I’m nearing the second half of my schooling and with my graduation date approaching, I’m a bit undecided for what I want to do after I graduate, but I want to keep my options open. Graduate school is in my academic timeline whether it be after graduation or a few years working. I am not familiar with the graduate school timeline and I was hoping someone could guide me. A little background, I’m a junior and my major is in civil engineering with a concentration in structures.
A couple questions I have:
When do I take the GRE?
What GRE score is regarded as a competitive score?
Would I take the FE exam during my second to last semester in school or my last semester in school?
Is there a reputable list of civil engineering graduate programs in the US?
How is funding generally handled? Is my parents’ information still required?
Should I base my schooling on areas where I would want to settle?
Whenever you are ready, provided you take it in time for the scores to be reported to the schools where you apply. Scores are valid and reportable for up to 5 years, and departments prefer them at the time of application but will usually allow the company a month or two extra to actually forward them the reports. I would recommend taking them the summer before your senior year, so that you can concentrate on more important things during the fall and so that you have time for a re-take if for some reason you tank it.
It’s the percentiles that matter, not the raw score, and that depends both on discipline and the department. In engineering, anything over 50% on the non-quantitative sections will usually be more than adequate, but most departments will want to see at least a 90% or 95% quantitative. But remember that the GRE is generally the least important part of the whole application.
Last semester, to the best of my recollection. If you have the option, definitely do it in the spring, as you will want to spend the fall on grad applications.
Depends - define “reputable”.
As a grad student you are by default an independent student, so your parents’ info is no longer needed. Otherwise, do you have more specific questions? There are a ton of topics on here explaining grad funding.
Well, that depends a lot on the school - the better the program, the wider the recruiting base. If you go to UIUC you will get recruiters from across the country. If you go to South Central Louisiana State (GO MUDDOGS!!!) then you better like Louisiana because no one outside the state will be recruiting you. And I would always expect to work within the recruiting reach of your school, as getting outside of that set of companies can involve a LOT of extra effort.
The number one thing I can suggest is to get yourself some research experience now as an undergraduate. That can go a long way toward helping you get into a good graduate program.
That depends entirely on what sort of research you hope to pursue. Departmental rankings mean less for graduate students than they do for undergraduates because the programs can differ so greatly from one student to the next depending on their area of specialty. You are better off looking at which departments have research groups that align with your interests and starting your search that way. Perhaps look through journals in your field and see which groups are publishing on topics of interest.
Graduate school can often be funded, though how and how likely that happens depends on your situation. Nearly all engineering PhD students are funded 100% through some combination of research and teaching assistantships. Generally, if someone offers you a PhD position that isn’t funded, turn it down because there is nearly a guarantee there is a funded opportunity elsewhere. Master’s students are less likely to be funded (at least initially), though it still does commonly happen. It varies wildly by school, department, and even sometimes by professor. It’s still the same general set of funding options, though (research or teaching assistantship).
The answer provided by @cosmicfish covers some of the bases. I’d also add that the answer to this will rely on whether your goal is a master’s degree or a doctorate. If the goal is just an MS, then you want to find a good research group that matches your interests. Your job pathways will likely come from some combination of your professor’s connections and the department’s/school’s overall recruiting footprint since you are still, competing for a relatively similar pool of jobs with the people who only hold a BS.
For a PhD, the personal and academic fit of the research group should be by far the biggest factor rather than where you would like to settle geographically. The biggest factors in where you are hired after your PhD are going to be how well-connected your research group is in industry or other labs (depending on your career goals) and how good the lab is in terms of the quality of the research you perform and publications you are able to produce. In certain cases (most notably when trying to get on the tenure track), school pedigree can be important, but that can generally still be outweighed by coming from a suitably well-known advisor even if that professor is at a middle-of-the-road school. To some extent, these things are important for the MS as well, but it is to much less of a degree.