Online Civil Engineering Programs 2021

Overview

Virginia Tech University is a public research university located in Blacksburg, VA. Virginia tech also maintains six regional campuses throughout the state of Virginia, and is considered one of six senior military colleges in the U.S., thanks to their ROTC program. Tech has just over 30,000 students, around 5,000 of whom are pursuing postgraduate work.

Program Features

Virginia Tech offer their Masters in Civil Engineering program through their Interactive Videoconferencing (IVC) system. This program is founded on two ideas:

• Engineers are responsible for the life-cycle of the designed system
• Engineers must be capable of optimizing the total system performance of large-scale public works projects

To pursue these goals, the Civil Engineering program maintains a practical and pedagogical link to Environmental Engineering and Systems Engineering. These departments work closely together to supplement and diversify the educational offerings of each of their programs.

Notables

The program director for the online Masters in Civil Engineering is Dr. Beth Lucas. The degree is offered as part of the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program through Virginia Tech.

Overview

Colorado State University-Fort Collins is a public research university located in Fort Collins, CO. This school is considered to be the flagship university in the state school system of Colorado. There are currently around 33,000 enrolled at Colorado State, including around 8,000 postgraduate students.

Program Features

Colorado State’s online learning site offers two separate avenues for those wishing to pursue civil engineering:

• Master of Engineering with a focus in water resources engineering
• Master of Science in civil engineering with a focus in water resources

Graduation requirements include a minimum of 30 credit hours completed for the Master of Engineering, at least half of which must be civil engineering courses. There are no thesis or final examination requirements: the degree is coursework only.

Notables

No independent study courses will count towards graduation. The Master of Science in Water Resources requires a minimum of 32 credits, rather than the 30 credits for the Master of Engineering. Sample courses include engineering hydrology and infrastructure and utility management.

Overview

Iowa State University, also referred to as Iowa State, is a public research university located in Ames, IA. The school is considered a flagship of the Iowa state university system, with a student population of around 36,000. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching ranks Iowa State as having a very high level of research activity.

Program Features

Iowa State’s College of Arts and Sciences offers an LAS Online Learning service, through which students may pursue a Masters Degree in Civil Engineering. This program automatically entails an emphasis in construction engineering and management. The program focuses on three main component parts:

• Management Techniques
• Construction Operations
• Construction Methods

Students are allowed to join the program at the beginning of any semester and may take graduate courses in any order that suits their preferences or needs.

Notables

Students looking to gain admission to the program must have an undergraduate degree in engineering, with a minimum GPA of 3.0. Applicants below these standards may also be admitted to the program, with the understanding that they will take prerequisite courses before continuing to pursue their graduate education.

Overview

Norwich University is a private university located in Northfield, VT. Norwich is the oldest private military college in the United States, having been founded in 1819 as the American, Literary, Scientific and Military Academy. Is it recognized by the United States military as the birthplace of ROTC, and thus is the oldest of the six senior military colleges in the U.S.

Program Features

Norwich offers a Master of Civil Engineering (MCE) degree through their Norwich University Online service. The program involves completion of 36 credit hours, broken up into 6-credit courses, each lasting 11 weeks. Areas of concentration include:

• Structural Engineering
• Geotechnical Engineering
• Construction Management
• Environmental/Water Resources Engineering

Students may complete the program in as few as 18 months, which would mean graduating 21 months after enrollment.

Notables

The program ends with a one-week required residency and a graduation ceremony at Norwich every June. Fundamental courses are offered for those who do not meet initial admissions requirements. Norwich offers two different start dates for students, in March and September.

Overview

The University of Maryland, College Park, is a public research university located in College Park, MD. As the flagship institution of the state’s public school system, the university is often referred to simply as Maryland. The school has often been referred to as one of the Public Ivies, being a public school that offers an educational quality on par with Ivy League schools such as Harvard.

Program Features

Maryland offers an online Maters of Engineering through its Office of Advanced Engineering Education, which operates the school’s online engineering programs. Students in the Masters program are required to complete 30 credits of study, with an emphasis in one of four areas:

• Geotechnical and pavements
• Structures
• Environmental and Water Resources
• Transportation

Students may also select technical electives approved by their academic advisor, though these must be part of the integrated program of study.

Notables

The Office of Advanced Engineering Education also offers graduate certificate programs in Geotechnical, Environmental, Structural, and Transportation Engineering. These programs are 12 credits, instead of the 30 required for the Masters degree. By the end of their first semester of study, each student completes a degree planning sheet with their academic advisor, to plot out their intended course of study through the program.

