The Department of Civil Engineering provides a stimulating atmosphere for study and research. The Department has many well-equipped laboratories with active research programs in areas pertaining to the built environment. The Department offers graduate specialization in the following areas: civil engineering materials, construction engineering and project management, environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, transportation engineering and water resources engineering. Faculty and graduate students are active in a wide variety of research projects with both internal and external funding. Financial assistance is available in the forms of research assistantships, teaching assistantships, fellowships, and scholarships.
Admission Requirements
All applicants seeking admission to the Graduate programs in Civil Engineering must have an equivalent cumulative undergraduate grade point average (GPA) of at least 2.8 on a 4.0 scale. Applicants who have been awarded a baccalaureate degree from an Engineering Accreditation Commission of Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET/EAC) engineering program are not required to submit Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scores for consideration for admission to the Graduate programs in Civil Engineering. Applicants who hold non-ABET accredited engineering degrees must have a combined verbal and quantitative scores of GRE as follows: 300 for Masters and 315 for Ph.D. degree applicants. No minimum requirements exist for the analytical portion of GRE. An applicant whose native language is other than English must score at least 80 (internet-based TOEFL), or 6.5 (IELTS). Applicants who have been awarded Bachelor degrees in fields other than engineering, such as physical sciences, must also take a certain number of undergraduate remedial courses at the discretion of the Director of Graduate Studies. Typically these remedial courses include one introductory course in at least four of the following seven areas: civil engineering materials, construction engineering and management, environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, hydraulics and water resources engineering, structural engineering, and transportation engineering
Degree Requirements
MSCE Program Plan-A (Thesis Option)
For the Master of Science in Civil Engineering (M.S.C.E.) degree Plan A, a minimum of 24 credit hours of graduate course work, 6 credit hours CE 768 - Residence Credit for Master’s Degree , and a thesis are required to fulfill degree requirements.
MSCE Program Plan-B (non-Thesis Option)
For the Master of Science in Civil Engineering (M.S.C.E.) degree Plan B, a minimum of 30 credit hours of graduate work are required, including at least 3 credit hours of independent work. The requirement for independent work may be satisfied by either taking an approved curriculum of courses that contain integral independent study components totaling a minimum of 3 credit hours, or by completing at least three credit hours of CE 790 - Special Research Problems in Civil Engineering or CE 791 - Special Design Problems in Civil Engineering .
Students who wish to complete the independent work requirement by choosing from an approved curriculum of courses containing integral independent study components, shall present a plan of study which satisfies this requirement, and all other Graduate School requirements, to the Director of Graduate Studies for approval before the completion of 12 credit hours of graduate course work. Preferably this should occur no later than the end of the first semester of graduate residence. The requirement for all independent work must be satisfied under the direction of one faculty member (for students choosing a CE 790 and/or CE 791 ), or several faculty members (for students following an approved curriculum of courses), who will assign, monitor, and evaluate the student’s work as part of the specific course. Written reports will usually represent the work product to be evaluated for students completing three hours of CE 790 or CE 791 .
All students must pass a Final Examination as specified by the rules of the Graduate School. The contents and style of the examination, and the evaluation of the student’s performance, are the responsibility of a Graduate Faculty committee appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School.
Foreign Language Requirements
There is no language requirement for the M.S.C.E. degree in Civil Engineering.
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