Civil engineering is considered one of the oldest engineering disciplines in the United States and can lead to many different careers. Civil engineers are responsible for some of the most unique structures in the world. Just think of the Panama Canal, the Three Gorges Dam spanning China's Yangtze River, or the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building that stands in the United Arab Emirates. If you want to pursue great heights in your career, consider what an education in civil engineering can do for you.
To help aspiring civil engineers pursue their passion, we've compiled this list, featuring 10 excellent colleges offering online civil engineering degree programs. This list was compiled using data that was provided by the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and analyzed with our unique methodology. Details on our methodology are at the bottom of the page; in the interim, please enjoy our list of featured online colleges for civil engineering.
University of Washington educates more than 54,000 students each year and awards more than 12,000 degrees annually, giving it the second-highest graduation rate of all 10 schools featured on this list. The university offers an online master's degree program in civil engineering with the following concentrations:
The construction engineering concentration requires 14 classes totaling 42 credits to complete. Four courses are offered each quarter, and courses can be taken in any sequence over the length of the program. Courses may cover various advanced concepts such as design and construction law; cost analysis and management; and accounting and finance for construction.
The concentration in energy infrastructure is a new online program offered by the university that begins in fall of 2018. Students enrolled in the program are slated to learn how to design, plan and build plant components that make up various energy infrastructure projects. The university begins accepting applications for the program in February of 2018.
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1400 NE Campus Pkwy.The University of Texas at Tyler in east Texas offers 18 online degree programs and eight online certification programs, one of them being an online Master of Science in civil engineering. Students interested in enrolling in this program must have completed a bachelor's degree from an institution accredited by the Accrediting Board for Engineering and Technology. The degree program requires between 30 and 36 semester credit hours to complete and includes three options for study:
The master's degree program at University of Texas at Tyler is expected to take four years to finish. Students may transfer a maximum of nine credit hours of graduate credit in civil engineering into the program, provided they earned at least a B grade in transferable classes.
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3900 University Blvd.The University of Idaho was founded in 1889 and serves more than 11,000 students each year from its main campus in Moscow and extension centers in Coeur d'Alene, Boise and Idaho Falls. The university's school of engineering offers an online Master of Engineering in civil engineering degree program that does not require a thesis for completion (although it does require the preparation of a technical paper). This program has five main areas of emphasis:
Prospective students must have obtained a bachelor's degree from an ABET-accredited institution with a minimum grade point average of 3.0. Applicants who don't have a 3.0 GPA in undergraduate studies can still be considered for admissions if they have at least five years of work experience, along with a few other factors.
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875 Perimeter Dr.Mississippi State University's Bagley College of Engineering has the honor of having awarded the greatest percentage of civil engineering degrees to its graduating student body in 2015, out of all the schools detailed on this list. This impressive institution offers two paths for graduate study in civil engineering:
The online master's degree program requires 30 credit hours to complete, with a minimum of 15 credit hours of coursework in engineering. The non-thesis civil engineering program requires 33 credits to complete. Doctoral students must complete 45 credit hours beyond a master's degree, including 20 hours of dissertation research. Students interested in enrolling in either program must have at least a minimum 3.0 GPA for the last two years of undergraduate studies from an ABET-accredited institution; however, the university can grant provisional admission to the program using a number of other criteria.
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Lee Blvd. Mississippi State,Founded in 1856, Auburn University is a well-rounded establishment, distinguishing itself in every metric we used for this study: graduation rate, admissions rate, and percentage of civil engineering degrees awarded. Auburn's Samuel Ginn College of Engineering offers an online Master of Civil Engineering degree program that can be specialized into either environmental engineering or structural engineering. All master's degree candidates at Auburn University must have earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering or a closely related area, and all are required write a thesis; additionally, at least 24 of the 30 credit hours required for completion must be in graduate coursework outside of thesis research. The program is an exacting one, but with Auburn University's rewarding education, it is likely to be worth the effort.
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Auburn,Kansas State University offers a fully online Master of Science in civil engineering degree through K-State Online, the college's distance learning portal. Students who want to apply for the program must have completed a bachelor's degree from an ABET-accredited institution and have earned a minimum GPA of 3.0 in their last 60 hours of undergraduate coursework in order to do so. After being enrolled in the program, candidates are expected to complete an oral examination by a supervisory committee prior to graduation. The university offers the following engineering specialties:
There are no required courses in the M.S. program at Kansas State University; rather, students work with an adviser to map out the best program of study depending upon their chosen specialty. Spring and fall classes run 16 weeks, while summer classes run for 12 weeks. If the sound of the program intrigues you, you'll be pleased to know that Kansas State has the highest admission rate of the 10 schools on this list, making it very accessible to aspiring civil engineers.
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Anderson Hall ManhattanBoasting the second-highest admissions rate and percentage of civil engineering degrees awarded in 2015 on our list — a favorable combination, to be sure — Colorado State University offers two fully online master's degree paths for prospective students:
The M.E. degree requires 30 credit hours to complete, while the M.S. degree requires 32. For both programs, a minimum of 24 credit hours must be completed at Colorado State University. Since both degree paths focus on water resources and water management, students focus on a wide range of infrastructure and water-related issues, including:
Students enrolled in the M.S. degree path are required to deliver an engineering report and final oral examination prior to graduation, which may require them to come to the Fort Collins campus.
