Important questions about Civil/Structural Engineering.

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>(sorry but I am posting this thread in both the Grad Schools and Engineering sub-forums as I am not certain which forum would be best...)</p>

<p>Hi everyone, I've been trying to figure out what path I want to take as I begin my M.S. Civil Engineering program at Stanford this september.</p>

<p>I'm a bit hazy on whether to choose the Structural Engineering and Geomechanics program (which I am currently enrolled in), or the Design-Construction Integration program.</p>

<p>A brief description from Stanford's websites are as follows:</p>

<p>The Structural Engineering and Geomechanics Program (SEG) offers research opportunities and courses in a broad range of areas related to structural analysis and design, geomechanics, risk management, and construction of civil engineering facilities. Areas of research emphasis include performance-based engineering, computational mechanics, design construction integration, earthquake engineering, reliability and risk analysis for hazard mitigation, sensoring and health monitoring, and engineering informatics.</p>

<p>The Design and Construction Integration Program (DCI) prepares students for multidisciplinary collaborative teamwork in an integrated design and construction process. The program extends a student's design or construction background with core courses in each of these areas and develops the background needed to understand the concerns and expertise of the many project stakeholders. It includes a comprehensive project-based learning experience.</p>

<p>My main question is which type of companies SEG graduates go after, and which type of companies DCI graduates go after. How do their careers differ and what do they do differently once they are working?</p>

<p>Thanks to everyone who can help me! I'm confused and school starts in 2 weeks =(</p>

<p>source: Graduate</a> Programs</p>

2

<p>There’s a Stanford CE grad that roams these boards from time to time. He’s probably your best for finding out the answer to your question. His name here is something along the lines of Blah2009. You might also be able to find out information by contacting the department.</p>

3

<p>I’m sure aibarr what be a great resource to contact regarding this as well.</p>

4

<p>It depends entirely upon whether you want to be on the design side of things, or the build side of things. From the descriptions, I’m fairly certain that structural design firms go for the SEG grads, and that the DCI grads are mainly picked up by the major contractors or project planners, though there may be some crossover where the DCI grads might be picked up by larger design firms in order to facilitate design-build projects and make the push into Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) jobs, which are all the rage these days.</p>