<p>I know there is a fair amount of schools in the US that offer City/Community/Regional Planning or Urban Planning as an undergraduate program. Yet I read that it is more common to major in something else such as Engineering or even less related majors then continue on with a masters in Urban Planning? I feel as though I should major in Civil Engineering while wanting to go into Urban Planning... What's the correlation?</p>
<p>and while we're on the topic: Urban Planning and Urban Studies are two different areas of study right?</p>
<p>Urban planning is about creating communities that encourage business and living areas as well as redeveloping existing ones. Lots of legal stuff as well as social and business considerations. </p>
<p>Urban studies looks at the culture of the city. The literature, the arts, the experience. </p>
<p>Civil engineering is sort of making the urban planning happen. Urban planners design- you make it happen. I would have thought CE make more money than urban planners as your skills are so transferable. You don’t need an engineering background at all for urban planning. You could absolutely go for it, but it isn’t a common career path.</p>
<p>Is urban planning a very rare profession? What can urban studies lead to then? Sounds more like public affairs and local government by the way you describe it highland_poppy…</p>
<p>Urban planning isn’t that rare a job. Here in the UK, every local government and city will have a planning department that also overseas applications to change, build or destroy. There may also be commercial firms that consult on large scale projects. You’ll very likely have a department locally you could ask to pop into ask about what they do. </p>
<p>Urban studies at the very least gives you a degree so general graduate jobs are open to you. Management schemes, retail, teaching, law enforcement, social work etc. But if you wanted to take it further, you could go to grad school to further one or more aspects of specific interest. </p>
<p>Urban Planners make plans. Largely office based. CE make these plans come true with so much work that goes unnoticed by most of us. Lots of chances to get out on site. Urban Studies might have a class overviewing urban planning and sees the urban experience as worthy of academic study as that of rural life and traditions.</p>
<p>Urban planning can be highly political, unlike engineering. It involves the understanding of people and their needs for space and their interactions. Urban planners develop general ideas for a neighborhood; they do not develop specific plans for a building like an architect. </p>
<p>There’s no real connection between the two professions, other than both involve the creation of communities. Some people, like myself, have an interest in both fields. I majored in civil engineering in college, work in the construction field, and have a personal interest in urban planning that I spend some of my free time on.</p>
<p>Well both civil engineering and urban planning sound amazing to me but the intense calculus and physics in engineering sounds overwhelming… If urban planning involves a lot more social studies then that sounds more appealing but engineering almost guarantees good job security and pay… So hard to decide but either way, Nevada ONLY offers civil engineering and I’ll need to go out of state if I want to pursue Urban Planning…</p>