<p>Looking to major in one of them at Michigan. What are the pros/cons of the two? What type of jobs do env. engineering majors get? Who are the largest employers, and in which regions are they located?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>There aren’t really any pros or cons to either. Study the one that you will enjoy more. Take a look at the following websites for descriptions of the two fields:
[Sloan</a> Career Cornerstone Center: Careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math & Healthcare](<a href=“http://www.careercornerstone.org/civileng/civileng.htm]Sloan”>Career Cornerstone Center: Careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Medicine)
[Sloan</a> Career Cornerstone Center: Careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math & Healthcare](<a href=“http://www.careercornerstone.org/environmental/environmental.htm]Sloan”>Career Cornerstone Center: Careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Medicine)</p>
<p>Civil and environmental majors are located everywhere, from Des Moines, IA to New York City to Alaska. The jobs aren’t located in only certain regions of the country, unlike the petroleum engineering or biomedical engineering fields. </p>
<p>I don’t know who the largest employers are, and it probably doesn’t matter. The field is pretty well distributed; there isn’t a Microsoft or Google that dominates the industry across the country.</p>
<p>Thanks for the links! They’re really helpful. I think I’d enjoy environmental engineering more, but I really don’t know what to expect as far as potential careers and the benefits of the major. I’m just having a hard time grasping what they actually do.</p>
<p>i have just graduated from environmental engineering and now i’m at my first job. </p>
<p>“What type of jobs do env. engineering majors get?”</p>
<p>Environmental engineering covers things like air pollution, waste management, water treatment, water distribution, environmental remediation and more. From my experience, the overwhelming majority of jobs lie within the last two.</p>
<p>“What are the pros/cons of the two?”
At my school, civil and environmental engineers take similar classes for the first 2 years and I have friends in civil so I know quite a bit about their curriculum. </p>
<p>The Pro of civil is that you can work traditional civil jobs like building structures, bridges and geotech as well as do water distribution. This means there are more jobs out there. Civil engineers can’t really take waste management, air pollution or environmental remediation positions from environmental engineers but from my point of view, there aren’t many jobs in waste management or air pollution anyways. </p>
<p>Civil engineering is more board so civils can take environmental jobs but not the other way around. However, there are less environmental students. </p>
<p>“Who are the largest employers, and in which regions are they located?”</p>
<p>the largest employers are consulting firms, i work for one. They’re located in cities all around the country. Pretty much all cities need water distribution so there will be a need. </p>
<p>feel free to pm me if you have any other questions.</p>
<p>Hi Kevin,</p>
<p>I’m a CEE major at U-M (going to do my graduate work in another field, but that’s a different story).</p>
<p>At U-M, you won’t actually have a chance to major in environmental engineering. At the undergrad level, you get a degree in civil & environmental engineering. You can concentrate in environmental engineering, or other areas in civil engineering.</p>
<p>I’m not in the profession, so I’ll let the others that commented who are let you know about the pros and cons. From what I’ve researched, what they say is true. If you believe the BLS reports (though they were created right before the economic downturn started), civil & environmental engineering jobs will increase by 20% in the next decade.</p>
<p>I guess one of the “cons” is that CEE is one of the lower paying engineering majors (though the pay gap decreases if you get a graduate degree).</p>
<p>PM me if you have any questions about the program at Michigan.</p>
<p>Sorry. My question should have been… what fundamental differences will I find after graduation between the environmental engineering concentration and the other civil engineering concentrations? The others include: Construction Engineering and Management, Geotechnical Engineering, Hydraulic and Hydrological Engineering, Materials and Highway Engineering, Structural Engineering. </p>
<p>Also, which concentration is the “typical” civil engineering program?</p>
<p>There’s no “typical” concentration. haha, yea I know that was a non-answer answer. I guess when the average joe thinks of civil engineering, they’re thinking of structural engineering. </p>
<p>I’m not sure how to answer your question about the fundamental differences between the various civil engineering concentrations. Are you looking for a description of what each of them are?</p>
<p>No. I guess I’m just looking for a reason to pick one of them. I think I’ve found my major though.</p>
<p>I would just pick based on what you’re interested in. Research each of them. You’ll probably have to take a course in each subject area anyway, so you can decide with more information when the time comes.</p>
<p>If you have any specific questions about any of the concentrations, I may be able to help you. My concentration in grad school was construction engineering and management and it’s the field that I’m working in. I was also an intern at a traffic engineering firm for 2 years, so I’m pretty familiar with that as well.</p>
<p>Civil or EnvE degrees will give you a fairly broad base of knowledge. Focusing on one of the others you mention narrows your field greatly. An engineer with a degree in Construction Management can really only work in construction.</p>
<p>But you don’t have to decide right away. You’ll take all of the same courses the first two years so you’ll have ample opportunity to refine your selection.</p>