Sirsj, Sukkur AddedThursday, August 13, 2015 at 1:26 AM future plans for a civil engineering graduate student What are the best future plans of civil engineer after completing the master degree Related to Civil Reset Sort By Default Kara Kockelman , University of Texas at Austin Answered Thursday, August 13, 2015 at 1:26 AM Civil engineers have all types of terrific opportunities after completing a master’s degree! Those with a strong business sense and novel ideas may start their own company. Others may join a large or small consulting firm, a city’s public works department, a state’s department of transportation, and so forth. A Master’s degree conveys a wonderful level of specialization that allows engineers (and those in other fields) to go farther and deeper, so they can really follow their passions and make more meaningful contributions that are much harder to make with simply a four-year degree. In the U.S., an MS degree in engineering may one day become the “base degree”, rather than a B.S. degree, because our fields have pushed the envelope of innovation further and further, so our knowledge runs deeper and deeper. It is very hard to get close to that envelope of understanding in just four years (taking a wide range of classes, not just engineering courses, of course!). Thus, many new graduates with a B.S. degree (who typically are just 22-years old) do not feel that they know enough to have the depth of career that they need to be intellectually satisfied. A large share (perhaps the majority) want to head back for an M.S. degree, so they can specialize (in transportation engineering, environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, or construction engineering, for example). A professional engineer’s license is also very important for civil engineers, since our work is so public in nature (and therefore public safety is regularly affected by our design decisions), and an M.S. degree really speeds up that licensing process. Many people in industry and practice want an M.S. degree to be the starting degree for civil engineers, and 5 years of undergraduate studies is typical in France and several other countries for a first degree in civil engineering. Thus, I encourage everyone for whom education is enjoyable to be ready to pursue an M.S. degree before too long after graduating with their B.S. degree. It really pays off, in many ways! A world of opportunity opens up with an M.S. degree.