Overview

Kansas State University is a public research university located in Manhattan, KS. K-State was the first public institution of higher learning opened in the state of Kansas, and today boasts a student population of more than 22,000. The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education lists K-State at the highest level of research activity.

Program Features

Kansas State offers an online Global Campus, through which the College of Engineering provides a fully online Master of Science (M.S.) in Civil Engineering degree program. There are five available course areas for concentration:

• Transportation
• Environmental
• Structural
• Geotechnical
• Water Resources

There are no singularly required courses in the program, but students do work out a course of study with their academic advisor early on in the program.

Notables

At the end of the program, students will travel to Kansas State’s campus for an oral examination conducted by their supervisory committee. Classes are delivered with a semester time frame, with 16 week long semesters in the fall and spring, and 8-12 week semesters in the Summer.

Overview

Auburn University is a public research university located in Auburn, AL. Auburn is the second largest university in the state of Alabama, with more than 28,000 students enrolled as of 2016. Formerly known as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama, Auburn now offers a wide array of colleges and majors, though its early emphasis on mechanics still resonates through its strong engineering programs.

Program Features

The Department of Civil Engineering offers a Masters of Civil Engineering (MCE) which, “offers qualified students the opportunity for advanced training and specialization through distance education.” There are three emphases students may choose from for distance learning:

• Environmental
• Structural
• Geotechnical

Students are advised to pursue a degree in civil engineering or similarly related field before applying. The MCE degree requires 30 semester hours of graduate courses, which may include three semesters of independent project work approved through the department.

Notables

If a student wishes to pursue both a Master in Science and a PhD, they may do so through a mixture of distance learning and on-campus activities, once they have received departmental approval. Examples courses in the program include Open Channel Hydraulics and Air Pollution. The Online MCE program is only available to students residing in the U.S.

Overview

Villanova University is a private research university located in Philadelphia, PA. The school is associated with the Roman Catholic Church, and is the oldest Catholic university in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Villanova was founded by the Order of St Augustine, and is a member of the Augustinian Secondary Education Association.

Program Features

Villanova offers a Masters program in Civil Engineering (MSCE) through its College of Engineering. The program offers concentrations in the following areas:

• Geotechnical
• Structural
• Transportation
• Water Resources and Environmental Engineering
• Interdisciplinary (combination of two of the above)

Sample courses include Intro Hydraulics & Hydrology and Traffic Engineering. 30 credits are required for graduation, of which at least 24 must be civil engineering courses.

Notables

Students who pursue the Water Resources and Environmental Engineering program may also choose to pursue the Master of Science in Water Resources & Environmental Engineering (MS) degree. Students, however, who are eligible for the MSCE degree may choose to pursue that instead.

Overview

Missouri University of Science and Technology, also known as Missouri S&T, is a public university located in Rolla, MO. The school has around 9,000 students, most of whom choose to pursue either STEM or Business programs. The flagship college at the school is its school of engineering, whose students make up more than 70% of the university’s overall enrollment.

Program Features

Missouri S&T offers a Master of Science in Civil Engineering program through its distance learning service. The program offers five areas of study for engineering:

• Environmental
• Structural
• Geotechnical
• Water Resources
• Construction

The program is a non-thesis degree program, which requires 30 hours of credit work to complete. Students with non-civil engineering degrees may be required to take prerequisite courses before beginning their graduate study.

Notables

Missouri S&T PhDs and DEs are available on a case-by-case basis. There are also graduate certificate programs available in contemporary structural engineering and infrastructure renewal, among others. Applicants must hold a bachelors degree from an accredited program.

Overview

Johns Hopkins University is a private research university located in Baltimore, MD. JHU is considered the first research university in the United States, having adopted the concept of graduate study from Heidelberg University in Germany. Johns Hopkins has an overall student population of around 20,000 students, almost 75% of which are postgraduates.

Program Features

Johns Hopkins offers a Master of Civil Engineering degree through the online service of its Whiting School of Engineering. The degree program entails a focus in Structural Engineering. Sample courses include:

• Structural Mechanics
• Investigation, Diagnosis, and Rehabilitation
• Design of Ocean Structures
• Hydrogeology
• Sustainable Coastal Engineering

Students must complete a series of ten courses within five years of entering the program. There is also a certificate program available, which requires the completion of six courses within three years.

Notables

JHU offers a mixture of online courses and in-person courses for their distance learning service. Some course offerings are only available online, while others are only available through attendance of on-campus lectures. International students may have additional admissions requirements.

Overview

The University of Louisville is a public university located in Louisville, KY. The school is noted for its numerous medical achievements, including producing the first civilian ambulance and the first successful hand transplant. The student population of Louisville is just over 20,000, and it is also home to a celebrated men’s basketball program, known as the Louisville Cardinals.

Program Features

Louisville offers an online Masters in Science in Civil Engineering through its J.B. Speed School of Engineering. Students may choose to focus their studies in one of the two following areas:

• Geotechnical Transportation
• Water Resources Area
• Geotechnical Area
• Structural Area

Based on the concentration chosen, students will either earn a degree concentration in Public Works Engineering or Facilities Engineering. The curriculum includes 30 credit hours, all of which can be completed online.

Notables

Students are able to graduate from the program within two years of starting. Students are eligible to transfer up to six credit hours from another regionally accredited institution. Courses follow a semester schedule, with terms lasting approximately 15 weeks.

Overview

Kennesaw State University is a public research university with campuses located in Kennesaw and Marietta, GA. Also known as KSU, the school enrolls more than 35,000 students, making it the third largest school in the state of Georgia, and one of the 50 largest in the United States. The school maintains an endowment of around $40 million and has just under 1,000 academic staff members.

Program Features

KSU offers a Master of Science in Civil Engineering through its online learning service. The program offers three possible areas of engineering concentration:

• Structural and Geotechnical
• Transportation and Pavement Engineering
• Environmental Engineering and Water Resources

The program is intended for students who graduated from ABET accredited engineering programs, though provisional acceptance may be offered to students with exceptional circumstances.

Notables

Students are required to complete 30 credits for completion of the degree. Example courses include design of wood structures and pavement engineering. The program was designed for working professionals, and is considered a prerequisite for the award of a Professional Engineering license.

Overview

Texas Tech University is a public research university located in Lubbock, TX. Originally known as Texas Technological College, is it considered the flagship of the four universities in the Texas public university system. The school has more than 37,000 students, and is the only campus in Texas that is home to an undergraduate university, law school, and medical school.

Program Features

Texas Tech University offers an eLearning and Academic Partnership portal, through which the Department of Civil Engineering offers a Master of Civil Engineering program. Students initially specialize in either structural engineering or construction engineering and management. After this, students pursue one of three options:

• Thesis
• Report
• Course Only

Students may not fulfill requirements with credit/no-credit courses and no more than 15 credit hours can be taken from any one engineering program

Notables

Thesis students complete 24 hours of coursework and six hours of thesis research. Report students complete 27 hours of coursework, then complete a report on a selected topic (3 hours). Students pursuing the coursework only option take 30 hours and must pass a comprehensive exam.

Overview

Clarkson University is a private research university located in Potsdam, NY. Clarkson has around 4,300 students, along with an endowment of around $186 million. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classifies the school as having a moderate level of research activity.

Program Features

Clarkson offers both a Master of Science in Civil & Environmental Engineering, as well as a Master of Engineering in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

• The Master of Science program generally takes 18-24 months and requires student to write and defend a thesis on independent research
• The Master of Engineering is a 30-credit project based program comprised of coursework and independent study

Clarkson also offers an ME with a concentration in construction engineering management

Notables

Example courses include Air Pollution, Theory of Elasticity, and Continuum Mechanics. Depending on the degree track chosen the program offers specialty areas including Environmental or Geotechnical engineering. Certain degrees options are online only, while others require hybrid work both on and off campus.

Overview

The University of Washington is a public research university located in Seattle, WA. Also known as UW, the school is considered the flagship institution of the six public universities in the state of Washington. UW has a student population of around 46,000, including approximately 15,000 postgraduate students.

Program Features

UW offers three different online Masters degree programs in Civil Engineering:

• Construction Engineering
• Supply Chain Transportation and Logistics
• Sustainable Transportation

The program will also be launching a new degree program in Autumn 2018, specifically in Energy Infrastructure. This program will prepare students to plan, design, construct and manage energy related infrastructure projects. Students will be able to complete this program in 2-3 years.

Notables

The Sustainable Transportation degree is a three year program, focused on future transportation engineers. The Supply Chain track seeks to produce students who can handle end-to-end management of transportation in a global supply chain. And then Construction track was produced by an interdisciplinary team from the departments of Construction Management and Civil & Environmental Engineering.

Overview

South Methodist University, also known as SMU, is a private research university located in Dallas, TX. The school was founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, and maintains an affiliation with the United Methodist Church. As of Fall 2017, the school had a postgraduate population of around 5,300 students, who accounted for around half of the overall student body.

Program Features

The SMU Master of Science (M.S.) in Civil Engineering program offers two areas of emphasis:

• Structural Engineering
• Transportation Systems

In addition to these focuses the program also offers courses in geotechnical engineering and water and wastewater treatment facilities management. Online students take a 30-credit coursework only track, meaning there is no thesis requirement.

Notables

The program requires a bachelor of science in civil engineering for admission to the program. The core curriculum and elective courses will vary for each student due to the multidisciplinary nature of the civil engineering program. The courses will also vary based on the student’s undergraduate background and his or her desired area of specialization.

Overview

The University of Houston is a public research university located in Houston, TX. Also known as UH, the school is the third-largest university in the state of Texas. The Carnegie Foundation defines Houston as being a research university with the highest level of research. Around 42,000 attend Houston, including around 8,000 postgraduates.

Program Features

The University of Houston’s Cullen College of Engineering offers a Master of Science in Civil Engineering (M.S.C.E.), which has both thesis and non-thesis options. It is not a fully online program.

The thesis option requires a minimum of 21-credit hours, while the non-thesis option (which is the normal track for online study) requires 31 credit hours, 10 courses (3 hours each) plus a one hour seminar.

For online study, live lectures are archived for on-demand playback at each student’s convenience. Students are required to come to campus only for initial orientation and exams.

Notables

Houston emphasizes that the program connects structural engineering with disciplines of geotechnical engineering, hydrosystems engineering, environmental engineering, geosensing and geoinformatics, mechanical engineering, and subsea engineering.

Overview

The University of Idaho is a public research university located in Moscow, ID. UI is the oldest public university in the state of Idaho, and is considered the flagship university of the state’s public college system. The university has around 11,000 total students, around 2,000 of whom are postgraduates.

Program Features

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering offers a Master of Engineering (M.Engr.) through its Engineering Outreach platform. Areas of study offered include:

• Environmental and Sanitary Engineering
• Geotechnical Engineering
• Hydraulics and Water Resource Engineering
• Structural Engineering and Structural Mechanics
• Transportation Engineering

It is a non-thesis degree requiring 33 credit hours of study, as well as the preparation of a technical paper.

Notables

Most applicants will have a Bachelor of Science in Civil or Environmental Engineering. However, applicants with B.S. degrees in other fields may be eligible for admission. Application deadlines for the Fall and Spring semesters are February 1st and September 1st, respectively.

Overview

The University of Tennessee in Knoxville is a public university located in Knoxville, TN. UT Knoxville is considered the flagship university of the University of Tennessee system, with just under 30,000 total students. Tennessee has an endowment of a little over $1.1 billion and maintains an academic staff of around 1,700.

Program Features

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering offers Master of Science degrees in both Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering. Concentrations available for the Civil Engineering MS include:

• Construction
• Geotechnology and Materials Engineering
• Public Works Engineering
• Structural Engineering
• Transportation Engineering

Concentrations for the Environmental program include climate impacts, environmental engineering, and water resources.

Notables

The non-thesis option for the MS in Civil Engineering involves 30 hours of approved graduate courses, which can include a 3-hour special problems course to be completed under the direction of the student’s major professor. All non-thesis MS students are required to take a comprehensive written exam.

Overview

The University of Texas at Arlington is a public research university located in Arlington, TX. It is the fourth largest university in the state of Texas, having enrolled a population of almost 42,000 students in Spring 2017. The Carnegie Foundation defines Arlington as having the highest level of research activity available for a research university.

Program Features

The University of Texas at Arlington offers a Masters in Science (M.S.) in Civil Engineering through its online learning portal. A faculty advisor helps each student to plan their programs of study in their area of interest: examples include:

• Construction Engineering and Management
• Environmental
• Infrastructure System Engineering and Management
• Water Resources

The program can be completed fully online, connecting students and lectures anytime and anywhere.

Notables

Sample classes include soil engineering, landfill design, basic fluid mechanics, Topics in civil engineering. Students should have a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, with a minimum GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. A GRE Quantitative score of 700 is also recommended.