structural engineering grad school: which courses? 1

[mikhelson]

I'll be going to a Master's program in structural engineering with the intent of joining a practice in a year. I'd like to seek your advice as to which courses are most helpful for someone like me who hasn't yet decided between highrise building design and infrastructure (bridges, tunnels).

The program I'll be going to (UC Berkeley) offers a wealth of courses and only requires structural dynamics, earthquake resistant design, and analysis courses (aside from the sheer number of required credits). In addition, I'll certainly take advanced steel and concrete design. This leaves me with another 3 courses or so of my choosing.

Which courses do you wish you'd taken when you were in grad school? Or what do you find most helpful in your day to day practice? For example, should I take finite element methods, or advanced mechanics of materials, or materials course, or a geotech course?

Thanks

 

[B16A2]

I'm an SE who's going back to grad school now. Every university throws their own spin on courses, so maybe courses are more or less practical there. With that said though, the core courses you mentioned you plan to take are right on.

As for the three optional courses it kinda depends on what you go into, but I recommend taking a materials course in concrete and steel. Also, plastic design of metals. Connection design course if you want to go the building route. Geotech course could be useful for tunnel design, but from talking to friends in the class they're going WAY more in depth than a structural engineer would ever care to go in geotech design. Same with pile and soil dynamics geotech courses.

Mechanics and Finite at my school aren't practical enough so I'm shying away from them.

 

[COEngineeer]

mikhelson, figure out what you might be doing for your thesis research. You might want to take a class related to it.

Never, but never question engineer's judgement

 

[mikhelson]

COEngineeer:

I actually planned not to go the thesis route. I have the option of doing a coursework only MS. Why would you recommend doing a thesis?

 

[JackTrades]

I would highly recommend that you do not go the thesis route unless you plan on continuing on and getting a PhD.

My advice concerning coursework, if you intend a career as a design enginer, is to take as many design related courses as you can. Advanced steel and concrete, masonry, wood, and a bridge course. Even if you end up primarily doing buildings, it's good to have some bridge design background.

That's my $0.02.

-Jack

 

[MiketheEngineer]

A little of both??? Can't hurt. You never know where you will end up!!

 

[B16A2]

Thesis route is good because it exposes you to many things you probably wouldn't see in class, and it also provides you more opportunity to develop communication skills by writing papers, giving presentations, etc.

The downside of thesis, of course, is that you're the professor's bi**h for 1 1/2 years....getting paid for 20 hours and working 50, etc.

I'm into my second semester thesis route and it's not too bad.

 

[COEngineeer]

Where I went you cant get a MS without thesis. If you do it without thesis you will get ME (masters of engineering). But they didnt even allow me to get ME.

Never, but never question engineer's judgement

 

[Ron]

Don't take courses to define your practice. Take the ones that apply to as many avenues of possible practice as you can.

 

[Hurricanes]

I have heard that a Masters by thesis and coursework is held in higher regard than a Masters by just coursework. I have no justification for this view point, but like to believe it is true as I have a Masters by thesis and coursework.

 

[UcfSE]

Another route: take all of interest to you instead of the minimum required. Then you won't ask yourself in xx years which courses do I wish I had taken.

 

[B16A2]

UcfSE,
I agree, but from my experience going back to school I've found a lot of students only have a fuzzy picture of the real design world and what they feel is important.

 

[mikhelson]

B16A2:
You've identified precisely the reason for this post. I enjoy taking classes and I love my field. In fact I'm thinking of staying 3 semesters in the grad program rather than the required 2 just to take a few more classes before I leave school for good. But just as you said, I have a poor idea of what will be useful to me at work (other than soft skills and the ability to learn). My past internship experience has been in construction, a research assistantship and a little geotech, none of it in design. I found it impossible to get an internship with a structural design firm as an undergrad, so I've committed myself to a profession without getting a foretaste of it first.

Thanks to everyone for your replies.

 

[abusementpark]

Have you had a class in prestressed concrete yet??

I took it as an undergraduate class and even though I don't use directly that often, it really pounded home a lot of fundamental structural engineering principles. I know a lot of places offer it as a graduate class.

 

[UcfSE]

Well, you need to have some idea of where you plan to work and what you plan to do if you're going to try to take classes useful in your job.

I'd take at least one class in the major structural materials, FEM, structural dynamics, advanced structural mechanics, things that will help you understand codes and the "why" of things, even if you don't use the knowledge directly. I've found that alone is extremely valuable. Personally I would call those fundamentals for a graduate degree, but that's only my opinion.

Beyond that, take what interests you personally. You may have interests that you study and research yourself that you will never do at work. Just because you don't use it at work doesn't make it not worth learning. You never know if you might need it. Besides, you should develop what interests you anyway, and not just what can make your boss money.

 

[B16A2]

mikhelson,
This is the reason real work experience should be a prerequisite for a MS Civil degree.

I find it hard to believe no structural engineering firms would hire you on as an undergrad intern. You're cheap labor for grunt work. All the firms I knew hired plenty of summer help.

 

[mikhelson]

Where I live (San Francisco), no reputable structural firm hires undergrads -- at least, I don't know anyone at my school who was able to score an internship doing structural work before they graduated. I'll be interning at a structural firm during the summer in between undergrad and grad school, but until now I could only find employment with general contractors and municipalities.

 

[graybeach]

My Master's was 10 coursed and no theses. In addition to the technical stuff, the experience of writing papers and giving presentations was invaluable.

My most useful courses were structural dynamics, advanced mechanics of materials, prestressed concrete and plastic design of steel. Plates and shells was good too. I would focus less on design and more on the theoretical. Design is more of an art that you need to learn from people actually doing design, not professors. 20 years older now since I got my MS (man that is scary), one thing I wish I would have taken courses in: Metallergy.

 

[COEngineeer]

I took classical structural analysis and matrix structural analysis. The first class teaches you how to do structural analysis in different methods (virtual load, conjugate beam, integration etc.), the second one we used matrices and wrote a computer program to do structural analysis. The first class I really love it and still use it today. The second one was interesting but I dont remember a thing today.

Never, but never question engineer's judgement

 

[Whiffle]

I agree with graybeach. Don't worry too much about the design courses right now, you can learn that on the job by people that are good at it (designers). Whether you go into high rise building design or bridges, courses like FEA and advanced mechanics of materials will be helpful. I also suggest a stability class.

Don't toss the option of doing a thesis, especially at Berkeley, it's a research school after all. If I were in your shoes I would definately do the thesis option if you can find some research you are interested in.

Actually in this economy I would consider doing a Ph.D. You'll come out of school a couple of years later, but that will give the economy time to recover.