and boredom and pigeonholing can be avoided more in civil engineering than it can in some other engineering fields... Lots of work outdoors, if you want to work outdoors. Travel, if you like that sort of thing. A variety of projects out there to work on. Tons of weird problems that need to be solved: several years ago, my company picked up and moved the historical Cape Hatteras lighthouse to help preserve it. I'm likely about to be involved in a couple of similar cases out here in LA where we may be moving a couple of historical mansions.</p>

<p>In terms of what you'd study, you end up taking a lot of the same sorts of courses as mechanical engineers take, but add a few of the more unique civ courses like soil dynamics, concrete design, and steel design, and you'll get a more apt picture of what a civil engineering curriculum looks like. I thought it sounded more enjoyable than things like thermodynamics and production design, so I switched from mechanical to civil.</p>

<p>Is it tough? Well, all engineering's tough. If you want to get a full ride to a top-notch grad program, then yes, civil engineering's tough. If "D is for Diploma" is your official motto... well, I don't really want you designing the buildings I'm going to be around. You'll be able to get a job, but it won't be as cool a job as one you'd get otherwise. Still, I had plenty of time to cram in massive quantities of extracurriculars (I was drum major of the band and held down a part-time job my senior year, while applying to grad schools) and enough parties to satisfy my inner social butterfly.</p>

<p>So far as first jobs: starting salary for most of the folks from Rice undergrad ranged from 45-50K, starting. Out of the structures MS program from UIUC, offers ranged from 50-58K, starting. A masters in structures is a really good idea, if structural engineering is what you're shooting for. Some firms won't even look at your resume if you don't have a masters... There's just so much info that structurals need to know in order to be competent.</p>

<p>So far as schools go: Up in the northeast, the top schools for civ are MIT and Cornell. I also looked at Tufts... seemed like a good program. Cooper Union's excellent, and free. Take a look at Olin: good school, but I'm unfamiliar with their civ program. The whole college is really new.</p>

<p>Virginia Tech's good. Princeton's good. Carnegie Mellon's good, too. Bucknell's also one to consider. I've met a couple of folks in the field from Brown, Rutgers, and Manhattan College, and they all seemed to know their stuff.</p>

<p>Best of luck! Feel free to ask any other questions. J'adore my field and love to gush about how awesome it is.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the in depth info!</p>

<p>I do have a couple questions. I guess what every engineering person hears first is how much math is involved. I'm not scared of math by any means, I'm just curious how much math is involved in civ than other engineering majors?</p>

<p>Also, after establishing yourself in the field for a couple years what is a usual salary for someone with a masters? (I'm referring to people after like 10 years or so in the field, once you basically have a family to take care of and all that jazz.</p>

<p>Cornell would be my best shot out of the ivies but I seriously doubt I'd get in because you never can never be sure. Here's my list of everything basically:</p>

<p>I go to a very competitive private high school in New Jersey. Widowed parent, income around 40k ish, first generation college student.</p>

<p>white male (double damn)</p>

<p>SAT I: 2020 690 CR, 630 Math, 700 Writing
SAT II: Haven't taken any yet but plan on doing math 1, chem, and maybe lit/history (any preference for a third?)</p>

<p>GPA: 3.8 something UW I did incredibly poor freshmen year and had to work instensely hard to get my grades up. I don't know if they'll see that but the self-improvement was immense</p>

<p>Rank: top 10</p>

<p>Junior year coursework: Honors English, Honors Chem, Honors Alg2/Trig, Ap US History, Honors Spanish 3, Religion (required)</p>

<p>four quarter grades and then year grade</p>

<p>Honors English- 97 97 99 98 98
Alg2 Trig Honors 95 94 96 95 95
AP USH- 99 99 99 99 99
Chemistry Honors 99 99 98 99 98
Spanish 3 Honors 96 97 97 96 95
Religion- 99 99 99 99 99</p>

<p>Senior year: AP Eng, Honors Physics, Ap Art History, Ap US History, Honors Precalc</p>

<p>My school only offers ap classes in English, Art History, US History, and Calc BC, so I'm taking all I am qualified for. I tried starting a US Gov AP and Euro Hist AP but the head of the department turned me down.</p>

<p>Taken 2 courses at a local community college, intro to philosophy (freshmen year- A-), sociology (sophomore year A), looking into another one now.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Academic Team- Captain</p>

<p>Robotics Team-builder and participant when we won the 2005 and 2006 state championships for FIRST (possible hook? Idk..)</p>

<p>New Jersey Regional Science Fair-participant</p>

<p>Spanish Honor Society- helped fundraise and tutored students</p>

<p>Model United Nations</p>

<p>NJ American Legion Boys State representative</p>

<p>Intermural Basketball League assistant coach/player</p>

<p>Chess team</p>

<p>Intermural Ultimate Frisbee League- Co-Founder, captain of a team, and player</p>

<p>American Cancer Society Relay for Life-helped organize and set up event, three years</p>

