The University of California at Berkeley is recognized by "U.S. News and World Report" as the best civil engineering college in the U.S. for 2010. The university is located in Northern California just outside of Oakland in Berkeley, California. The undergraduate program is a four-year curriculum that requires 120 credits to graduate with an ABET-accredited B.S. degree in civil engineering. The program teaches students engineering concepts such as improving civil infrastructure, protecting resources, mitigating hazards and creating efficient and sustainable civil systems. The graduate program is divided into seven program areas: civil systems, energy, civil infrastructure and climate, engineering and project management, environmental engineering, geoengineering, materials and transportation, structural and mechanics engineering. A doctoral program is also available.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is located in Champaign, Illinois, which is just south of Chicago, one of the biggest cities in the U.S. The civil engineering program at UOI has undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degree programs in seven areas of study: construction management, construction materials, environmental engineering and science, environmental hydrology and hydraulic engineering, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering and transportation. The campus is fully accredited and has several high-profile, high-tech research centers that give students the opportunity to partake in cutting-edge projects. In 2010, "U.S. News and World Report" ranked the UOI civil engineering program as the No. 2-rated program in the U.S.
The Georgia Institute of Technology -- Georgia Tech -- is located in Atlanta, Georgia, and is recognized as one of the top research universities in the U.S. In 2010, "U.S. News and World Report" ranked Georgia Tech as the third best civil engineering school in the U.S. Georgia Tech offers fully accredited undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs in civil engineering. In addition, Georgia Tech also offers an undergraduate/graduate bridge program which allows students to complete the graduate and undergraduate program in just five years. Generally, the undergraduate program takes four years to complete. Graduate degree students will have to choose an area of specialization: environmental, geosystems, structures, mechanics and materials, transportation, environmental fluid mechanics and water resources. It will take one and one-half to two years to complete the graduate program.
Purdue University is tied at No. 3 in "U.S. News and World Report's" best civil engineering colleges in the U.S. list. Located in West Lafayette, Indiana, Purdue offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral civil engineering programs. According to the school's website, Purdue has one of the largest civil engineering programs in the U.S. with more than 600 undergraduate students, 240 graduate students and more than 11,000 living alumni. The Purdue School of Civil Engineering's has 20 state-of-the-art research and teaching facilities, two large computer laboratories and classrooms. The bachelor of science in civil engineering degree program is fully accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET.