“…once a theory appears on the question sheet of a college examination, it turns into something to be feared and believed, and many of the engineers who were benefited by a college education applied the theories without even suspecting the narrow limits of their validity.”
Karl Terzaghi, from https://www.geoengineer.org/education/karl-terzaghi/quotes
Bachelor’s Degree (B.S.)
If you are interested in becoming a geotechnical engineer, then the first step is to attain a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from an ABET accredited engineering college. ABET is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that provides accreditation to schools so that employers and students can be confident that the engineering education meets the quality standards that produce graduates prepared to enter a global workforce. You can check if your college or university holds an ABET accreditation here: Name Search (abet.org).
In your undergraduate civil engineering program, you should plan to take as many classes as available in soil mechanics, foundation design, slope stability, and seismic hazard. These classes will give you a foundational understanding of geotechnical engineering and will prepare you for an entry-level job as a geotechnical engineer. It is typical for undergraduate programs to provide students with approximately three geotechnical engineering focused courses.
Master’s Degree (M.S.)
After receiving your bachelor’s degree, the next step in your geotechnical engineering education may include attaining a master’s degree. Because geotechnical engineering is a specialty within civil engineering, I highly recommend going to school for a master’s degree. Master’s degrees will provide you with significantly more coursework and theoretical knowledge on soil behavior and geotechnical engineering concepts.
For example, for my master’s degree from University of California, Los Angeles, I took an additional nine graduate level courses in geotechnical engineering. This was three times the number of courses that I took in my undergraduate program. It is hard to imagine today that I would be as technically competent and prepared to service clients without this extra education.
Here are three frequent questions I encounter from young engineering professionals regarding master’s programs:
- Should I work first or get my master’s degree before working?
- Can I get my master’s degree while working?
- Should I attend a master’s program with a research component or just coursework?
To answer this first question, you need to consider your life situation and goals. I only recommend going for a master’s degree in geotechnical engineering if you are more than 90% certain that you want to practice this specialty in your civil engineering career. For me, I knew that I only wanted to practice geotechnical engineering, and, therefore, I went straight into a master’s degree after finishing my bachelor’s degree. But if you are uncertain, then I encourage you to work first for 2 to 5 years for a company that practices geotechnical engineering. This exposure and experience will help you decide if the additional education from a master’s program is right for you and your goals.
To answer the second question, again, you need to evaluate your life goals. You can complete a master’s program in as little as one school year if you are able to attend full-time. However, a master’s program can extend to three to five years if you are only able to take one class a semester due to other work or life responsibilities. I encourage you to consider the opportunity cost of going to school versus working. There is a cost to the master’s degree tuition plus a lost opportunity to earn your working wages; however, you are likely to recover the costs over the length of a career by commanding a higher wage in the workforce with your advanced degree. Exceptional people can complete their master’s degree in one year while working part-time.
In my experience, there are two types of master’s degree programs:
- The traditional with a research component
- The education focused with an exit exam
Traditional master’s degrees usually take between one and two years to complete when attended full-time. The program involves a couple of less classes than an education focused master’s degree but does provide a research project. Depending on the project the student can pick up additional skills in laboratory work, field investigation, and computer modeling that master’s candidates in the education focused track will not experience. If you are considering pursuing a Ph.D., then I recommend the research focused master’s program.
The education focused master’s degree provides more coursework and usually has a duration of one year. I recommend this type of graduate program if you are certain that you are going into professional industry after your master’s degree. The extra coursework will help provide you with the broad theoretical knowledge necessary to jump right into a career.
Doctor of Philosophy Degree (Ph.D)
The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree is the highest level of educational degree for a geotechnical engineer. The Ph.D. programs typically take four to six years to complete when attending full-time. The programs involve additional graduate level coursework, working on a research project, collaborating with your advising professor and other Ph.D. candidates, writing a dissertation, and defending of your thesis.
Ph.D. programs and students are a necessary component of the geotechnical community. There is still so much that we do not know about soil behavior, and the research coming out of Ph.D. programs helps to continue to advance geotechnical engineering.
Everyone’s Ph.D. program is unique. The experience is highly dependent on your advisor and the research that you are performing. Ph.D. programs will involve long hours and years diving deeply into a narrow topic. At the end of your Ph.D. program, you will have at least one published research paper tied to your name and you will be the foremost expert of your thesis.
Having a Ph.D. does not necessarily translate into increased wages in the workplace above a master’s degree. However, in my experience, professionals with a Ph.D. progress through their career quicker than master’s degree holding professionals. This is because Ph.D. professionals work on the most challenging projects, have a thesis that differentiates them from their peers, and have advanced training on difficult engineering analyses, such as 3D modeling.
I recommend that you consider pursuing a Ph.D. if you have a deep passion for geotechnical engineering and have a specific topic within geotechnical engineering that you want to devote years of your life to, if not your whole career. Ph.D. professionals also have the option to lecture and research at engineering colleges. If this is something that you are interested in, then a Ph.D. is for you!
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