Among the colleges and universities offering civil engineering programs in California are California State University Long Beach (CSULB); University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley); Stanford University; California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly); California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech); University of Southern California (USC); and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Cal Poly is in San Luis Obispo, California. Cal Tech is in Pasadena. USC makes its home in Los Angeles.
In 2010, "U.S. News and World Report" ranked the UC Berkeley graduate civil and environmental engineering program best in the United States. The undergraduate civil engineering specialty at Berkeley was ranked second in the country in 2011. The graduate civil and environmental engineering program at Stanford was ranked second nationally in 2010.
In 2011, the Cal Poly civil engineering program boasts a special research project concerning compaction methods of waste in landfills. Cal Tech civil engineering students take part in the program's Earthquake Engineering Research Laboratory. UCLA Civil and Environmental Engineering comes with its own tagline: "Engineering Sustainable Infrastructure for the Future."
Undergraduate civil engineering students at UCLA are required to take courses like chemical engineering, mechanical and aerospace engineering and geotechnical engineering. Civil engineering courses at UC Berkeley include Multivariable Calculus, Engineering Data Analysis, Elementary Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology. Undergraduate civil engineering courses at CSULB include Hydraulic Engineering Design, Timber Design and Traffic Engineering. Stanford has six separate curricula within the civil and environmental engineering program: Architectural Design, Atmosphere/Energy Engineering, Construction, Environmental Engineering and Sciences, Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology and Structural Engineering and Geomechanics.
California engineering schools award Bachelor of Science (BS), Master of Science (MS), Master of Engineering and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in civil engineering. CSULB, Stanford, UC Berkeley, USC Viterbi School of Engineering and UCLA award degrees at all of these levels. Cal Poly awards BS and MS degrees. Cal Tech only awards MS degrees. All graduate degree programs require applicants to hold an undergraduate degree in engineering. Some programs require applicants to pass a closed-book engineering exam for admittance.