The Master of Science in Civil Engineering program is designed for students to specialize in their choice of sub-discipline in Civil Engineering. The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering  offers specializations in Construction Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Structural Engineering, Transportation Engineering, and Water Resources and Environmental Engineering. Courses are practical-oriented, focusing on content and skills that prepare engineers to enter and/or advance in industry or enter doctoral programs. The program offers coursework in a once-per-week format in the afternoons and evenings to accommodate working individuals who wish to pursue their studies while gaining industry experience. Additional information is available at cee.sjsu.edu.

Program Educational Objectives and Graduate Program Outcomes

The graduate program should prepare students to achieve the following Program Educational Objectives (PEOs) within 3-5 years of relevant work experience after completing their degree. Students should be able to:

• Work on innovative solutions to today’s complex civil engineering challenges by synthesizing and integrating engineering concepts while applying modern engineering tools and software;
• Justify appropriate solution approaches to complex civil engineering problems and evaluate the results of solutions to complex civil engineering problems;
• Demonstrate mastery in their field by having earned or by pursuing professional licensure;
• Pursue professional and personal leadership opportunities in service to the profession and society;
• Be an effective member on multi-disciplinary and cross-CE disciplinary teams by demonstrating strong collaboration and communication skills.

Five graduate Program learning Outcomes (POs) are aligned with the PEOs and are assessed in individual graduate courses. By the end of the program, students should be able to

• Apply advanced concepts, theory and analysis for solving complex problems in a technically appropriate area to the practice of civil engineering;
• Synthesize and integrate necessary engineering concepts into engineering solution process;
• Apply modern engineering tools and software for computations, simulations, analysis and design;
• Effectively communicate civil engineering concepts to a diverse audience;
• Demonstrate a mastery of one of the following five areas of professional practice in civil engineering (construction engineering, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, transportation engineering, water resources and environmental engineering);

Admissions Requirements

Requirements for Admission to Classified Standing

Prospective students must apply separately to the university to obtain approval for graduate-level admission and to the department to obtain admission into the MS in Civil Engineering program. In addition to meeting university admission requirements , an applicant must have:

• A bachelor’s degree in civil engineering
• A 2.7 grade point average (4.0-based scale)

Classified students whose undergraduate degree programs may not have covered all foundational undergraduate courses may be required to complete prerequisite courses, depending upon the graduate courses they choose for their MS degree program.

Requirements for Admission to Conditionally Classified Standing

Applicants who do not qualify for classified standing in civil engineering but who meet university requirements for graduate admission and whose academic records or professional achievements and maturity give promise of satisfactory performance in graduate study in civil engineering may, upon approval of a committee of department faculty, be admitted, with specific conditions, as conditionally classified. The conditions must be fulfilled before the student can be advanced to candidacy for the degree. If the conditions are not fulfilled in the specified timeframe, the program reserves the right to dismiss the student from the program by notifying the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies. This process is known as an administrative academic disqualification (see Section 41300.1, Title 5, California Code of Regulations). Applicants whose bachelor’s degrees are not in civil engineering will be required to take additional courses that will not be counted in the graduate degree program for the MSCE. Details can be obtained on the department website at cee.sjsu.edu/graduate-studies/makeup-requirements.

English Proficiency Requirements

Applicants from countries in which the native language is not English must achieve a minimum English-language proficiency test score as indicated on the Graduate Program Test Requirements webpage at GAPE.

Requirements for Advancement to Graduate Candidacy

Conditionally classified students must satisfy the conditional requirements listed in their letter of acceptance prior to advancing to candidacy. Students who have completed matriculation and achieved classified standing in the MS degree may advance to candidacy after completing a minimum of 9 units of graded work as a graduate student in letter-graded 100 or 200-level courses acceptable to the CE Department. Students must also fulfill other university requirements for advancement to candidacy  for the master’s degree as outlined in the Graduate Policies and Procedures  section. Candidacy requires the successful completion of the Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR) .

Requirements for Graduation

University Graduation Requirements

Students must complete all residency, curriculum, unit, GPA, and culminating experience requirements as outlined in the Graduation Requirements  section of the Graduate Policies and Procedures .

Approved courses may include graduate courses and select upper-division courses in Civil Engineering and graduate or upper-division courses in other university departments from a list approved by the Civil Engineering Department Curriculum Committee. The maximum number of upper-division undergraduate units that can be applied toward the master’s degree is 15. At least 60% of the courses taken must be letter-graded. No more than 30% of the courses listed for candidacy can be transfer units, including any graduate-level courses taken in the senior undergraduate year at SJSU.

Upon completion of the degree requirements, the student must have achieved minimum candidacy and SJSU cumulative grade point averages of 3.0 in order to graduate. All courses utilized for degree requirements must have a grade of “C or better” (C- not accepted).

Eligible primary and secondary areas of specialization in civil engineering areas are:

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

Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement

At SJSU, students must pass the Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR) . The GWAR is satisfied with CE 204  or CE 248  for this degree.

Culminating Experience

Plan A (Thesis)

Students choosing this option must complete 6 units of Project (3 units of CE 298 ) and Thesis courses (3 units of CE 299 ). The student is responsible for securing the commitment of three committee members, in accordance with university policy, to serve as the student’s thesis committee . One full-time faculty member in the CEE department must agree to serve as the thesis committee chair. The second committee member must be either a faculty member or lecturer in the department. The thesis must meet university requirements as stipulated in this catalog and in the SJSU Master’s Thesis and Doctoral Dissertation Guidelines. The candidate must pass a final oral defense of the thesis. Meeting thesis standards and passing the oral defense is solely the responsibility of the student and a student who fails to meet these standards will be required to maintain continuous enrollment at the university until the work is complete.

Plan B (Project)

Students choosing the Project option must complete 3 units of CE 298  under the advisement of at least one full-time departmental faculty member. The student is also responsible for securing a committee consistent with the requirements for a thesis committee. The project must culminate in a project report and an oral defense of the project. In addition to the project, the student must select and complete a program in a secondary area of emphasis in consultation with their advisor. CE 298  courses may be completed and not used for the Culminating Experience. Students must then complete the Comprehensive Exam, as described below.

Plan B (Comprehensive Exam)

Students choosing this option must sign up for the departmental comprehensive exam, given once per semester, during the final term of study. The student is responsible for applying for candidacy and having it approved prior to signing up for the exam. In addition to the comprehensive exam, the student must select and complete a program in a secondary area of emphasis in consultation with their advisor. The comprehensive exam covers topics in the student’s primary and secondary areas of emphasis. Signing up for the exam does not necessarily meet enrollment requirements for external agencies and cannot be used for that purpose. Students who fail to register for or pass the comprehensive exam in their final term of study will be required to maintain continuous enrollment with the university in subsequent semesters. Students who fail to pass the comprehensive exam may be required to complete remedial work.