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102 Administration BuildingOut of Ohio University's total enrollment of 39,622 students for the 2016-2017 academic year, just over 5,550 students were enrolled in online classes. That's close to a seventh of the total student body participating in distance education! As such, if you're interested in online civil engineering, not only will you be in good company at Ohio University, but you can enroll in the school's online Master of Science in civil engineering program, which allows students to choose from the following concentrations:
Students must complete 14 credits in core construction planning and scheduling courses, and 18 additional credits within their concentration. Admissions requirements including holding a bachelor's degree from an accredited ABET institution with either a 3.0 GPA, or a 2.5 GPA and five years of professional experience, or 10 years of experience and a GPA of 3.0 for prospective students who don't hold a bachelor's degree in civil engineering.
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020 Chubb HallThe University of Tennessee in Knoxville was founded in 1974 and has been spreading its traditions of Volunteer spirit ever since. Vols Online (Volunteers Online), the university system's portal for distance education, offers two online concentrations for its Master of Science in civil engineering program:
Prospective students to UT's Graduate School must hold a bachelor's degree and have at least a 2.7 GPA, or a 3.0 GPA for their senior year of undergraduate studies.
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527 Andy Holt TowerWe couldn't end this list without mention of the University of Florida, which boasts the single highest graduation rate on this list. The Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering within University of Florida's graduate school offers an online civil engineering degree with a concentration in civil and coastal engineering. Specialized coursework includes study in the following coastal physical processes, to name a few:
This degree program is delivered through the UF EDGE program, which can be streamed online or even requested as a physical DVD at your preference. Prospective applicants to the program must hold a bachelor's degree and have a minimum 3.0 GPA in upper- division coursework for their undergraduate studies.
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Gainesville Fla. 32611From airports to tunnels, from bridges to water treatment plants, the work of civil engineers helps keep our world moving. Being adequately educated is very important for earning a career in a field as competitive and intensive as engineering, but those same qualities can also make plunging into an engineering program rather intimidating if you don't know what you're getting into. This section provides a snapshot of what kind of courses a student might encounter in a civil engineering degree program, as well as some of the skills such a program might teach.
Those who pursue an associate degree in civil engineering should find their courses preparing them for many entry-level positions in the field, including that of drafter or civil engineering technician. An associate-level degree program generally takes two years to complete and consists of introductory civil engineering courses. Some examples that might be available at your school include:
Online bachelor's degree programs in civil engineering take between four to six years to complete and are designed to prepare students for work as a civil engineer. A bachelor's degree in civil engineering typically starts with the basics, as in an associate program, but then progresses to more advanced concepts as the program continues. Here are a few examples of some of the courses students may see at the bachelor's level:
Those who pursue an online master's degree usually take anywhere between two and three years to complete their studies. At this point most are fully engaged in professional work and have some kind of idea of where they want their career to go; therefore, master's degree programs will usually offer a wealth of concentrations to help students master the knowledge that is most relevant to their needs. Some of the most commonly offered concentrations include:
This focus on specific areas of expertise carries over to the doctoral degree programs, as well as graduate certificates, both of which involve students taking narrowly-targeted courses to enhance their education and skills in their chosen area of engineering. Concentrations available at the terminal degree level might include:
As individuals work their way through online programs in civil engineering, they can learn quite a lot about various skills they might be called upon to use in their careers. Most apparent would be the teaching of math and writing skills, which civil engineers must use constantly in order to convey needs, requirements and instructions to others. However, those math and writing assignments are also teaching students some other important skills: assignments are excellent practice for organizational skills and time-management skills that engineers use to keep all the different parts of their projects organized and proceeding according to schedule. Otherwise, how would anything ever get done?
Leadership skills are also very important, especially as a civil engineer rises in the ranks of the field and is expected to use their experience to take a more prominent role in projects — just as a more experienced student might be called upon to lead a group project in class. Understanding leadership also comes with understanding of certain other skills, such as delegating responsibilities to others in order to complete work efficiently and making decisions based on factors such as conflicting budgets, deadlines and safety concerns. All of these skills work together to help a civil engineer succeed at their projects and, by extension, their careers.
A prestigious and well-paying field, civil engineering is ripe with potential for creative people who also want to leave a lasting mark on society. The careers in this field tend to be competitive, so if you hope to earn one, it's best to get started early and work hard to stand out from the crowd.
Civil engineers are the masterminds behind structures like bridges, tunnels, dams and even roads high up on mountainsides. Transportation would be a dramatically different picture without the civil engineers who design the functional, but safe structures that help people get to where they are going. Their work is like an art form in which materials such as asphalt, concrete or steel are designed into something beautiful and functional.
Civil engineer careers require commitment and smarts. A bachelor's degree is necessary and is usually followed by some form of graduate education. Reflecting their commitment to the job, some civil engineers work more than 40 hours a week. Frequently, employment is found with private firms, although federal, state and county agencies also provide a significant source of jobs.
Strong decision-making skills are a must for anyone thinking about pursuing an architectural and engineering manager career. These professional managers may oversee and direct projects at a firm, government agency or science institute, and they regularly make decisions about budgets, staff and best practices.
Architectural and engineering managers are pioneers in their field, often taking a lead role on a new project or being the first to implement a new design or process. Communication, analysis and organization skills are important for people interested in these management roles. A bachelor's degree is required for the field, while a master's degree in engineering management or technology management degree could be a valuable follow-up option.