I am a junior in h.s and i would like some advice from a civil engineer about pursuing a civil engineering degree.

What would you like to know?

If you think you will be happy in taking up Civil Engineering, then go on. It's a good choice IMO. :)

You have to like it to enjoy it... so if you think you like it go for it!

One needs to be quite good at mathematics and physics to excel in engineering.

I am currently in my 3rd year of a civil engineering program at the university of New Brunswick. I am enjoying my degreee so far, you definately have to be proficient in math and physics, most of your degree would probably consist of structural engineering related courses and strong algebra and physics skills is definately an asset. The great thing about civil engineering as a student is the good paying summer jobs that can be found, so if you are lucky you may not require student loans. The work load is pretty rough but once you get into your 3rd year things start to come together and the practical nature of civil engineering peers its head. I would suggest that you continue interest outside of school, reading trade magazines and keeping an interest in the class. I have made reference to this forum and others to professors and employers and they definately think that awareness of infrustructure projects is an asset upon graduation.

I've been doing civil engineering at University of Nottingham since September. My regret is not having a really good understanding of maths from sixth form (I kinda blagged it) cos it would have made this year so much easier. Maths is the most important subject, physics and chemistry come into it slightly.

The best thing about civil engineering though is that you get to be creative, whilst using really quite advanced techniques. In addition you actually get skills which can be applied to so much in life. During your degree you get to use some pretty powerful and expensive machinery, and use software like AutoCAD 2005 - makes me feel important :) .

Its not the easiest of subjects it must be said (lots of hours compared to most other courses), but onnthe other hand, as said by the last poster, you will be able to get industrial placements, which as well as being real eye openers, earn you a little extra cash. :cheers:

I also think that the degree encompassess such a wide variety of skills, that you will be a very valuable employee, and jump into a good job.

Good advise before you do it:
-Understand maths as well as possible
-Get some relevant work experience.
-general knowledge of the industry. (from places like here and www.ice.org.uk)

good luck

Does anyone know how is the job market for civil engineers in the United States right now? & which specializaiton is more demanding in the job market(structural, environmental, etc.) ?

Currently, the need for structural engineers is very high. We have been seeking qualified people for some time now and you really need a Masters degree by the way. It seems that since the 80's a lot of people went into other fields such as electrical, environmental, computer science, etc since those fields tended to pay more and the need was greater. During the late 90's it seemed everyone was going trying to jump on the .com bandwagon with visions of vast fortunes and we all know how that went. So there was a derth in the number of people going into structural engineering.

For structural engineering you really need to love it to succeed. You should be the type of person who does not care about the money, (it's not great in the beginning) but thrill at driving down a street and seeing a building that you designed. If you are good and are willing to commit to hard work and long hours, then the money will come. It is a profession that honors age. By this I mean unlike other professions, older structural engineers are more highly regarded because they have "been there, done that". I mean how many building owners would commit their multi-million dollar building design to a young kid? So you will have a long and rewarding career that you can take anywhere in the world always find work and never have to change careers later on due to new technologies (you have to keep up) or the latest fad.

Aren't civil engineering jobs at risk of being outsourced to India and China? Don't many of the guest workers on H-1B visas take these jobs?

It is not practical to outsource since the job requires a lot of coordination with other members of the design team as well as the ability to quickly arrange site visits if and when problems come up in the field. Besides, again what building owner is going to want to trust his building to a engineer in India/China. This is not a put down to engineers in those countries, and they are very good, but it is a service industry and your clients require a lot of face time.

The only aspect that could be outsourced would be some of the lower end engineering tasks and some of the shelf buildings but even those require a lot of interaction. For instance, I currently have a project in Dubia. The architect and I are in the same city in the US but the mechanical engineer is in Dubai. This past week, the architect had to fly out to Dubai (11 hours) to try to get the mechanical engineer to understand the building concept that the architect and I were designing to. Talking over the phone does not work and email/fax does not work. So in this situation the design team is spending way too much time trying to communicate some of the simplest design aspects. This is not very efficient and to come full circle, what building owner, who is the architects client wants to go through this especially with the structural engineer? So the answer is a definite no, structural engineering will not be outsourced on a large scale.

