<p>There are three tracks civil engineering majors can pick at my school: Infrastructure, Environmental, and Transportation/Project Management. I'm in Transportation/Project Management but I'm thinking that it won't allow me to have access to Infrastructure related jobs. Basically, there is a 7 course difference between the two tracks. For my electives, I have already taken 2 infrastructure classes and plan on taking 1 more. I feel like this gives me a diverse background but does not make me competent enough to apply to infrastructure jobs. Additionally, I feel like Project Management is something anyone can learn on-the-job and concentrating in it during school is a bad idea. Should I stay in Transportation/Project Management or switch to Infrastructure?</p>
<p>P.S. My degree won't say which track I'm in. It will just say "B.S. in Civil Engineering".</p>
<p>I’ve never seen project management lumped in with transportation. What does your infrastructure track consist of? All of civil engineering is infrastructure. Can you provide a link to the curriculum?</p>
<p>If structural or geotechnical engineering is what you want to do, then why not go on that track? There’s a significant difference between that and transportation engineering, especially if it’s 7 courses.</p>
<p>But for any building more substantial than a house, we’ve always gotten a report from a geotechnical engineer that gives us the soil strengths, etc. that we’ve needed to design the foundation. We don’t determine that stuff ourselves, thank goodness.</p>
<p>Just a question regarding this one: Why don’t many colleges offer undergrad degree programs in these specializations or concentrations? From the couple I have seen, (umich, MSU, Colorado) they only offer a B.S. in Civil. How is it beneficial to the student when he/she ends up having to select a concentration within the program anyways?</p>
<p>Kevin. You get an engineering degree in a broad field in order to be able to solve a wide variety of problems. As has been discussed, structural engineers need a general knowledge of geotechnical engineering and vise versa. If you were a structural engineer who designed offshore platforms, you would need to know about fluid and wave mechanics. If you’re environmental, then you probably don’t need to know much about structural engineering, but you will need to know about soils, fluids, thermo, etc. depending on the problem. Any specific sub-discipline of engineering may end up needing a basic knowledge of any other sub-discipline depending on the problem at hand. This is why colleges require students to take core classes in the various engineering sciences.</p>
<p>that makes sense but…how do employers determine one’s specialty? I feel like besides from experience, one MUST get a M.S. to show proficiency in a certain concentration. Otherwise, you just have a general Civil Engineering B.S. degree. </p>
<p>I guess what I’m asking is whether or not the concentration (possibly environmental, in my case) within the B.S. is actually looked at it with employers. Do they see Civil Engineering degree + concentration and say, this person is qualified in Environmental Engineering or do they sit there and look for one who earned a B.S. IN Environmental Engineering? If they DO value the concentration, then it’s not an issue. But if they don’t, why would you want such a broad degree when looking to get hired?</p>
<p>“I guess what I’m asking is whether or not the concentration (possibly environmental, in my case) within the B.S. is actually looked at it with employers. Do they see Civil Engineering degree + concentration and say, this person is qualified in Environmental Engineering or do they sit there and look for one who earned a B.S. IN Environmental Engineering? If they DO value the concentration, then it’s not an issue. But if they don’t, why would you want such a broad degree when looking to get hired?”</p>