There are almost as many varieties of civil engineering programs available for the prospective student to choose from as there are civil engineering schools. Some of the courses of study will allow relatively little choice on the part of the student, while other schools allow the student wide discretion in making course selections. At some schools all civil engineering students will follow very similar programs, while at other schools there will be one or more options available for specialization by the student. At some schools the entire college period will be spent in academic work, while at other schools students will gain professional working experience through programs that involve cooperative internship. All of this variety in programs makes your choice of a college or university more difficult. To illustrate the variety of choices which are available, in the following pages we have attempted to give examples of a few of the types of curricula that are available at present. All of the programs described in the following pages are fully accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology and thus can be considered good civil engineering programs.
Bachelor's Degree Programs
The traditional formal education of civil engineering students has been a four-year program, relatively inflexible, leading to a bachelor's degree. By far the vast majority of engineering schools in the United States today still retain this format for the first accredited degree. The basic course requirements of most of the schools are quite similar. The curriculum usually consists of approximately one-fourth mathematics, physics, and chemistry; one-fourth English, humanities, and social sciences; one-fourth engineering theory; and one-fourth engineering analysis and design. The specific courses available at any given school have been selected by the faculty of that school to fulfill the requirements of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. There will be minor differences from one curriculum to another in the courses that are required, as well as the number of electives that the student is permitted to choose. Also there will be minor differences in the course content in the individual courses. In this type of program, however, the electives will not be numerous and the required courses usually will differ only in the depth of study into one or more of the civil engineering specialized areas. Typical of this type of program are those shown below.
What Do Bachelor of Civil Engineering Majors Study?
The civil engineering curriculum is characterized by a broad range of coursework which prepares the graduate not only to function technically within the civil/aerospace communities, but also to relate to other engineering disciplines and to nontechnical components of society. The freshman and sophomore years are devoted largely to building a sound base of knowledge in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and elementary engineering science and mechanics. The junior and senior years focus on technical subjects related primarily to civil engineering, with a number of engineering electives available in the senior year to permit a student either to specialize in a particular field of interest or to prepare for entrance into a graduate program of study. Interspersed throughout the curriculum is a series of courses of a general nature that provides students of civil engineering with sound philosophical, historical, and social foundations, that prepares students to communicate both orally and in writing, and that instills an appreciation of the arts. Here is a sample course sequence from the University of Dayton 1995-96 curriculum:
The First and second years build a sound foundation in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and basic engineering science. The junior and senior years focus on technical subjects related primarily to civil engineering, with electives available to permit either specialization or preparation for graduate study.
Options Within Basic Programs
There are many separate areas of specialization in civil engineering and many schools offer the opportunity to specialize in one of these areas. In other words, the student can select an optional set of courses concentrating in one specialty area, leading to the bachelor's degree. In contrast to the programs shown in the previous section in which a limited number of electives could be chosen, in this type of curriculum two or more sequences of courses could be selected to give in-depth coverage in a particular area of specialization. Among the areas of specialization commonly found in the engineering schools in the United States are water resources engineering, structural engineering, transportation engineering, public works engineering, construction engineering, and geotechnical engineering. The following programs are offered at North Carolina State University. The first is the basic civil engineering curriculum, and the second is the specialized construction engineering curriculum.
