I’ve been researching about construction science for awhile now but there aren’t so much information on the internet. I had found out about this major just a week ago and I find it very interesting. As I researched, I find out that it’s quite easy to find jobs after graduation but I don’t know if it is 100% true. But the majority of the students are male, would that be a problem for women? How many women are there on average? Here is some background about myself: I like math but I hate physics. I’m interested in buildings which is why I’m thinking of this major. I was also thinking of architecture and civil engineering but it’s very competitive and I don’t think I can design buildings or learning a lot about sciences behind them. Can anyone tell me more about this major? and the type of jobs I can do after the graduation.
btw, I applied to university of oklahoma and I want to know if this university has a good construction science degree.
Adrenalinee, be aware that OU’s Construction Science program involves three physics heavy courses (Structures I/II and Statics and Strengths of Materials). According the the university published outcomes report OU CNS graduates (only about 32) reported a 100% employment rate with starting salaries significantly higher than the median income in the state. They tended to think that almost all of what they learned was relevant and enjoyed their professors. By most objective measures, the program ranks well above average.
Though I don’t know any construction science students specifically, one of my closest friends at Oklahoma is an architectural engineering major which has some course overlap with CNS. She enjoys how tight nit it is and her major courses are fairly small. The one thing on the construction science [website[/url] that concerned me was the competitive admissions process at the end of sophomore year. So after class I went to speak with one of the undergraduate academic counselors in the College of Architecture (where CNS is housed) and she assured me that so long as a student maintains a 2.5 or higher in all required courses, s/he will be admitted into the program. As of right now, there are fewer students interested in construction science than there are available seats and the counselor assured me that she did not see this changing in the next few years.
Since you asked about women in the program, the reality is, there aren’t many at all. However, one of my main extracurriculars at the University of Oklahoma relates to the experiences of women in STEM and I can confidently say that almost all of the women I know in the heavily male fields (think 80-20 gender imbalance or higher) report zero discrimination on the basis of their sex.
That being said, one of the biggest drawbacks about OU is that it lacks an undergraduate urban planning major or minor which I know is an occasional complaint among those in the CoA. The College of Architecture only offers a masters in Regional and City Planning, although it does offer undergraduates the opportunity to get involved in the Institute for Quality Communities, Urban Land Institute - OK, and other larger scale planning operations. The school is also expanding its offerings in GIS and hydrological offerings if you want to learn more about the theories behind how and where cities expand.
Should you have any questions about what it’s like to be a female STEM student at OU, feel free to PM me. If you have any questions about the program, [url=<a href=“http://www.ou.edu/content/architecture/contact.html%5Dcontact”>http://www.ou.edu/content/architecture/contact.html]contact](http://www.ou.edu/architecture/construction_science.html) the College of Architecture.
My father and sister studied construction and are general contractors. My sister was one of the first women to enter the field back in the early 1980s. She actually enjoyed it a lot and has had a good career. The construction industry is awesome! Don’t let male-female ratios stop you.