Hello, I am a junior civil engineering major with a dual emphasis in structural design and geotechnical engineering at the University of Wisconsin - Platteville. I am currently on a full tuition/fees academic scholarship, have a 3.4 cummulative GPA, 3.75 CEE GPA (civil), hold positions in our ASCE chapter and am the VP of our Chi Epsilon chapter. I’ve done several other volunteer groups/activities to bolster my resume. I’ve worked 3 civil engineering internships, 1 of which was a co-op (8 month internship with a firm that was for a semester and a summer). Planning to take the GRE next spring.
Ultimately, I want to attain a Master’s of Science degree in structural engineering and work for a respected design or consulting firm.
I’m trying to determine if I will be qualified to apply to some of the top tier graduate schools such as but not limited to:
-U of Illinois
-Stanford
-U of Texas
-U of Washington
-Northwestern
Please cast your advice upon me! If these schools seem to be out of my league, please do not hesitate to tell me. Additionally, if there are other schools I should look into, please cast their names into the ring.
Thank you and I appreciate any help/advice!
Forgot to mention that I played 3 seasons of college football for my first three years, not sure if that counts for much but it definitely made my schedule harder to manage.
I got my master’s in structural from UT-Austin. It’s hard to say what your chances are until you take the GRE and get closer to graduating. No graduate school will care that you played football.
I would call the schools you’re interested in and see what they say. That’s what my husband did when he was looking for grad schools in structural. He got his BS at Wisconsin. When he called Austin, the receptionist put him through to my dad, who was head of the department. Dad is very engaging and quickly convinced my future husband to attend UT. Thank goodness! We had two classes together his first semester - Prestressed Concrete Design and Finite Element Analysis. We were engaged within three months. 
Each school can tell you more than we can. Ask if it would be possible to get a research assistant position.
If I’m not interested in academia and wish to seek employment with a firm upon completion of my MS, would it still be worth it to do research? I know a lot of institutions offer none research based programs.
I’m not sure. I never thought about NOT doing research. Most of the people I went to grad school with weren’t interested in academia. We thought it was important to do research to learn about one or more construction materials. It’s also a good way to fund your degree.