<p>The CivE department at my school offers classes in structures, geotech, transportation, environmental, water resources, construction management, and civil systems. I am interested in a lot of things but I'm worried about if I should specialize or take classes in a broad range of fields. I like transportation engineering and construction management, but I'm also interested in structural engineering and geotechnical engineering. What should I do? Should take a variety of courses or should I specialize in one field? I want to be versatile when I'm out of college and have a breadth of experience but I'm worried that employers may not like that I've had a generic education. What should I do?</p>
<p>Are you planning to go to grad school or getting a job right after your BSE?</p>
<p>If you’re going to grad school, as long as you take a few classes in your area of interest, you’ll be fine. If you want to get a job right after your BSE, you want to specialize more IF you know what kind of work you want to do.</p>
<p>I don’t know what your curriculum is like, but my school requires that you take a course in each of the disciplines offered, so you get an idea of what you might want to specialize in. This is also a pain if you know what you’re interested in and then need to take classes not related to your interests.</p>
<p>If your school doesn’t offer that, I’d take a single course in the areas you’re interested in (transportation, construction, geotech, etc), and see which one you like the most, then specialize from there.</p>
<p>Out of your interests, I find geotech to be the most interesting, and there always seems to be jobs for geotechs. One caveat, you will more than likely need a graduate degree in geotech to do any interesting work.</p>
<p>I’m water resources, but I almost turned to geotech.</p>
<p>I like structures the best, because that’s what I concentrated in!</p>
<p>I would say that if you really decide you’re interested in structures, take as MANY of those classes as you can. So much is expected of structural engineers. You have to design buildings out of wood, concrete, and/or steel (sometimes all three). You have to be able to design foundations. You need to understand how vibrations affect structures. You have to know seismic design. You probably should learn about pre-stressed concrete. Etc., etc.! If you don’t take most of these during school, you’ll have to play catch-up on the job, which is no fun. Like geotech, a master’s degree is pretty important for structural engineers, although it is possible to get a job with just a BS.</p>
<p>I’m in the same boat as the OP, CivE and not sure what to specialize in. I’m leaning heavily towards Transportation. I’d love to work on roads, traffic flow design, or even some kind of urban planning. I admit I’m one of those guys that will take the best job he can get out of school, if it has little to do with civil engineering I can deal.</p>
<p>I would at least take one courses in each discipline. You will need to know a little of each field anyway when you get around to your PE.</p>
<p>I think that in most cases you can take a PE exam that concentrates on structural now. At least that’s the case in Maine. It changed since I took it in 1990. I had to learn stuff about highway curves, pumps, etc. when I took it.</p>
<p>I don’t really want to focus on the PE Exam right now, just the FE. The FE exam, from what I looked at, is a really broad exam that tests you in everything (structural, geotech, transportation, project management, environmental). But I guess what I’m really asking is can you specialize in one thing in undergrad and then do something else on the job after college? Like can you specialize in transportation engineering but do structural engineering on the job as long as you have taken some classes in structures/geotech? Or vice versa? Or is it like you are stuck in the specialization you chose in undergrad for life?</p>
<p>The FE won’t be much of an issue because you can always take the general section for the afternoon half.</p>
<p>I didn’t specialize in anything in undergrad, but I didn’t have the opportunity to either. We just had a general civil engineering curriculum with room for a few electives. It hasn’t stopped anybody from getting into any field.</p>
<p>I specialized in structures, as I said, so I would have not been able to go into transportation - I didn’t have a single transportation class. But I had zero interest in transportation.</p>
<p>It seems to me that it would be hard to specialize in transportation, then become a structural engineer. I guess you could, but you’d have to do a lot of studying on your own, and I had enough to do as a green structural engineer, anyway!</p>
<p>My husband started out in civil, designing site drainage systems (because we were hired by the same husband, and they wouldn’t put us both in the structures department!), and then switched to structures. But he had had quite a few structures classes as an undergrad, then specialized in structures in grad school.</p>
<p>Mainelonghorn- I have taken a classes in structural analysis, geotechnical engineering, and engineering materials. I am taking a concrete design class and a foundation design class next semester and might take a class in CAD structural analysis the semester after. Are those enough classes to get into the field after college?</p>
<p>You should really take a steel design class as well. It’s hard to learn that on your own.</p>
<p>I don’t know if i can take a steel design class because it is not a requirement for any specialization at my school and it might not be offered because of budget cuts. In that case, what do I do?</p>
<p>Seriously, STEEL design might not be offered?? Wow. How could a school keep its ABET accreditation without having a steel class? Timber design is also important - do they offer that?</p>
<p>I’m not sure what to tell you. Designing steel is more than just looking up beams in a table (although architects don’t always realize it). Can’t you take a class even if it’s not required?</p>
<p>I asked my husband his opinion on your question. He said, “Structural is something you don’t dabble in. You have to be fully in or not. There’s too much at stake. It gets intense real fast.” In addition to all the money involved, people’s LIVES are at stake. Did you study the Hyatt Regency collapse?</p>
<p>In addition to steel design, you really need to know wood design, also. What happens when you start working is that you are given a project and you’re expected to know what to do. You have to hit the ground running, because there’s NEVER enough budget. The company doesn’t have the time or money for you to get up to speed.</p>
<p>In addition to specific areas of design, you really need to understand how the overall building works. How are the loads distributed by the bracing, diaphragms, shear walls, etc.? You also have to come up with the most economical design for the client. If your design is overconservative, believe me, the general contractor will let the owner know! You have to JUSTIFY what you have designed.</p>
<p>If I were an employer, I would never hire someone who hadn’t had at least one semester of steel design, and two semesters would definitely be preferred. I guess the only exception would be if you were hired by a precast concrete company, but the companies I know usually hire consultants for their design, anyway.</p>
<p>mainelonghorn- i found out there’s a steel design course at the graduate level which i am planning to take but they don’t have any timber design class. What should I do?</p>
<p>I imagine a lot of students get out of school without taking timber design, so I wouldn’t worry about it. You might want to buy a wood design book at some point.</p>