I am going to start college in the fall. I will graduate 2nd in my high school class with a 4.01 GPA. I am going to Arkansas State University on a full paid academic scholarship. I have been thinking about the medical field for a long time, but my construction is in my blood. I have been looking at Civil Engineering recently. it seems like the place to be. i have talked to some mechanical engineers, but no civil engineers. If there are any civil engineers on here, what jobs are out there for it? How was the college courses? Any advice? thanks luke:usa
BSCE Michigan Tech 1972 been at it for 37 years with the local county highway authority. I can't imagine retiring, I can't think of any other job I'd want to do. I've got road & bridge building in my blood . Our office designs road and bridge projects in the winter and supervises the construction in the summer. Lots of different directions you can go as a civil - roads, bridges, buildings, environmental, railroads, airports, site work, commercial development, design, construction. Go look up the local chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers, attend a meeting and talk with some of the members. Lots of infrastructure to rebuild in this country. Job market in MI is bad, not just civil or engineering, our economy has been suffering for several years. Any more questions just ask or PM me if you like. PS: Bought a nice 1950 TD-6 in November and just added a H-25b loader a couple weeks ago. I guess I'm an IH guy
Thanks for the info! I haven't heard of the society of civil engineers before. i will look in to that:thumbsup.
i will be graduating in May from Penn State with a Civil Engineering degree...send me a PM and I can answer any questions you may have now or in the future... but I do not regret for one minute going into the CE major...put it this way, of all the people I know here at school...engineers and not...I am the only one that had 5 job interviews and 5 job offers... most guys right now can't even get an interview set up...the typical response right now is "we'll hold onto your resume because we are not hiring now" will it be a problem in 5 years when you graduate?...who knows
Luke First off, Congratulations on your good grades. As posted, if construction is in your blood, then civil engineering is the way to go. When I was your age, I had no one to point me in the right direction. I went for mechanical engineering, thinking of learning how to make machines work better. I found that it would be mostly inside desk work, and I am just not cut out for that. I left school, and pursued a career in the dirt, and have no regrets, but if I had to do it again, I would go for the civil engineering route, and associated work in construction management. Those will give you a lot of opportunity to get into any phase of construction, from surveying to dirt, on up to buildings and such. Look up the ASCE, as suggested above, and for up to date construction info accross all fields, check out a subscription to ENR, Engineering News Record. It is a little expensive, but you get weekly headlines from the industry, and there are lots of good networking contacts you can get out of it, as well as being more informed when it comes time to get a job once you finish school. Once again, Congratulations, and good luck
Thanks guys. i really appreciate the info. I have been concerned about finding a job in civil engineering, but i have done a lot of research and it seems that it won't be too hard to find work. I have looked in to the ASCE and they have a lot of useful info. I will look in to the Engineering News Record. thanks again luke:thumbsup
I was very fortunate. My dad was my inspiration (he was a tool & die maker). I was 10 - 11 and every day during the summer I rode my bike about 2 miles over to where MDOT was building the new freeway in town (I-196). Once I got there I would ride 4-5 miles (or more some days) up and down the grade to watch what was going on. I had to duck up the slope or down the slope when one certain DOT inspector would show up . I told my dad that's what I wanted to do when I grew up, run heavy equipment. He said you want to go to college to be a civil engineer to tell the operators what to do. (He had a civil engineer acquaintance that worked for the DOT) I said where do you go to be a civil? He said Michigan Tech. So I was 11 or 12 and when people or teachers asked "what do you want to do when you grow up?", the answer was "go to Michigan Tech and be a civil engineer". 37 years later after graduation I still are one My dad lived to see me be a civil engineer for 10 years before he passed away. He was always proud that I graduated from Tech. He would have been very proud to see my daughter graduate from Tech with her BSCE in 2005. (The civil dept head thought we were the 16th father / daughter civil grads at Tech - rare since Tech is a heavily male campus). My daughter said she wanted to be an engineer because "my dad comes home from work every day and likes his job and it looks like something I'd like to do". She works for a consulting firm here in town and my employer, the county highway authority is managing the design and construction of a 13.5 mile non-motorized trail in a freeway right of way. She's the design engineer for the project and I'm the county's project manager so I'm her client . It's been a lot of fun One last comment - you need to like what you do. It's a lot more fun if you like what you do. The money isn't everything. I've told my daughter and others, do something you like. I look forward to going to work in the morning. That's the way you want it to be.