As for the H-1B visa issue. Sure, as I said in my previous post, the need for structural engineers is great. In most parts of the world, getting an education is very important to future success and engineering is often coveted as being one of the higher more solid careers that attracts some of the very best students. In the US, sad to say, this is not the case. So yes we do at times take H-1B people more out of urgent need than anything else. It is very much of a hassel to go work through the visa issues with the government. We would much prefer to hire local people, but there is not much available.

Does anyone know how is the job market for civil engineers in the United States right now? & which specializaiton is more demanding in the job market(structural, environmental, etc.) ?

The market for civil engineers is good, and will probably be good for most of our lives. Like somebody said... coordinating with local agencies and site-specific conditions make it difficult if not impossible to outsource these jobs. Thank god. Right now, I am working long, hard days because we actually cannot find anybody to fill our needs.... My group does an interesting combination of work... we focus primarily in municipal infrastructure work, but we combine that by supporting the land developments groups, a bit of structural, you name it... And in the U.S. it is very difficult to find a civil engineer with diverse talents and interests.

However... I have to debate with those who say your emphasis in school will be mostly structural... and certainyl a small number of real-world engineering jobs are structural. It depends on where in the country you are... but the *majority* of engineers in the U.S. end up in land developmnet (subdivisions - residential stuff) of one sort or another. To get any of the more specific jobs (like structural), you will undoubtedly have to get an advanced degree and work your butt off with the big consulting firms.
it's a trade-off... it's hard work, and the pay isn't great.... but hey, if you like it you like it.

I would suggest taking a little bit of everything at the undergrad level unless you know eactly what you want. Don't bother focusing too muchb on structural unless you are sure you'll go to grad school, cause you won't be very employable if you try and specialize too much there. If you know you like water/wastewater, that one is a little easier because there are millions of jobs... but again. you'll be very specific. I'd say get done with the core cra p as soon as you can - in the real world, you'll be lucky if you get to use much of your math... most projects are not all that unique that you need to run a bunch of complecated calcs - ... get through the core, and take as many of the upper level electives as you can.

feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions. Just understand up front that you will enjoy your first year of school a lot less than your business-manjor friends... but there are rewards as well.

i'm a highschool junior as well, do you think taking AP calculus is very help full. despite that fact that i'm only in Adv algebra.

I'm in my thrid year of civil at Ryerson University (Toronto), and I strongly suggest that you have a very strong physics background. The program does have a small component dealing with chemistry but it's nothing too complicated. I myself hate chemistry, hence why I am civil. Besides the structural portion of civil, it also includes, waster waste management, environmental, geomatics, and transportation.

i'm a highschool junior as well, do you think taking AP calculus is very help full. despite that fact that i'm only in Adv algebra.

Any Civil Engineering course will involve Advanced Algebra and Calculus. I would probably recomend taking up calculus and making sure you understand differentiation and integration when they come to cover it. Keep your notes to cos the uni probably wont go over the simple stuff again.

Youd be able to catch up at uni if you didnt take it, it would just involve alot more effort though when you do get there.

About half the people who start taking engineering in college either flunk out or switch majors because it is very demanding, far more than most other programs.

I'd deffinitely take AP Calculus, it will serve as an introduction to college math. Physics is also very important, and you'll have just a little bit of chemistry in materials science. I suppose you have already taken Drafting or CAD.
Where I study, 50% of people quit as early as 3rd year (it takes 5 yrs to complete the structural eng course) so be prepared to study hard, but everything gets a lot easier and more interesting once you're in the 4th year... :)

Live for the bending moment! :D

Like others have said you need to have a good grasp of concepts such as force and what forces come into play on an object like a beam, road, etc.

You're also going to be referring a lot to codes and standards that are specific to your local area.

