Exactly. Had a couple of good ones, followed by one total nut, and then a German that wore green socks and sandals and kept telling us to <extreme German accent>INTEGRATE BY BRUTE-FORCE</extreme German accent>.
OT - college major questions - anyone have a degree in Civil Engineering or Architecture?
- Thread starter mstateglfr
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My experience is the opposite. Private is where you're looking to make profit and keep clients happy, thus decisions are based on that. Government is where the rules are made to 'save the world'.
You need both.
Y'all have worked with/around better companies than most. From my experience and nearly every body I know, most promotions are based on nepotism, cronyism, or good old fashioned áss kissing.*
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If Civil Service is a potential future career choice, some agencies require PE license to move into management or to reach full working level. All depends on which agency though.
I'm an accountant and I don't run jack. Money is alright though if numbers are your thing.
Architecture.
There are 3 paths in architecture.
1. Like southern Miss' program is an Architectural Design program, once you pass you cannot be an Architect with that degree. It produces basically draftsmen.
2. Bachelor in Architecture programs are 5 years like MSU's. You are not limited in any way in the profession of architecture with this degree. You cannot be a tenured professor without a masters, but practicing is much better and way more profitable.
3. What they call the 4+2 path. A bunch of programs that do not off the B_Arch degree are known as 4+2 where you go to undergrad for 4 years but have to go to grad school.
All the SEC schools have good programs.
Private is where people are trying to do things that add value for people. Government is where you do things that destroy value. There are exceptions on both sides, but as a general rule, that's much closer than yours.
ETA: I can't tell you how many projects I've dealt with where bureaucrats fought tooth and nail and went beyond just requiring that the law be complied with when they were finally done, there was no negative impact (except for all the resources wasted). And of course there are many more projects that would make peoples' lives better that never get off the ground because a misguided bureaucrat measures their self worth by how much interference they pose.
I'll suggest an alternative path to consider, depending on how much the "saving the world" part means to her.
What you're describing is going to be closer to the kind of basic and applied research that leads to changing or creating new processes and applications - that's usually going to be an academic at an R1 institution. Could be a PhD in engineering, biochem, environmental science, etc.
That's the path I took (in a different field), and I usually advise even my most talented students against it unless they they are consumed by their field.
While you can do quite well if you can get the grants and a tenure track position at a good university, pursuing graduate training, particularly the PhD, means you are essentially in limbo for 5 years while the rest of your cohort are establishing that early career position and moving up the ladder, starting families, buying that first home, etc. That's followed by 6-10 years chasing tenure, if you are really lucky.
Just from a demographics standpoint (shrinking student pool) I would think long and hard before I considered an academic position.
What you're describing is going to be closer to the kind of basic and applied research that leads to changing or creating new processes and applications - that's usually going to be an academic at an R1 institution. Could be a PhD in engineering, biochem, environmental science, etc.
That's the path I took (in a different field), and I usually advise even my most talented students against it unless they they are consumed by their field.
While you can do quite well if you can get the grants and a tenure track position at a good university, pursuing graduate training, particularly the PhD, means you are essentially in limbo for 5 years while the rest of your cohort are establishing that early career position and moving up the ladder, starting families, buying that first home, etc. That's followed by 6-10 years chasing tenure, if you are really lucky.
Just from a demographics standpoint (shrinking student pool) I would think long and hard before I considered an academic position.
Destroy? That's high level cynicism. Bad private industry or bad government can destroy value.
When working correctly, i.e. well regulated capitalism, both add value. Privatizing everything is a bad thing.
Lot of good advice here. I will add that I highly recommend the co-op program.
My son was in Mechanical Engineering, but I also HIGHLY recommend the co-op program. He grew up on his co-ops (he did three with two companies). He also added some very valuable lines to his resume. That along with some stellar, but not perfect, grades led to a masters from a world class university, and jobs at two enormous companies. He is well on his way. You can achieve whatever you want at MSU, if you have the talent and put the work in.
If she “truly” wants to save the world, waste water. Or go out to California and teach those stupid bastards how to build catch ponds to save run off.
After she gets her CE degree from MSU the first place she should visit is Australia. They are light years ahead of us in all things water. The future of CE is water capture.
After she gets her CE degree from MSU the first place she should visit is Australia. They are light years ahead of us in all things water. The future of CE is water capture.
Someone else touched on it but you should have her look at Landscape Architecture. It is really more in line with what you are describing. Most states allow LA’s to perform anything that a civil can do and it is also a STEM discipline. MSU has a great program. My kid is going to follow in my footsteps and head to State next fall AFTER thinking the engineering and then architecture path was the way he wanted to go. I would suggest checking out this website for more information on LA. https://www.asla.org/.
Here is a link to becoming an Engineer Intern and PE in Alabama. You can see how much more is required from a graduate of a non ABET school than an ABET school. Personally I have doubts I would even hire a non ABED graduate without experience for an entry level job.
Also if she goes Civil, she will just about have to get her PE if she ever wants to advance.
You need to regulate externalities but that's not what most of the time is spent on. The manpower is spent on the ridiculous stuff largely. We are way past the point of diminishing returns in the US. We'd be much better off spending that money trying to subsidize basic environmental protection in poorer countries. The amount of money we spend on "recycling" to ship trash around so that it can end up in rivers and oceans could pay to actually landfill our trash and pay to clean up water in poorer areas. If you're worried about CO2, we would be way better served to divert a lot of those resources to clean carbon tech for China and India, b/c they are not going to sacrifice their already relatively poor quality of life.
If you really want to make the world a better place and want to work in government, the only way is to largely go in their and push against the culture on everything. Presumably you can't advance while doing that so you'll pretty much be just trying to do marginally less harm than the person who would otherwise be doing your job would do and hope that you eventually progress enough to actually move the needle on doing reasonable cost benefit analyses.
Any “world changing” right now is likely going to be energy-related. Certainly it will take all kinds, but I look for chemical engineers to be at the forefront. Electrical, too. These aren’t artsy disciplines, but creativity plays well across them all.
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