That is the main reason i have been looking at civil engineering so hard. I thought for a long time that i wanted to work in the medical field, but it really doesn't fit me that well. I guess the main reason i wanted to be in medicine was the money, but i have been doing a lot of research and have found that the money is there in CE. I think that it may be the path i take. thanks again Luke:usa
The mechanical engineering will give you more hands on experience with the machine iron, etc... If you don't like the desk you can always work test, field follow etc... However, if you are looking for a possible cross between Mechanical and Civil you may want to look at Agricultural Engineering. They have focus areas in dirt and also machinery. Sounds like Civil is probably the best option but if you are wanting to look at all possibilities you may want to check out agricultural engineering just for more background feel, etc...
I hope I'm not thread jacking, but how much does the advanced math figure into the job? I've heard it is needed and I've heard it's to weed out morons. I'd like to go for a CE degree as well as I know I can do it and can barely afford it (8k per semester). Do most of you have a 4 year or did you go masters?
i will graduate with a 4 year...math is a large part, especially the first 2 years...yes it is to weed out the people that can't cut it...once you are in specific CE courses the math gets a lot easier now i have heard that national licensing board is putting a restriction on people graduating next year and from there on out that in order for you to get your PE you must have a masters...for people like me that started school with "the old rules" i have 5 years from the time I graduate to take my PE test, or I too will need my masters if say I don't take my test for 6 years after graduation....anyone else know of any truth to this?
2015, will apply to this year's incoming freshmen http://www.asce.org/files/pdf/professional/keypoints040708.pdf You need to join ASCE, no student chapter at your school? PS I checked, there is one
Looking into Land Surveying. You will not want to spend all your time stuck in a office. Land surveying is has it all !!!!! office and field time. But there is not going to be a lot of construction layout work with all these GPS systems. The way to look at that there still has to be someone to do the setup work.
civil engineering is a great way to go. in the end if you get a degree you can still do just about anything you want.
I read all the info on the link. i will be starting college in the fall, so i should graduate before jan.1 2015 with a 4 year degree, will i have to take the additional 30 hrs or master's degree to get my professional engineer's license? thanks luke
yes you will TD...because even though you will graduate by 2015 you will still need to gain your 4 years work experience before you can sit for the PE exam...you don't need a PE to be a civil, but if you ever want to approve your own designs you will need to be one Civil Engineering nowadays (to become a professional) is really an 8 year commitment
A couple things, I didn't read very close, I thought you were at Arkansas State already . The link is a little contradictory, they say it's a 10-15 year transition and then they say Jan 1, 2015. They do mention it's a NCEES model law. If one had to have 30 hours plus a BSCE and 4 years experience by 2015, it would apply to this years seniors in MI. I'm not aware that's the case but I could be wrong. Like someone mentioned, you do not need to be registered to practice civil engineering. Don't need it on the construction side nor in big design firm but you will limit your advancement potential and your career options. I wouldn't let the 30 hours stop me from a career in civil engineering
some stats my wife learned in a masters course chine produces 600,000 engineers per year india 400,000 mexico 100,000 usa 70,000 and falling
Thanks for the info everyone. If everything works out according to plan, i should be able to get the 4 year degree plus the extra 30 hours with no problem in the 4 years by taking summer classes. I didn't know that you can work as an engineer without a professional engineer license. thanks again for the info! luke
don't you dare do it in four years. first of all engineering is too difficult to do well in four years. also, college is the greatest years of you life, why rush. i wish i had done my degree in six or seven years instead of five.
i dont know about that...employers look for someone who can buckle down and get it done in the estimated time...I am having no troubles getting my education in 4 years...don't be on a 7 year plan for a bachelors degree...the longer you stay in school for a 4 year degree the less likely you are to ever graduate, or pass the FE exam ask my cousin...he ended his 8 year program 4 years ago and still has yet to get the diploma
3.8 gpa, passed the fe, had a job before i left college. don't look back and wish you hadn't rushed. college is more about than just the school. take classes outside of engineering. explore other interests. employers look for that too.
