Civil engineering a broad field and one of the oldest types of engineering in the world. It was developed as a counterpart to military engineering and focuses on designing, building, and maintaining the human-made environment, including roads, bridges, buildings, and dams. Civil engineering can be broken down into a number of sub-categories, such of which include:

• environmental engineering
• urban engineering
• surveying
• structural engineering
• construction engineering
• transportation engineering

Your career path with an education in civil engineering can follow many different routes, according to your skills and interests. Civil engineers do everything from building bridges to designing electrical plans for a new urban development. The focus of all civil engineering careers is to come up with solutions to turn a plot of land into something more usable for the general public. You could work on-site building a new shopping center, design earth-quake safe skyscrapers, research new building materials like plastics and alloys, design street lighting for an urban area, maintain public park systems, or lay out plans for new highways. As you can see, this is a varied field with the options to work in a number of engineering-related industries.

You can begin working in civil engineering with just a bachelor’s degree, but many jobs require you to have at least a master’s degree in the field. Employers also like to see you choose a concentration, so although you’ll qualify for most jobs with a general civil engineering degree, you’ll be a strong candidate for a job in your favorite civil engineering field if you have specialized education in that area.

Civil engineers can easily earn six figure salaries as they gain experience in the workforce and jobs are available across the country, though they are highly competitive. If you want to work in this industry, consider getting at least a master’s degree in the field.

Master’s Degrees in Civil Engineering

• Norwich University — Master of Civil Engineering (MCE)