<p>Is Columbia's civil engineering undergraduate program highly regarded? According to the rankings I found here: US</a> University Ranking 2010 in Civil Engineering department | Latest University Rankings Columbia is ranked #23 for civil engineering in the US.</p>
<p>I have heard that Columbia has a great rep for putting engineering students on Wall Street in investment banking and the sort, but how about students actually serious on doing engineering after graduation?</p>
<p>It’s getting better but overall, the placement in engineering firms is quite terrible. Employers don’t come on campus because of lack of interest from the student body as well as the center for career education, which doesn’t do all that much to contact engineering firms.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t come to Columbia if my long-term goal was to enter the engineering field. I don’t know one person who is actually interning at an engineering firm this summer, and I know around 30-40 engineers out of a class of 300.</p>
<p>However, as you already know, Wall Street placement is quite good, even in these down times.</p>
<p>^^ Wow. So those 30-40 people you know there never intended to apply for interns? Or did some of them apply and get rejected?</p>
<p>Most of them didn’t even bother applying because they were focused on financial services or medicine. The 30-40 people are friends that I’m close enough to ask. One of my friends flat out got rejected by chemical engineering firms. One of the residents on my floor can’t find a job at all. </p>
<p>Overall, if you’re good (top 30% of the school), you can find an engineering job quite easily. It just becomes more difficult as you are less academically qualified, because there are already a dearth of jobs on campus for engineering. I know of some students looking into engineering and getting interviews but haven’t checked up to see what they’re doing. </p>
<p>That’s what the engineering school means when they sell that “engineering is a new liberal art” crap. It just means that not enough Columbia engineers go into engineering and instead focus on pre-professional routes. If you call engineering a liberal art, you might be able to dodge the spotlight that comes from having most of your engineers enter professional careers.</p>
<p>I went to Columbia’s career fair a couple of years ago and I could not remember a major NYC area firm that hired civil engineering majors that did NOT come. Granted, I was focused on contractors and construction managers, but I still remember there being a plethora of civil engineering firms.</p>
<p>beard tax, which firms were you thinking of?</p>
<p>EDIT: I’m sure there were some that did not attend, but it could not have been many.</p>
<p>I meant on campus recruiting. I’ve been to career fairs and I’ve seen some engineering firms, but it doesn’t mean that much. OCR is what matters, because it’s when employers come on campus and interview students. Google and Microsoft actually send company representatives to interview Columbia students.</p>
<p>When companies come to career fairs, they cast a wide net for students. Columbia fairs are attended by MIT, Harvard, Princeton, NYU, Baruch, etc. students. Sorry I don’t know any engineering firms specifically that came to career fairs and OCR was dominated by financial services firms.</p>
<p>Ahh okay, I see. I didn’t go through on campus recruiting, and I don’t remember seeing any of the firms that I was interested in participating in that. Is it really that big of a deal though? I know my company has a lot of Columbia alumni, but didn’t participate in OCR. We just went to the career fair and collected resumes. The same goes for a previous company that I worked for. Personally, I don’t see the difference if the interview is at Columbia or at their offices in Midtown or Downtown.</p>
<p>Ahh, true I guess that it doesn’t matter that much for engineering recruitment. I guess the people I know aren’t aggressive enough when it comes to career fairs. Do you post on Lionshare at all?</p>
<p>I just assume that OCR means the highest level of interest, then campus fairs, and then posting on Lionshare. However, I still think there’s a lack of interest on campus for engineering related fields relative to finance, medicine, and law.</p>
<p>So, overall Columbia isn’t a good school for civil engineering, but it is good in a way that if all else fails, you can always go into investment banking?</p>
<p>It depends on what you mean by good. There are few schools in the entire country better than Columbia for civil engineering (a few dozen at the very most). If you want to work in NYC in the construction industry, I’d say it’s one of the best schools you can choose as civil engineering / construction firms tend to recruit heavily from local schools.</p>
<p>I can’t really speak about the interest on campus much; I was only at Columbia for a year for a master’s degree and only knew a small percentage of the students there. It wouldn’t surprise me if it were true though.</p>
<p>I am not on Lionshare.</p>
<p>WOW. Then would you think an engineering “powerhouse” like Michigan or Illinois would be just as adequate as Columbia for a career in civil engineering in NYC?</p>
<p>By the way, do you happen to know any international students studying civil engineering at Columbia?</p>
<p>I’m sure the education is just as good, if not better than Columbia for civil engineering.</p>
<p>I did know some international civil engineering students, but have not kept in touch with them.</p>
<p>Which university did u go to then?</p>
<p>I am also wondering that which school did you go for. Cuz I am also hesitating between Columbia and UIUC</p>