Architecture undergrad considering switch to Civil Engineering

[athensarch]

Hi everyone (skip the first paragraph if you want me to get to the point)

I just completed a Bachelor of Science in Architecture degree at a regionally known school in Boston (pre-professional, non-accredited degree). I've come to realize that architecture as I now understand it in practice isn't what I thought it would be. In school, the quantitative analysis and attention to detail I hoped for seems much less prevalent than the subjective artsy stuff and grandiloquent theory. In limited co-ops, I've been the epitome of a CAD Monkey and paid considerably less than if I waited tables. I recently found out what architects reportedly make entering into the profession with master's degrees (~$30k, plus close to $100,000 debt) and after 5 or so years trying to fulfill internship requirements before sitting a a licensing exam that bumps your pay into around $40k. Our professional association, the AIA, only releases these reports every 4 years and doesn't advertise, nor do the schools, about salaries, which was a mistake on my part.[/end rant]

I'm not exactly sure what I want to go into, but I like what I've read about civil engineering (particularly transportation engineering). I have a strong interest in infrastructure, city, and regional planning. I started checking out the American Society of Civil Engineers Website. I've been looking around the web to get an idea of what the curriculum at different schools in different programs is like. I did not have the opportunity to take classes in calculus and physics as an undergrad so I plan to take them at a community college over the next year (making sure they'd transfer to where I'd like to apply to). I'd like to job shadow a civil engineer at some point.

What steps did you newly admitted engineering graduate students take before you knew engineering was for you? Did you participate in any kind of career exploration program? How important is it to receive your education at a "top ten school"?

[ktel]

I went into engineering in my undergrad purely on a gut feeling that I thought it would be right for me. I then did an internship at an amazing consulting company in the summer before I started university. As I took more courses it was pretty obvious that engineering is for me.

It sounds like you have that gut feeling. You could try some sort of job-shadowing if you want. The only problem I see is that engineering is SUCH a broad field. You could hate some of the jobs within it, but absolutely love others. I've had some terrible summer jobs, but those were because of the company I was working for, not because engineering jobs are in general terrible.

I'm doing grad school in Aerospace Engineering because I want to specialize more than my Mechanical undergrad has allowed me. Once again, I had a gut-feeling that I wanted to do aerospace since high school, and doing a very cool aerospace-related design project last year confirmed this. I'm attending the University of Toronto, partly because of it's amazing reputation in Canada and partly because that's where my boyfriend works now (he is a civil engineer)

[mclare]

I actually thought I wanted to do architecture as a profession, and I took an architecture class over the summer prior to my senior year of high school. I hated it. I don't think I've ever been so mad about the amount of BS we were supposed to come up with to justify our designs. I guess I am more practical than artsy, as I didn't realize that architecture was much closer to pure art (I still can't believe that a lot of architecture students don't have to even think about physics until a Master's program.)

I decided structural engineering as a major in college, but I still thought I would minor in architecture just to have a good point of reference for communicating with architects. After one semester of studio, I threw in the towel on that as well and did pure structural engineering. I found that in my structural design classes, I was much more involved in design of real buildings and bridges that in my architecture classes. In addition to hands on design work, my program had some strong professors that were involved in practice rather than being purely involved in academia. These professors were able to take our class on job site visits (including the WTC site), which really cemented for me that this was what I wanted to do.

I think you're on the right track with wanting to shadow a practicing engineer. I had a classmate who spent the summer shadowing a professional engineer that worked in a small city in NJ. She loved it, because she got to see what that kind of job entails. Most major cities will have internships for municipal work posted on the web, so I'm sure if you emailed and asked to shadow, they wouldn't object. Port Authorities are another resource for shadowing opportunities.

With regards to the "top ten school" criteria, my undergrad was at a small program (only 24 of us in civil engineering of all fields) but we were still in the top 15 despite our size. While ranking gives you a place to start, I think it is much more important to see the breadth of classes offered and actually visit the school to see what the atmosphere is like (visiting my school is what sold me on going to a school that had a good engineering department, but wasn't a tech school). Also do a little research to see where the alumni of the program end up for their careers.

Good luck!

[bgboybikalpa]

hello everyone,

I wish anyone could help me......I am confused how to apply for bachelor programme in engineering? and how to contact to any university and professors too ?