CE-BS - Civil Engineering (BS)

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. 

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.

1. 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 Storms

• CEE 64: Air Pollution and Global Warming: History, Science & Solutions

• CEE 80N: Engineering the Built Environment: Intro to Structural Engr
  CEE 83: Seismic Design Workshop

• CEE 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

2. For an introduction to Civil Engineering, classes required for all of our declared majors that are readily accessible to you are