I am going to have to take some classes out side of engineering for my minor. right now i am leaning toward accounting or business management. any suggestions? thanks luke
math is a good one, you are probably already most of the way there. i wish i had a bit more accounting and business stuff. i took a lot of ag classes. animal science, fees and feeding, farm business management. the business classes and business management classes turned out to be pretty darn important. i didn't focus on a minor just the other classes i was interested; although i was offered to join the ag business masters program.
I would go for the business management classes. You never know when you may decide to work for yourself, and you need to know a bit of the business basics to do it successfully. I got mine at the school of hard knocks. A little business education would have went a long ways.
I have been leaning toward business management. my parents have been self employed most of my life and we recently started a dozer and excavating service. I have been giving accounting a lot of thought as finance management seems to be a major stumbling block of small business. thanks again luke
TD-8: Like I said before, I have worked for the local highway agency for 37 years this June. The one thing my formal education lacked was business courses. Even working for a govt agency, it is VERY useful to know your way around a balance sheet. If you want to be an engineer and have management responsibilities you need to understand the profit / loss, depreciation etc. I ran our agency's Maintenance Division for 10 years. My division "rented" it's trucks and equipment from the Equipment Division. (Our Division had 90 single axle dumps and 6 - 5 axle straight truck flowboys, 2 hydraulic excavators, 2 scrapers, 3 dozers, 5 motorgraders, a paver, 2 rollers and all the associated support "stuff" and 125 employees. I told folks I ran a trucking / construction "company" ). If the Equipment Division "made" money on the internal rental rate, it drove my cost up. If they lost money, it was good for me but they didn't generate enough money to maintain and replace the equipment. I wanted to see the P&L statements on a regular basis to get rid of the unprofitable equipment (insufficient hours per year) and maximize the "profit" on the profitable equipment. We get about 75 inches of snow a year. I needed all those single axle trucks w/ belly plow to cover our 2500 miles of roads in a timely manner. In the summer I could get by with 25-30 trucks. It really drives up the cost of operation when you have a dozen trucks with 350 - 450 hours per year of use and another dozen with 5-600 hours. The flowboys were great, we could drop 2 tags and add the underbelly. With salt weighing much less than bit or gravel, they were still legal weight wise in the winter . We did experiment with contracting some of the plowing out to contractors but it's only somewhat successful. The old manager used to insist we do summer work like patching and guard rail repair with the single axle dumps or a supervisor's pickup. His objective was to increase usage of the low hours trucks. It was a little more inconvenient for the employees to get in an out of a big dump, but utilization went up. New manager has allowed 1 tons for patching, rail work, misc stuff and the utilization of the big dumps is down. I told the Maintenance Division head, his "little trucks' are killing him cost wise. The hourly rate of his big dumps that he has to have is going up on every big dump plus he's paying the full cost of all the smaller trucks they've added to the fleet. There's an optimum balance to be achieved but one needs to watch that P&L regularly. Sorry about running on, the short version, as an engineer, it's really beneficial to understand the business side of any organization. PS: I ran a local for-profit tourist railroad as a hobby (all-volunteer). As President / General Manager for a few years, I got some real world experience keeping the doors open and the lights on
Raildudesdad what do you think of this ?? http://www.lit.ie/departments/Builtenv/DipConstruct.html This is what I hope to aspire too given time Stock
You will be fine with the 4 year degree for now. The NCEES has changed the date of those requirements to 2020. http://www.ncees.org/news/index.php?release_id=37
here you will have to do like an apprenticship after you graduate for 4-5 years before you get your p.eng.