<p>We were at UCSD's admit day and my daughter was intrigued with the structural engineering major. Unfortunately,we had no time to investigate further.</p>
<p>Anyone know the difference between structural and civil engineering and why does UCSD not have a civil engineering department?</p>
<p>No clue why they don't have a civil department...</p>
<p>Structural engineering is a subset of civil engineering. I'm a structural engineer... I deal with how forces flow through materials and how to construct structural systems out of materials so that they can withstand a demanded set of forces. In real life, that means I take the pretty drawings that architects come up with and figure out how to build a skeletal structure to make 'em stand up. We also design bridges. At UCSD, they look a lot at how earthquakes affect structural systems... If you ever get a chance, take a look at their shake table!</p>
<p>Civil engineering in general encompasses a wide range of other disciplines... Water management and hydrology (water falls en masse from the sky, these folks figure out how to deal with it through drainage ways and culverts and flood systems), geotechnical engineering (there's many types of soil under what we walk on... these guys figure out how best to deal with it, and they use a lot of exploratory non-destructive and sampling methods to figure out what's there), transit engineering (buses, light rail, stuff like that), airport design, traffic engineering (rerouting during construction, figuring out how to maximize capacity while keeping costs down, designing signage and striping), and land development (creating new subdivisions and developments and getting all the sloping and grading and utilities and things taken care of for the whole area) are just a few examples of what civil engineering in general covers.</p>
<p>Hi Aibarr,
What is the demand for a structural engineer vs. civil engineer? Why did you chose to do structural?</p>
<p>A structural engineer IS a civil engineer. Structural engineering IS civil engineering, but the reverse is not necessarily true. Structural is specific; civil is broader, and encompasses civil.</p>
<p>Structural engineering is usually the most popular concentration in civil engineering, so perhaps UCSD didn't want to spend extra money on professors/labs/$$$ in the other areas?</p>
<p>In California (and other states) the engineering licenses are different for structural, civil, geotech, etc. Applicants</a> Information - California Board for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors -State of California</p>
<p>Thanks all for the responses.</p>
<p>There's demand for both... Structural is a division of civil, and some other divisions are hydrology, traffic, transit, geotechnical, land development, etc. etc. etc... it's a broad field.</p>
<p>I chose structural because I wanted to design buildings, which is what I currently do, but pretty much everything can be considered a structure, so the field's really applicable to lots of things... You can get jobs designing submarine turbines, rockets, buildings, bridges, and large boats with a couple of degrees in structural engineering. It's a good, versatile field.</p>