Civil Engineering Specialties

<p>Construction Engineering and Management
Construction Materials Engineering
Environmental Engineering
Environmental Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering
Geotechnical Engineering
Structural Engineering
Transportation Engineering</p>

<p>Which of these fields are growing the fastest, that you would recommend to civil students? Are there any that aren't growing as much and are predicted to be oversaturated in the future? Also, which ones focus more on physics and which ones focus on chem?</p>

<p>I'm interested in hydraulic, structural, and transportation.</p>

<p>Honestly, they're all in demand, and with the rate at which we're producing civil engineers, there's likely to be a shortage in all the disciplines you mentioned. I'd recommend whichever ones you're interested in.</p>

<p>Most of them have more to do with physics than chem except for some of the environmental ones, but they all have facets of both.</p>

<p>Like I've mentioned in the past, I've found that my structural degrees are incredibly versatile, so I'm kind of partial to recommending that one, but really, you can't go wrong with a background in any of those.</p>

<p>There will always be a job for you in hydraulic, transportation, and structural. People love clean drinking water, roads, and buildings. An undergrad civil education will prepare you for all of these fields. Use summer internships to test the waters and see which one you enjoy most</p>

<p>I 110% agree with mydegisunacred in regards to internships. Each of these specialties can be very different so if you're not sure what you want to do, definitely take the time in college to try some of them out firsthand. I started in construction, went to traffic, and came back to construction. Oh, and when I entered college, I was pretty interested in structural. </p>

<p>I'm not sure whether your transportation engineering program focuses more on highway design or traffic analysis, but if it's the latter, I'd be wary if you want something physics-heavy. The field itself (not in academia) deals a lot with urban planning in conjunction with the traffic engineering aspect of it, so there's a big "soft" side. Not sure if that's the ideal job for somebody who loves physics.</p>

<p>There is definitely not enough people going into construction engineering and management, but that takes you away from design somewhat. A big part of what you will do is management, and only a tiny part engineering. There are so few people entering this field, that my company started me off in an architectural position when I was an intern, offered me a full time job in a mechanical engineering position, and then someone else at the company gave me a job in a civil engineering capacity. It seemed like they fight over new hires! It's come to a point where they actually hired an art history major! And you thought those degrees were worthless... </p>

<p>I am sure everything I said in the above paragraph can also be said for every other civil engineering specialty you listed.</p>