• • How to withdraw from a course: Course Withdrawal Guide
    • Be sure to check the CoE Academic Policies before withdrawal.
  • Finding your Registration day/time: Viewing Your Enrollment Appointment Time
  • Using Schedule Builder: Using the Schedule Builder
  • Adding Classes: Adding a Course to Your Schedule
  • Swapping Classes: Swapping Courses
  • Viewing Your Class Schedule: Viewing Your Class Schedule
  • General Education Requirements: Undergraduate Catalog | General Education
  • How to filter class search by content area courses: Look Up Classes & Enroll
  • Honors Course Listing: Current Honors Courses
  • Residence Life for housing: ResLife
  • The Bursar for financial questions: UConn Bursar's Office
  • Dean of Students for general student life questions: UConn Dean of Students
  • Honors Program for honors-related questions: UConn Honors Program

Large organizations (including UConn) are notorious for using abbreviations and acronyms liberally in descriptions of offices and procedures. These abbreviations and acronyms are helpful for streamlining text, but only when everyone knows what they mean. Following is a list of abbreviations and acronyms that are used in this document and that you might see elsewhere as you navigate through UConn.

Civil and Environmental Engineers seek to sustainably plan, design, construct and maintain infrastructure systems that meet the evolving needs of humanity while maintaining and protecting the natural environment. We work in the natural and constructed environments and must account for the forces of nature in our designs, seeking to minimize any adverse effects of our designs on the environment and society. We design and construct the physical infrastructure needed by society to insure a high quality of life. This includes the buildings where we live and work, the highways where we travel, the water that we drink, as well as a multitude of other projects necessary for the well-being of life on planet earth.

Civil & Environmental Engineers address some of the most important challenges that face our world today, including:

• Restoration and protection of the environment
• Sustainable energy and the environment
• Global warming and climate change
• Global water supply and flood and drought management
• Planning and design of sustainable transportation systems
• Safe, efficient and secure transportation for people and goods
• Structural monitoring and rehabilitation of aging infrastructure
• Infrastructure protection and natural hazards mitigation
• Design and construction of new infrastructure

The mission of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering is to provide students with a broad, fundamental real-world educational program to prepare them to contribute actively to engineering practice while considering public health and safety, social equity, and environmental and economic factors. Our programs develop creative thinking and innovation skills that enable engineers to develop new solutions to local, national and global problems related to the built and natural environment. We are dedicated to maintaining an inclusive and collaborative environment for students, faculty and staff. We are committed to empowering our students, developing life-long learners, and instilling a sense of professional responsibility.

Accreditation is a process to assure you that the Civil Engineering degree you earn at UConn (or any other accredited engineering school) can be trusted to prepare you for your career objectives, including gaining employment as an engineer after graduating and eventually becoming licensed as a Professional Engineer (PE) (see section “What is Professional Licensure?”).

Engineering and technology programs in the US, including your CE degree from UConn, are accredited by an organization called ABET. One aspect of accreditation is announcing to our constituents – prospective students and potential employers – what our program prepares graduates for. This is known as our Program Educational Objectives, or PEO’s, and they describe what we prepare our students to be doing 5-10 years after they graduate.

The Civil Engineering undergraduate program educational objectives are to prepare our alumni/ae with the knowledge and skills needed to:

• Actively contribute to the practice and profession of engineering, including management and administration, in the public, private or academic sectors in the technical areas of construction, environmental, geotechnical, structural, transportation, and water resources engineering;
• Follow a path towards leadership in the profession that can include licensure as professional engineers who design and construct solutions to civil engineering problems in the natural and built environments; and
• Practice life-long learning through post-graduate and professional education.

The Civil Engineering program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, www.abet.org.

STUDENT OUTCOMES are what students are expected to know and be able to do by the time of graduation:

1. an ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics
2. an ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors
3. an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences
4. an ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts
5. an ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives
6. an ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions
7. an ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies.

In addition there are special CE PROGRAM CRITERIA defined by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the professional society for civil engineers in the US. These criteria say that any accredited civil engineering program must prepare graduates to “apply knowledge of mathematics through differential equations, calculus-based physics, chemistry, and at least one additional area of basic science; apply probability and statistics to address uncertainty; analyze and solve problems in at least four technical areas appropriate to civil engineering; conduct experiments in at least two technical areas of civil engineering and analyze and interpret the resulting data; design a system, component, or process in at least two civil engineering contexts; include principles of sustainability in design; explain basic concepts in project management, business, public policy, and leadership; analyze issues in professional ethics; and explain the importance of professional licensure.”

The undergraduate course program you take in CE is designed so that by graduation you will have taken courses to learn how to do all of the above.

Engineers are required to be licensed when their work directly affects public health, safety and welfare. Licensure ensures that engineers have met minimum qualifications, including competence, ability, experience and character. The licensing process involves an initial exam, called the Fundamentals of Engineering Examination (FE Exam), professional experience, and a second exam, called the Principles and Practice of Engineering (P&P Exam). Once an individual has passed the FE Exam, s/he is certified as an Engineer-in-Training (EIT). After some professional experience and passing the P&P Exam, the individual becomes a Professional Engineer (PE), and is said to be “licensed”. The exams are developed and administered by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES).

The first exam, the FE Exam, can be taken just before graduation from a four-year accredited engineering program, like UConn’s.  The exam stresses subject material in a typical undergraduate program, including chemistry, physics, mathematics, statistics, dynamics, mechanics of materials, fluid mechanics, electrical engineering, thermodynamics and engineering economics.

The CE Faculty strongly encourages all CE students to take this exam in the last semester of their undergraduate program when the subject matter is still fresh in your mind. Waiting to take this exam after graduation often requires significant additional preparation.

Connecticut has chosen the automatic model for approval, which is that examinees will be allowed to register directly with NCEES without prior approval by the Board. FE who would like to be certified in Connecticut may register with NCEES at www.ncees.org. Candidates will pay NCEES the examination fee and will schedule their examination in their NCEES account. Candidates will then take their examination at a Pearson VUE testing location. Candidates will be required to read the NCEES Examinee Guide at https://ncees.org/examinee-guide/.  Reference materials and practice exams are also available on the NCEES website.

• Information about the FE application process can be found here: https://portal.ct.gov/DCP/License-Services-Division/All-License-Applications/Professional-Engineers-and-Land-Surveyors-Licensing

1. Make an appointment to see your advisor. The College of Engineering requires you to meet with your advisor at least once a semester. Each advisor uses a different procedure for doing this: some make appointments by email; others post a sign-up sheet on the office door while others use the central scheduling website https://nexus.uconn.edu/. Remember that due to conference or research travel, your faculty advisor may occasionally be off campus for several days at a time and unavailable for appointments. It is a good idea to contact him/her for an appointment two weeks or more prior to your registration time window. (Your enrollment appointment is available in your Student Center in Student Administration.)
2. Meet with your advisor. Several things will happen in your meeting:

1. You will discuss your schedule. Tell your advisor about your career plans, including graduate school or studying abroad or taking a semester off on coop. This will help him/her to give you advice about which classes to take, including a list of courses you will sign up for next semester.
2. You will review your preliminary Plan of Study (POS), if applicable. This must be submitted for approval once you’ve completed 54 credits (including AP, Early College Experience, and transfer credits).
3. Your faculty advisor will fill out and sign a registration hold removal form. This form must be filled out completely.

3. