Studying Civil Engineering

Do skyscrapers fascinate you? Do you see yourself building dams, bridges, expressways, highways, airports and tunnels? Then, civil engineering might be just the course for you!

Civil engineering is the engineering discipline concerned with the design, building and use of dams, buildings, bridges, roads and similar structures. There are many different kinds of buildings (hospitals, airports) and infrastructure (roads, water pipes, mines) that are integral to any city or modern human settlement. For this reason, civil engineering can be further divided into sub-disciplines. Structural engineering would be an example of this.

Some of the most popular universities in the United States that offer programmes in civil engineering include:

• Central Oklahoma University
• New Jersey Institute of Technology
• University Of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Maryland University

Salary and Career Prospects

Civil engineering graduates find work at engineering companies and the government.

Some of the roles graduates take up are Civil Engineer, Construction Engineer, Site Civil Engineer and Field Engineer.

Salaries vary depending on qualifications, job role, location and experience. As a guide, civil engineers earn around an average of $86,000 a year (60 lakhs INR).

Why study in USA?

The United States of America is the most popular destination for international students. Its universities are widely regarded as being among the best in the world for teaching, learning and research. In fact, American universities consistently outrank non-American universities in QS World Rankings every year.

The US economy is the world’s largest. The country is the birthplace of conglomerates like Amazon, Dell, Microsoft, Citi Group, Ford and Walmart. American companies operate in pretty much every sector or industry, ranging from IT and technology to pharmaceutical to retail, transport, and hospitality. Different regions of the United States are known for excelling in different industries. California, for example is a world-leading IT and technology hub and New York is a major business, banking and finance hub. In addition to this, several international agencies like the United Nations, World Bank are headquartered in USA.

The country is a popular tourist destination, with millions of tourists drawn to its vibrant cities, breathtakingly beautiful national parks and landscapes, excellent dining, hospitality and leisure options and historic buildings, museums and art galleries. New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle are among the biggest cities.

There is no language barrier because English is the de facto official language. However, USA is a multicultural country and several hundred languages are spoken at community level.

International graduates are able to apply for a post-study work permit, or optional practical training (OPT) as it is called in the States for a period of up to 36 months.