<p>Hi, guys. I'm a parent, but I work in the legal field. I had some involvement in a case yesterday where we interviewed a geotechnical engineer. I just wanted to throw this out there for discussion among you guys as a possibility for someone interested in engineering, but not sure what field they want to go into. It seems to be a subspecialty under civil engineering, as my expert had a PE in civil engineering, but has a master's and is working toward his dissertation. Although the case involved a home inspection, this gentleman did work in the larger arena of levee and pumping staton projects and soil/structural interaction. </p>
<p>I will say this, he was way above my head, but an attorney I was working with had a PE in EE, so they were on the same page more than I was. I oftentimes do run across attorneys with undergraduate engineering degrees, and their background is most helpful when dealing with expert witnesses, so another idea to throw out there for those of you with BS in engineering and not sure where to head afterwards.</p>
<p>Hope my post can give some inspiration, ideas, to those interested in engineering, but not sure where to go with it.</p>
<p>My younger son has always had an interest in going to law school, but he decided that he wanted a science or technical undergrad degree rather than the typical poli sci, English, history undergrad common with most lawyers. When he starts college next year, he’ll be working toward a degree in geology. What he does upon graduation is up to him (either law school or grad school), but he’ll have lots of options. </p>
<p>A close friend of mine has an undergrad degree in Chemistry from Loyola and worked many years as a quality control chemist for Coca-Cola in NO. Meanwhile, at night, he was working on a law degree (also from Loyola). When the Coke plant closed, he interviewed for the job as legal counsel for a large international chemical company. Even tho he was the youngest and least experienced (in terms of law) person interviewed - he got the job BECAUSE of his chemistry background. None of the other lawyers being interviewed had any idea what the company did - my friend understood it perfectly and they thought that was a huge asset.</p>
<p>Well, I wouldn’t suggest going to law school after engineering, as there are way too many lawyers out there. Of course, if you’ve got an in, it might be an option. </p>
<p>I was intrigued by this specialty of engineering, as I had never heard of it before, and I’d like to learn more about it just for my own curiosity’s sake.</p>
<p>Geology would perhaps be a good minor with civil engineering to aid in specializing in this area, although my expert said he just took engineering electives in the geotechnical field as he completed his degree, and specialized in it more as part of his graduate work.</p>
<p>If one does want to go to law school after engineering school, you might seek out law firms who deal in more technical areas, ie, those representing maritime and oil field clients, when seeking out summer clerkships.</p>
<p>Geotechnical engineering isn’t quite the same as civil engineering combined with geology classes. It is a branch of civil engineering that is similar to structural engineering, except instead of dealing with materials of known physical properties (like steel or concrete), you deal with soils that have varying properties (density, moisture content, soil type and seismic factors) that must be accounted for in designing foundations for buildings, levees, dams, etc. All civil engineers take a few geotechnical classes as part of the curriculum for a bachelor’s degree. For a master’s degree they take several more geotechnical classes. And for a PhD they add in additional classes from related fields like structural engineering, plus the research dissertation.</p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification. I was unfamiliar with the field, and it was quite interesting to me. Glad to see that Purdue offers it. My expert was working on his graduate work at Tulane, but they dropped the program after Katrina. I guess they didn’t feel we needed to learn about levees in New Orleans, since ours work so well. NOT!</p>
<p>UCLA and Cal Poly SLO are doing a lot of geotechnical levee research, especially with respect to earthquakes which can be every bit as damaging as strong hurricanes like Katrina.</p>