Rankings For Civil Engineering

<p>I was just wondering what you CCer's thought were the top Universities in the Civil Engineering field at the Undergrad level....</p>

<p>According to US News:</p>

<ol>
<li>University of California–Berkeley *<br>
U. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign *<br></li>
<li>Georgia Institute of Technology *<br></li>
</ol>

<p>I'd believe U of Chi and GA Tech... have you seen the architecture in those cities?</p>

<p>UIUC isn't in Chicago; it's actually in Urbana-Champaign, which is relatively architecture-less. Architecture just isn't that big a priority in a place where they conceive to build the library underground so that it doesn't block the sun of the experimental cornfield.</p>

<p>At any rate, architecture's only a facet of what civil engineers deal with, and even then, it's fairly often that a rather unremarkable long-span causeway will require more complicated engineering than a really cool architectural building. Civ encompasses structures, hydrology and flood management, traffic, transit, pipes, infrastructure, soil mechanics and testing, risk management for disaster scenarios, seismic retrofit, etc. etc. etc...</p>

<p>Here's what US News says, at length, about civ eng rankings:</p>

<p>(At schools whose highest degree is a bachelor's or master's)</p>

<ol>
<li> Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech. (IN)</li>
<li> United States Military Academy (NY)</li>
<li> Cooper Union (NY)</li>
<li> Bucknell University (PA)
Cal Poly–San Luis Obispo *</li>
<li> Harvey Mudd College (CA)</li>
<li> Lafayette College (PA)
United States Air Force Acad. (CO)
</li>
<li> Calif. State Poly. Univ.–Pomona *
Villanova University (PA)
Virginia Military Institute </li>
<li> United States Naval Academy (MD)
</li>
<li> Bradley University (IL)
Loyola Marymount University (CA)
United States Coast Guard Acad. (CT)</li>
<li> Ohio Northern University
San Jose State University (CA)

Valparaiso University (IN)</li>
</ol>

<p>(At schools whose highest degree is a doctorate)</p>

<ol>
<li> University of California–Berkeley *
U. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign </li>
<li> Georgia Institute of Technology *</li>
<li> University of Texas–Austin *</li>
<li> Massachusetts Inst. of Technology</li>
<li> Stanford University (CA)</li>
<li> Purdue Univ.–West Lafayette (IN)
</li>
<li> University of Michigan–Ann Arbor *</li>
<li> Cornell University (NY)</li>
<li> Texas A&M Univ.–College Station *</li>
<li> Virginia Tech *</li>
<li> Northwestern University (IL)</li>
<li> Carnegie Mellon University (PA)</li>
<li> California Institute of Technology</li>
<li> Pennsylvania State U.–University Park *</li>
<li> Princeton University (NJ)</li>
<li> University of Florida *
Univ. of Minnesota–Twin Cities *</li>
<li> University of Washington *</li>
<li> Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison *</li>
</ol>

<p>Any civil engineering undergraduate program that's accredited by ABET is, by overwhelming majority, going to be fairly formulaic. As a result, especially in this field, it's much more important to find a place that you feel comfortable learning, and to find a program that offers you the level of education that's appropriate to you, since everyone pretty much teaches the same thing. Visit campuses. Talk to students. See where you'd fit best, and then pursue that program. Pretty much any of the top ones will be just fine for civil engineering undergraduate studies.</p>

<p>Does anyone know anything about Civil Engineering Technology degrees and how they compare to regular Civil engineering degrees</p>

<p>I've never in my life heard of a civil engineering technology degree... Whose program are you looking at?</p>

<p>Your a big help Aibarr</p>

<p>OK, looking through some "Civil Engineering Technology" programs, they seem to be a slightly watered down version of civil engineering. Essentially, if you'd like to go into surveying or be a geotechnical lab assistant or go on to be a lab monkey for a university civil engineering testing lab (which is a pretty cool gig, by the by), then you've got to know something about civil engineering and what civil engineers are looking for, but you don't have to go overboard and, say, learn massive quantities of partial differential equations or finite element theory. So, some of these programs seem kind of like "civ eng junior".</p>

<p>On the other hand, all of civil engineering could hypothetically be called "civil engineering technology," so I wouldn't put it past a department to just call their overall civil engineering program "civil engineering technology," without the title having any bearing on the rigor of the program of study. Best bet is to take a look at ABET accreditation, what the courses are like, and what the graduates go on to do.</p>

<p>I have taken a look at the accredidation boards and it is accredited and you can take your PE the same time as a Regulare Civil Engineer. I read that its just a broader look into the Technological aspect of civil engineering, I take the same classes as a regulare engineer but with a consintration in engineering technologies like GIS and Cadd programs, so I just dont see a major difference, I know people at other colleges taking regular "civil engineering" and Im doing the same thing as them I even have done co-ops at the same company doing the same design work. I just dont see why some people say engineering technology degrees are easyer to get then a regular civil engineering degree?</p>

<p>I go to Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston</p>

<p>Benda, Wentworth's program looks much more complete than some of the other CET programs I looked at, so I think that your program is of the sort that I talked about in the last paragraph of post #7 of this thread.</p>

<p>Thank you for your help I really appriciate it</p>