Civil Engineering

What you'll do in college

Civil engineers learn how to design the structures that hold up cities: bridges, buildings, highways, dams, and water systems. Coursework covers statics, structures, soils, hydraulics, surveying, and construction management, with plenty of math and physics. You'll spend time doing field work—measuring sites, inspecting concrete, sometimes wearing a hard hat in class—and using design software like AutoCAD and Revit.

Group projects often involve designing a real piece of infrastructure for an actual client, which is great practice for the job and great material for a portfolio.

What you'll do after college

Grads work for engineering firms, construction companies, city and state governments, and federal agencies, designing and overseeing the construction of roads, bridges, water systems, and buildings. The job mixes office work (modeling, analysis, drawings) with site visits to actual construction projects.

Most civil engineers eventually earn a Professional Engineer (PE) license, which takes a few years of work plus an exam. Pay is steady, and the work is rewarding because you can literally point to what you built.

Famous graduates

Frank Crowe — Chief engineer of the Hoover Dam; B.S. in Civil Engineering from University of Maine
Hardy Cross — Developer of the moment distribution method for structural analysis; B.S. in Civil Engineering from MIT
Nora Stanton Blatch Barney — Early suffragist and civil engineer; B.S. in Civil Engineering from Cornell University

Selectivity vs. earnings

By acceptance rate

$91,775

670

100–85%

$88,426

1,340

85–75%

$90,126

1,940

75–72%

$89,545

2,668

72–55%

$91,317

2,702

55–42%

$91,004

1,914

42–30%

$91,530

1,373

29–15%

$95,548

626

13–0%

Acceptance rate · bar = degree-weighted adjusted 5-year earnings

By SAT median

$82,689

498

400–1047

$87,840

988

1050–1120

$90,602

1,617

1125–1190

$90,554

2,044

1190–1275

$91,655

2,082

1275–1335

$94,838

1,509

1340–1400

$90,476

1,042

1400–1485

$96,389

505

1490–1600

Median SAT · bar = degree-weighted adjusted 5-year earnings

Majors in this category

Major	Colleges	Degrees ▼	Male/Female	Intl	5yr Earn
Civil Engineering	308	15,634	73% / 27%	5%	$90,102
Civil Engineering	286	13,310	73% / 27%	5%	$88,743
Architectural Engineering	28	901	63% / 37%	4%	$94,336
Construction Engineering	26	604	82% / 18%	1%	$98,499
Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering	9	368	87% / 13%	1%	$113,079
Ocean Engineering	7	155	69% / 31%	1%	$89,650
Structural Engineering	4	135	71% / 29%	4%	$88,996
Civil and Environmental Engineering	4	87	45% / 55%	15%	$102,960
Surveying Engineering	9	56	79% / 21%	4%
Rail Transportation Engineering	1	9	100% / 0%	0%	$84,034
Transportation Systems Engineering	1	5	100% / 0%	20%	$70,350
Civil and Environmental Engineering (Course 1)	1	4	25% / 75%	0%	$88,219