I'd deffinitely take AP Calculus, it will serve as an introduction to college math. Physics is also very important, and you'll have just a little bit of chemistry in materials science. I suppose you have already taken Drafting or CAD.
Where I study, 50% of people quit as early as 3rd year (it takes 5 yrs to complete the structural eng course) so be prepared to study hard, but everything gets a lot easier and more interesting once you're in the 4th year... :)

THis is my Senior year schedule
English 12 Honors,
Precalculus honors,
Ap calculus ( corresponding)
Physics Honors ( non-calculus based)
French 2
Spansh 2

I guess i will take Drafting and or CAD in 2006 fall at local University, I leave for college in March 2007 ( thats when school starts where i'm going)

it takes five years to study structural engineering? i though it takes at least years, dang so much for double majoring...

^My senior yr in high school was:
English honors
Drafting
US Gov't
History
Physics honors
AP Calculus
DE CAD

Dual Enrollment CAD was in a local community college, we were working with AutoCAD 13 i think, it was long ago.

Anyways what you take in high school won't matter all that much later in college, I mean courses like AP calc will be beneficial but not crucial...

Make inquiries at your college or uni how long it takes, I am currently not in the USA, over there it takes 4 yrs.

^My senior yr in high school was:
English honors
Drafting
US Gov't
History
Physics honors
AP Calculus
DE CAD

Dual Enrollment CAD was in a local community college, we were working with AutoCAD 13 i think, it was long ago.

Anyways what you take in high school won't matter all that much later in college, I mean courses like AP calc will be beneficial but not crucial...

Make inquiries at your college or uni how long it takes, I am currently not in the USA, over there it takes 4 yrs.

Where are you if you dont mind me asking?
which place,England or Japan ,are good places to study civil engineering?
i wanted to go to either Cambrige U , Kingston U, Tokyo U or Tohoku U

In Belgrade, Serbia. I'd say both Eng and Jap are good enough, especially Jap considering all the experience with seismics.

Im nearing completion of my second year doing civil engineering in wales. It's true to say that it is indeed very demanding and many of dropped out with not being able to cope with the workload. If you plan to be clubbing every night whilst studying it, you may as well not bother. Here in swansea we average about 25 hours of lecture time a week. And are expected to spend the same amount of time out of lessons studying too (and by god do you need to, to understand it all!).

However, I have found getting a summer job a real pain in the arse and probably wont get one now :(

do you really to be good at drawing to become civil engineer? i am very strong at math and physics but i kinda suck at drawing, yes i can draw simple 3D objects.

You need to be able to sketch something, but that isn't overly important. being able to visualise something helps, but then you need to communicate with others either through words or a sketch.

Yes, maths is very important, however, so are communication skills (as someone mentioned before about outsourcing).

There is high demand for civil engineers throughout the world. This will continue. You do not get paid the same as some other "professional" careers however. :bash:

Studying civil engineering at university is not as demanding as working as a civil engineer.

do you really to be good at drawing to become civil engineer? i am very strong at math and physics but i kinda suck at drawing, yes i can draw simple 3D objects.

I am studying 2nd grade of civil engineering.

Actually drawing by hand is not very important for a civil engineer those days, but you should be able to use AutoCAD well at least for preparing or editing statical projects. It's not a very very hard job actually when compared with the things architects or mechanical engineers do.

Being good in Physics and Maths is really important, because CALCULATION is the main part of this career. I believe Physics is the most important lecture in the education. Of course you will need maths almost in every lecture, although there is maths lectures only in the first two years. Being strong in these subjects is really good for you.

The ideal civil engineering job i want would be one to work in the us and abroad as well. this is going to be my senior year high .school schedule
Calculus IB
Physics III IB
English IB
French IV IB
Geography AP
International History IB
Environmental Science
Computer science

i was taking chemistry this year but i hate it. Is chemistry a big part of civil engineering?

^ chemistry is important if your field is environmental. If your field is structural or transportation, one semester of Chemistry is all you need. IMO, chemistry was one of the easier courses i had to take. Just try your best to get through it but i think you should spend more time studying calculus. Calculus will help you a great deal on Mechanics courses you'll be taking sophomore year.

ya i enjoy math. im in precal this year. next year will be calc.