<p>Hey wussup. I'm a junior CSULA civil engineering major transfer student (from CC), and I just visited the CSULA MESA's engineering programs director, and he suggested a couple things:</p>
<p>1) get an internship ASAP because, that is what employers look for before you graduate
2) decide on a sub-discipline ASAP because, this determines the type of internship you want</p>
<p>I'm thinking of being a structural engineer. I'm pretty heavy mentally in art skills. Structural engineering seems like a sub-discipline I would like because, it seems like a sub-discipline that benefits from the mental (visual, creative, etc) skills you obtain from being an artist. I remember in a high school Natural Science II course, we were put into groups to build a bridge out of Popsicle sticks. The bridge that could hold the most pennies would win. Using my intuition about force distribution and stress, I built the best bridge in class. I was surprised that I could intuitively build the best. </p>
<p>So what sub-discipline out there do you think would work well for me? Who here can relate to my experience? My best subjects were math, science, art, and computer science.</p>
<p>And BTW, what do you guys know of or hear about CSULA's engineering students or engineering program? I'm not that particularly impressed with CSULA students (nor their engineering students)...</p>
<p>Cal State LA has some great research and internship programs with outside companies and other Universities:</p>
<p>[Cal</a> State LA Programs](<a href=“http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/sem_ed/cal_state_la_programs.htm]Cal”>http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/sem_ed/cal_state_la_programs.htm)</p>
<p>As a Civil Engineering undergraduate, you will be required to take classes in all sub-disciplines of CE, including structures, water treatment, environmental, hydrology, geotechnical. See which classes you like best before deciding on a specialization. My son did his first internship in water treatment, didn’t like the field, and then did a second internship in geotechnical. And his job after graduating was in structural. </p>
<p>He was also active in the ASCE, which has competitions in various fields including earthquake structures, steel bridge, concrete canoe, environmental water treatment, etc. He worked on two projects outside of his current specialization for that as well. He wanted to try a little bit of everything before he settled on one field.
<a href=“http://www.calstatela.edu/orgs/asce/[/url]”>http://www.calstatela.edu/orgs/asce/</a></p>
<p>Thanks for the reply. So do you have any idea why he chose structural?</p>
<p>He chose structural because he likes using the earthquake shake tables. Some of them are big enough to shake a house. They also have portable shake machines that they use to test bridges.</p>
<p>Ohhh ok. I haven’t tried any yet…</p>