<p>It’s entirely possible that the original poster has graduated from college at this point.</p>
<p>One common denominator I always get whenever this topic is raised, is Civil is easy. Yes it is easy but what specialty are you talking about? We have Geotechnical, Environmental, Water resources/Hydraulics, Transportation, Construction( unofficial) and Structural. Now, which is the hardest of all these civil specialties; it is Structural. It is a very broad field of its own; Structural engineers can perform mechanical(structural aspect of it), aerospace, marine, ocean engineering and Naval architecture with little or no training. Yes, we can as I’m an Aerospace structural engineer. </p>
<p>Structural engineering is a very difficult field which why it is separated from Civil when you get to graduate school…it’s solely structural engineering. 90% of civil structural undergraduate graduates go further to get their masters in structural engineering. Reason being that it is very broad and need advanced courses to prepare you more. You will also notice that Structural engineers NEVER identify themselves as Civil engineers…we hate it and loathe being addressed as such. Structural engineering is very broad of its own; lots of codes and industry application. Believe me when I say it is amongst the most difficult engineering major/specialty; if it were a major of its own. At current, it hides under Civil and a lot of fellow engineers; I’m sorry to say this; either have no clue of what structural is or do, nor forget that structural is also one of civil specialties. Majority of civil engineers not into structures know that structural is hell difficult and you have to be hell smart to be in it. The smartest civil engineering students back in college all took structural…difficult but pays a lot more and has more prestige. Not smart ones went with environmental and water resources. Consequently , structural is the only engineering specialty that requires a great deal of certification. You are wrong if you think you are done after undergraduate and masters/phD. Not only do you have to pass the PE( Must have for all structural to make headway in the industry), you also need to have SE certification for some structural design types. Leaves you with the burden of taking all these tests over the next 5-10 yrs after graduation make you feel like you are still in school. In addition, some fellow engineers always say Civil makes the least; yeah they do but not Structural. Right out of college; I worked for an oil and has offshore/subsea structural design firm in Houston and was started with 75k…yes I was right out of college; 25k above my fellow classmates in other civil specialties. Now in Aerospace, I make about 80k just 3 yrs since leaving college. While I was in Houston, my Boss with 12 yrs under his belt, in his late 30s was making over 130k 3 yrs ago before I left…yes sounds like joke but true. He was recently promoted to Engineering manager and now makes about 170k in his 40s now. He was the guy that convinced me to get into structural as I wanted to go for petroleum right out of high school. He told me that a lot of people are unaware of the demand of structural engineers that design oil and gas offshore structures…there wouldn’t be no way to extract oil in offshore in first place without these structures. This stuck with me and never regretted making that change. The starting pay is low compare to petroleum, in my case it was same but peaks after 5 yrs surpassing petroleum engineers of similar working experience. Why? BECAUSE THEY ARE ONLY FEW OF US THAT SPECIALIZE IN THE OIL AND GAS BUSINESS. Same goes with Aerospace.</p>
<p>Back to the topic. The spine of my post is… separate structural from other civil specialties. Yes, Civil is easy in general and makes the least; however that’s not the same for structural, and seems as 90% of fellow engineers DON’T KNOW THIS. It behooves you all to know more about this. I don’t know of any Structural engineer that identifies his/her self as civil engineer. But guess what, all other civil specialties engineers identify as civil engineers…that alone should tell you that we don’t want to be associated with Civil. I close with this; there is currently a discussion in the industry to separate Structural engineering from Civil engineering.</p>
<p>Your argument is absurd. Raspberry is far superior.</p>
<p>Civil engineering is all encompassing and I believe it’s unfair to say that only Structural Engineering should be separated from the “Civil Engineering” major. If you learn about other subjects, you realize that there is a lot more to learn in Geotechnical, Environmental, Water Resources, and Transportation Engineering. For example, you need a Masters in Geotechnical Engineering, pass the PE after a certain amount of years, and then you can get a GE after several years after that.</p>
<p>I’m gonna have to go with ice cream on this one.</p>
<p>Industrial Engineering (how hard can it be, I graduated :)) and Blue Bell banana pudding ice cream.</p>
<p>(to the uninitiated: try Blue Bell ice cream at your supermarket if it is available. It’s good to see a company say “here is what it costs us, live with it, we won’t cut size or quality”).</p>
<p>It’s 2013, does anyone calculate civil structures by hand any more? In Elbonia they’d accept software calculations for permits and such…</p>
<p>MODERATOR’S NOTE</p>
<p>Please do not resurrect old threads. Start a new one.</p>