<p>Worked at Afterhours Formalwear</p>

<p>Awards:</p>

<p>· The Elmira College Key Award, 2006
· Excellence in Spanish 2 CP, 2004-2005
· Excellence in English 2 CP, 2004-2005
· Honorable Mention in Eastern Civilization CP, 2004-2005
· Excellence in English 3 Honors, 2005-2006
· Excellence in United History 1 Advanced Placement, 2005-2006
· Honorable Mention in Spanish 3 Honors, 2005-2006
· New Jersey Regional Science Fair Rutgers Student Award, 2005
· National Spanish Examination Certificate of Achievement and Merit¸ 2004-2005 and 2005-2006</p>

<p>Now that that's out of the way....I'm interested in building....buildings more so than waterways and other public projects like that. How's the outlook/salary (does ti change any) for structural engineers doing buildings. I probably sound stupid so I'll leave it at that.</p>

4

<p>I think compared to other engineering majors (chemical, electrical, mechanical), civil requires less knowledge of advanced math. At my school (Cooper Union), the required courses are calculus I & II, vector calculus, linear algebra, probability & statistics, and differential equations. I've used all of that in my engineering courses, but it doesn't come up as often as it does for other majors. </p>

<p>One pretty good college that aibarr left out is Columbia. Their engineering school is less selective than the rest of thier schools, so if you really want to go to an Ivy for civil engineering, that would be your best shot. Not as good as Cornell, but it's still up there. Personally I would consider going to Columbia over Cornell just because it's in the city, and you can get some pretty good internships during the school year. </p>

<p>Civil engineers seem to have the easiest time finding jobs than the other majors. There's just so many opportunities out there, especially in the NYC metropolitan area if you want to work with buildings. I don't know of one person in my class that didn't get an internship this summer. </p>

<p>Sometimes I wonder if there's anything about civil engineering that aibarr doesn't know... lol</p>

5

<p>Well what I thought was thar cornell would be eaasier tog et into. Wouldn't Columbia engineering be nearly impossible to get into with my stats that I posted?</p>

6

<p>=) There's <em>plenty</em> about civil engineering that I don't know. If I knew everything about civil engineering, I'd probably have my PE already, wouldn't I? ;)</p>

<p>Anyhoo...I'm not sure how Columbia's admissions works. Haven't come across any of their engineers, either, so I'm reasonably unfamiliar with their program.</p>

<p>Still... your stats are pretty darned good! Definitely try for Cornell and such. I went to a secondhand book store to get an SAT review book, and that helped, too... If you can get your SAT scores above 700, you'd be golden.</p>

<p>Structural engineers make a bit more than most other civil engineers. Technical requirements and educational background need to be a bit more intensive than for other civ disciplines, and responsibility for structural engineers is higher, so that's reflected in salaries, to a certain extent.</p>

<p>Here's a cool site, courtesy the feds. It's been mentioned other places in the forum.
<a href="http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

7

<p>Columbia's engineering school admits students separately from the rest of the university if i remember correctly. Years ago, when I was applying to undergrad, my high school had a database of sat scores and gpa's of applicants to various colleges and whether they got admitted, rejected or waitlisted. Columbia University and CU SEAS were listed separately and it was pretty clear that SEAS was less selective. If you care about U.S. news rankings, cornell is top 5 in civil engineering, and columbia is top 25. </p>

<p>In terms of money, structural engineers do tend to make the most out of other civil engineers. I like to use salary.com to get an idea of what people make, but the numbers seem a little skewed; it says the average salary for a structural engineer in NYC is $58,000, which seems pretty high from what I've seen. </p>

<p>Structural engineers with their PE (license) make significantly more than those without because they are the only ones allowed to sign off on drawings, which is pretty important, if not a requirement to advance upwards. The downside is if you sign off on the drawing and the structure fails, heads are going to roll. Other civil engineers, such as traffic engineers make significantly less because if something isn't exactly right, few people would notice. It's not as much of a science, and that is without a doubt reflected in salaries.</p>

8

<p>Thanks man, you really are a god-send. :)</p>

<p>If I like both schools equally, which do you think I dhoulf do ed for- Cornell or Columbia? Which would I have a better chance at?</p>

<p>I saw out of 2700 students columbia engineering accepted 600 ish, I couldn't find comparable statistics for cornell for engineering, only by entire college. I know cornell has a higher acceptance (around 27%) than columbia college does, but idk if it's higher than columbia enigineering.</p>

<p>I would really love to go to an ivy but will my stats get me into either, if so which one?</p>

<p>The problem is I only have 1 test date left- october. That's for the sat2s since I haven't taken them. The next testing is in november after the early decision deadline.</p>

9

<p>hey ken 285,</p>

<p>how do you know rankings in undergrad civ eng beyond the top 20...can you post the list of the top 50 possibly?</p>

10

<p>The rankings aren't specific for civil engineering; it's just engineering in general. my mistake. They're from the U.S. News & World Report's annual college issue, and I don't actually have a physical list in front of me. I've just kept an eye on the rankings the past few years and Cornell and Columbia were two colleges I was considered before opting for Cooper Union. </p>

<p>I'm not sure whether Columbia or Cornell is more selective though. Both are very good, but they're also very different in terms of environment. One is in the middle of nowhere while the other is in NYC; two extremes.</p>

11

<p>oops... last line in the first paragraph should say "considering" and not considered.</p>