<p>This question is obviously aimed for civil engineers and civil engineering students, but if anyone else has an opinion or second hand experience I would enjoy hearing it. As the question states, I just want to know what you enjoy about civil engineering. Also what you dislike is welcome, since it often seems civil engineering students talk about wanting to switch majors. </p>
<p>I am currently transferring to a state university after attending a community college and I feel as though civil is the best fit for me. I only have a few days before I lock myself into the major when I send my applications and I was curious what the general likes and dislikes are for the field.</p>
<p>Civil engineering structural student. I loved physics, but only mechanical physics, since I like being able to see and use intuition on problems and electricity is 2 steps away from witchcraft. And I didn’t have any interest in motors or thermodynamics. So I chose civil engineering. Civil engineering has many different specialties (hydrology, traffic, structural, material, geotechnical), all which are vastly different. Structures was more what I am into, though traffic is pretty interesting too, and I will learn many geotechnical classes as well. </p>
<p>I don’t want to switch, at all. I would hate many other engineering majors and classes. I get excited over my intro to structural design homework problems. I’ve worked in an infrastructure company and working in their structural department was hard but rewarding. It’s just coooool.</p>
<p>I dislike geomatics, but the great thing is, I will never have to do it ever again if I can get work in structures. </p>
<p>There will always be engineering students talking about transferring. I have coworkers who are in their 30’s wishing they had gone into business and such… But that’s them, not you. </p>
<p>It’s hard work, but so is anything else worth doing.</p>
<p>I did Civil in my birth country in Europe aeons ago, so the experience may be suspect. I built one house and changed profession 
so again, the experience may be suspect. My older daughter is an architecture student and from discussions with her and skimming her texts I have not forgotten much in 30 years.</p>
<p>Likes:</p>
<ul>
<li>very entertaining labs (Soil Mechanics, Materials, Concrete, etc)</li>
<li>the fact that there is a right answer and many wrong answers </li>
<li>classes are not THAT theoretical (a few are, like Plates & Shells, metal structures…)</li>
<li>if you like design you could minor in architecture (as I did)</li>
<li>you get to see what you design</li>
<li>you interact with a lot of different people</li>
<li>a lot of different specialties. A family friend’s kid is doing PhD in sewers and pipe design (Super Mario)</li>
<li>great areas to apply computer science (which is what I ended up doing)</li>
<li>depending on area of specialty, money depends on how real estate market is going (like architecture to some extent) or how the government does (municipal, etc)</li>
</ul>
<p>Not Likes:</p>
<ul>
<li>too much math (not my forte - never used Diff Eq…)</li>
<li>Surveying (thankfully GPS took care of that :))</li>
<li>drafting (thankfully CAD took care of that)</li>
<li>need to focus on cost</li>
<li>need to follow building codes</li>
<li>(back home at least) not as much lab-to-production research - change comes a lot slower or so it seemed to me</li>
<li>due to cost and building code and material limitations, creativity may be constrained - ultimately the deal breaker for me as I went back to school for computer science</li>
<li>PE (if applicable)</li>
<li>A lot of the work and not a lot of the fame (unlike architects :))</li>
</ul>
<p>Again, this is old experiences.</p>