UK Civil Engineering

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Hi everyone, I am an international student. So I've gathered my offers and rejections, and am likely to start MEng Civil Engineering at University College London (UCL) this fall. The MEng is a 4-year degree that sort of integrates BEng with MSc.</p>

<p>Couple of questions I wanted to ask:
1. Have any of you in the US heard of UCL? Does it have a good reputation, school-wise or engineering-wise?
2. Do US grad schools recognize UK engineering degrees? Because I really want to attend a US grad school afterwards, possibly for a civil engineering PhD, but I'm afraid the grad schools in US are not familiar with the MEng structure in the UK.
3. How different are UK civil engineering standards from those in the US? Will we be using vastly different codes, units, etc?</p>

<p>Thanks a lot guys!</p>

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<p>I’ve heard of UCL, but I don’t know much about it - that probably holds true for a lot of people in the US.</p>

<p>I think your biggest obstacle would be the codes and units. Most jobs are done in Imperial units, a big difference from metric! I’ve done one or two projects in metric - that was a tricky switch, but I think it would be a lot harder going from metric to Imperial. Building codes are different here, too.</p>

<p>I don’t know how US grad schools would look at you. I would recommend that you call a couple of schools and see. UT-Austin would be good, not that I’m biased or anything (I got my BS and MS there). I know my dad, a UT prof, has had LOTS of grad students from other countries, so it’s not that unusual.</p>

<p>I hope other engineers have more info for you! Good luck!</p>

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<p>Thanks MaineLonghorn! Hook em horns eh? ;)</p>

<p>About those codes and units, would a US PhD course perhaps cover these things so that international students can learn the US system as well? Actually I heard UCL hosts an exchange program in the third year where civil engineering students can go to Caltech, Purdue, etc, perhaps this would be helpful for my learning the US codes and grad school applications?</p>

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<p>That sounds like a good idea, kilojoule!</p>