CE-BS - Civil Engineering (BS)
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Program Overview
Stanfordʼs Civil Engineering major prepares students to plan, design, construct, and sustain the built environment, manage our air, energy, and water resources, protect our natural environment, and protect society from natural and climate-related hazards.
The work of civil engineers is crucial to the day-to-day lives of people around the world. The civil engineering field is both technical and people-oriented, requiring an ability to manage large, multi-faceted projects as well as diverse groups of people and having excellent communication skills. Students in the major learn to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and the primary areas of civil engineering to design systems to solve engineering problems, conduct hands-on and computational experiments, and communicate their ideas effectively.
Focus Areas
Choose one primary focus area and three other focus areas for breadth:
Structural Engineering & Mechanics
Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology
Construction Engineering
Energy and Climate
Environmental Quality Engineering
Sensing, Analytics, and Control
Urban Systems
A Comparison: Civil Engineering vs. Environmental Systems Engineering
Students interested in the area of civil and environmental engineering should be aware of the following differences between choosing this Environmental Systems Engineering major versus the Civil Engineering major.
Professional Considerations: The Civil Engineering degree is ABET-accredited, while the Environmental Systems Engineering major is not. A degree accredited by ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) is a first step toward a professional engineering license. In California, you must accrue six years of work experience under the supervision of a licensed professional engineer before being allowed to take the licensing exam. An ABET-accredited BS degree counts as four years of this required work experience. Earning an MS degree from a department that offers an ABET-accredited BS degree will give you credit for a total of 5 years of work experience in California, regardless of whether or not your BS degree is ABET-accredited.
If you envision a career providing, supervising, or managing professional engineering services (e.g. engineering investigations, design), you will likely need to become a licensed professional engineer and should aim, via your chosen B.S. and/or M.S. (coterm) degrees, to earn ABET credit for four to five years of work experience.
Pragmatic Considerations: The Civil Engineering major provides a structured curriculum that ensures breadth across different areas specified by ABET. The Environmental Systems Engineering major requires fewer units, offers more flexibility in choosing courses, and provides greater ability to focus on a specific topic area.
Preparing for the Major
Instructions for Declaring a Major in Civil Engineering
Download and complete your major Program Sheet, which can be obtained from the School of Engineering Undergraduate Handbook Program Sheets website: https://ughb.stanford.edu/program-sheets. Be sure to fill in all courses that you have taken and those which you plan to take. You will have the opportunity to revise this later, so please fill in as many courses as you can.
Email your completed program sheet to jill.filice@stanford.edu and request to have a CEE advisor assigned to you. You may request a specific advisor if you wish.
Meet with your CEE undergraduate advisor and review your program sheet with them. Have your undergraduate advisor sign your program sheet. If
Make sure you requested the transfer of any AP credit you want applied to your Stanford transcript. To request AP credit at Stanford, contact the College Board to request that your scores be sent to Stanford. For incoming freshmen, AP credit is posted to your student record in mid-September.
Email your signed program sheet to jill.filice@stanford.edu, and upon receiving your signed sheet Jill will approve your major declaration in Axess.
You are encouraged to meet with your CEE undergraduate adviser at least once a quarter to review your academic progress. Changes to your program sheet can be made by submitting a revised program sheet with your undergraduate adviser’s signature to Jill at jill.filice@stanford.edu. NOTE – it is very important to confirm that your program sheet is up to date at least one quarter prior to graduation. SoE and Department Deviation Petitions must be submitted at least the quarter prior to your graduation quarter. Changes to your program may be denied within one quarter prior to graduation.
More information can be found here: https://cee.stanford.edu/academics-admission/undergraduate-degrees/how-declare-cee-your-major
Exploring Civil Engineering as a Major
Are you wondering whether a Civil Engineering major is for you? If so, here are some courses accessible early in your undergraduate career that will help you explore your interest in our major. If you end up joining our program, this early start on fulfilling requirements will pay off by giving you more flexibility in class scheduling for your junior and senior years.
The following electives are accessible to frosh/sophomores, and can count towards the major:
CEE 41Q: Clean Water Now! Urban Water Conflicts
CEE 63: Weather and StormsCEE 64: Air Pollution and Global Warming: History, Science & Solutions
CEE 80N: Engineering the Built Environment: Intro to Structural Engr
CEE 83: Seismic Design WorkshopCEE 107A: Understanding Energy or CEE107S
CEE 120A: Building Modeling for Design and Construction
CEE 131C: How Buildings Are Made: Materiality and Construction Methods
CEE 162F: Coastal Processes
For an introduction to Civil Engineering, classes required for all of our declared majors that are readily accessible to you are
Class | Description | Quarter |
|---|---|---|
ENGR 14 | Introduction to Solid Mechanics, 3 units (prereq: PHYSICS 41) | A,W,S |
ENGR 90 (same as CEE 70) | Environmental Science & Technology, 3 units | W |
CEE 100 | Managing Sustainable Building Projects (WIM), 4 units | A |
Minimum Units in the Program
Minimum University Units
The Curriculum
The undergraduate civil engineering curriculum includes a core to be taken by all declared majors that provides a broad introduction to the major areas of civil engineering. Subsequent coursework is grouped into 7 focus areas, allowing students to tailor their studies to align with their interests. Undergraduates potentially interested in the Civil Engineering major should also consider the Environmental Systems Engineering major as a possible alternative; a comparison of these two alternative majors is presented in the Environmental Systems Engineering page.
For more information on civil engineering, students are encouraged to visit the CEE website, talk to a CEE faculty member, or contact the CEE Assistant Director of Degree Progress, Jill Filice, in room 316 of the Jerry Yang and Akiko Yamazaki Environment & Energy (Y2E2) Building.
Research Experience for Undergraduates
The department of Civil and Environmental Engineering welcomes student participation in the VPUE Undergraduate Research Programs. Interested students should check the VPUE website and the CEE website for announcements regarding the application procedures. Annual program announcements appear in January with application due dates in February.
Plus take additional Physics, Chemistry, or Mathematics to reach 45 units of Math/Science.
CEE 177 and CEE 170 are approved as science classes only for the CE major.
EARTHSYS 11 is required for depth focus in Structural Engineering and Mechanics, Construction Engineering, Urban Systems, Energy and Climate, or Sensing, Analytics, and Control
CEE 170 or CEE 177 is required for depth focus in Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology or Environmental Quality Engineering
At least 68 units of Fundamental + Depth courses are required by ABET and by the Department.
Required Core Courses
CEE 101D can only be counted in this depth section if not already being counted as a Focus Area Elective (in the Depth in Discipline section)
Students must take at least 68 units of engineering science and design courses (Engineering Fundamentals + Core + Electives) in order to satisfy ABET and departmental requirements to graduate.
For the remaining engineering elective units:
Additional electives may be selected from the 7 focus areas listed in the Depth in Discipline section.
The following additional Engineering Fundamental courses may count: ENGR 10, 15, 21, 25E, 40M (or 40A), and 50 (or 50E or 50M).
Students may also count up to 4 units of CEE199/199L in this category, and the following introductory CEE classes: CEE 41Q, CEE 80N, and CEE 83.
Students seeking to count an engineering elective course not covered in (1), (2) or (3) must petition the CEE Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, requesting confirmation that the course will satisfy ABET requirements, (by emailing jill.filice@stanford.edu). Some CEE courses do not satisfy ABET requirements, for example: CEE 31, 102W and 151.
Students must complete a minimum of 30 units of Focus Area Electives.
To reach the 30-unit minimum, students must take at least 12 units in one focus area as their depth area. And, students must also take at least 6 units each in 3 other focus areas for breadth. Courses cannot double-count.
For CEE 122A and CEE 122B, each quarter = two units; must take both quarters.
To satisfy ABET criteria, students MUST choose at least TWO of the following 4 classes: CEE 101A, 101B, 101C, and 101D. CEE 101A, 101B, and/or 101C will count as Focus Area Electives. CEE 101D may count either as a Focus Area Elective, or as a Required Core Course (replacing CS 106A).
Students must take at least 12 units in one focus area as their depth area. Students must also take at least 6 units each in 3 other focus areas for breadth. Courses cannot double count.
The first step towards professional licensing is the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) exam. To prepare for a career as a practicing civil or environmental engineer, your elective choices should prepare you for at least one of these choices of FE exam:
Civil FE: CEE 101A, 101C, 180, 182
Environmental FE: CEE 101B, 166B, 172, 174B, 177 (or 170)
General FE: Physics 43, CEE 101A, 101B; ENGR 15 (which may count under Other Electives)
If you are aiming to apply to a CEE coterm program, your elective choices should include, at minimum:
Atmosphere/Energy: CEE 64, 107A
Environmental Engineering: CEE 101B, 177 (or 170)
Structural Engineering & Mechanics: CEE 101A, 101C, 180, 182
SDC (Sustainable Design & Construction) – Energy: CEE 120A, 156, 176A
SDC – Management or SDC – Structures: CEE 101A, 101C, 180
SDC – Urban Systems: CEE 120A, 141A, 155
The capstone course must be at least 3 units.
The Civil and Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Honors Program involves an in-depth research study in an area proposed to and agreed to by a Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering faculty adviser and completion of a thesis of high quality.
A written proposal for the research to be undertaken must be submitted and approved by the faculty advisor in the fourth quarter prior to graduation. At the time of application, the student must have an overall grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.3 for course work at Stanford; this GPA must be maintained to graduation.
The written thesis must be approved by the thesis adviser.
Students are encouraged to present their results in a seminar for faculty and students.
The thesis is supervised by a CEE faculty adviser and must involve input from the School of Engineering’s Technical Communication Program (Huang 049) by means of ENGR 202S: Directed Writing Projects or its equivalent.
Up to 10 units of CEE 199H Undergraduate Honors Thesis may be taken to support the research and writing (not to duplicate ENGR 202S).
These units are beyond the normal Civil Engineering or Environmental Systems Engineering major program requirements.