Civil Engineering at Iowa State University

The civil engineering program at Iowa State University is the 7th largest in the nation. Despite its size, however, the program is designed with the success of the individual student in mind. Class sizes are monitored so that laboratory and design courses average fewer than 20 students while other civil engineering classes have under 30. As a civil engineering student at Iowa State, you would

• be assigned a faculty advisor to answer scheduling questions and other concerns
• receive hands-on experience in surveying, materials, soils, and environmental engineering
• take field trips to study real-world engineering systems as well as projects under construction
• design projects that require close teacher-student interaction

The civil engineering program has four specialty areas, each leading to a challenging career path.

• Environmental and water resource engineers remove contaminants from water, reduce non-hazardous solid waste volumes, eliminate pollutants from the air, and develop groundwater supplies.
• Structural engineers face the challenge of designing structures that can withstand gusting winds, extreme temperatures, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural forces.
• Geotechnical engineers develop projects below ground and determine ways to support structures on and in the ground. Materials engineers perfect mixtures for pavements and other structures, and develop methods to stabilize soil conditions.
• Transportation engineers determine ways to meet the increasing travel needs of people, goods, and materials on land, air, and water.

Top-Notch Faculty
Without quality faculty, it’s difficult to get a quality education. The faculty in the civil engineering program are a distinguished group of experts who have won several awards for teaching, advising, and research. They serve as editors of numerous technical journals, hold leadership positions in national professional societies, give lectures around the world, and create innovative management tools that are used extensively by the country’s top corporations and their contractors. Research expenditures per faculty member are among the nation’s highest.

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World-Class Facilities
The College of Engineering at Iowa State offers the academic resources that allow students to concentrate on learning rather than having to search for materials and equipment. Students use

• sophisticated workstations linked to faculty offices, the campus network, and the Internet
• state-of-the-art computer graphic workstations donated by Silicon Graphics, a company founded by an Iowa State engineering graduate
• research facilities that include labs for studying soils and materials

Town Engineering Building, opened in 1971, houses state-of-the-art equipment, including a computer-aided design laboratory. Other computer facilities include microcomputers, CAD stations, and high-quality printers and plotters. Much of the equipment is networked and linked to university-wide computer resources. Video projection classrooms are used as well. In recent years, Town has had significant renovation. The department is in the procress of bringing all of its resources together under one roof in a project called “Our Town.”


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Endless Opportunities
The civil engineering program at Iowa State offers a traditional education, with an opportunity to know more about each of the areas of civil engineering. But traditional doesn’t mean out of phase with the times—our program is continually reviewed and updated. And, it’s comprised of more than just the traditional classroom and laboratory experiences. The Department of Civil Engineering at Iowa State also offers

• internship and co-op programs that provide industry experience and give students a chance to earn money for college and living expenses; monthly salaries for civil engineering interns and co-op students range from $1,841 to $1,964*
• foreign study programs in the Czech Republic, Scotland, Mexico, and other countries that give students an edge in today’s global market
• opportunities for hands-on, real-world experiences

If you’d like even more hands-on experience, you might try constructing or racing a concrete canoe! That’s only one of the activities of the student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Participation in ASCE also allows you to meet other civil engineering students, know the faculty better, and enter civil engineering competitions.


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Scholarships
The support of over 200 individuals and corporations maintains an engineering scholarship endowment of nearly $9 million. From these and other funds, the college awards more than 900 scholarships totaling more than $1.3 million each year. Civil engineering students can compete for nearly 40 different scholarships available exclusively to them. In addition, engineering students compete well for scholarships available to all Iowa State students.

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Employment Outlook
Engineering is a career path that works! More than 3 million engineers work in the U.S. today, making engineering the nation’s second-largest profession. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the job market is predicted to remain strong well into the millennium. The average starting salary for a civil engineering graduate is nearly $39,000. Additionally, starting salaries are expected to increase about six percent a year.

Civil engineering graduates are in great demand. Nearly all students with engineering-related work experience have jobs by graduation. For example:

• 95% of co-op students are placed by graduation
• 85% of interns are placed by graduation
• 79% of graduates with summer work experience are
  placed by graduation

Iowa State’s civil graduates work as transportation engineers; highway designers; city, county, or sanitary engineers; construction supervisors; soil engineers; surveyors; and other career paths. They are nationally known; several have received national awards. Graduates work in all parts of the world, in industry and government, in large firms and small companies. Many earn advanced degrees, becoming experts in their chosen fields.

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To learn more about opportunities in civil engineering, contact:

Department of Civil and Construction Engineering
394 Town Engineering Building
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-3232
515-294-3532
www.cce.iastate.edu


* All statistics are based on surveys conducted in spring 1999.

Go to Civil and Construction Engineering web

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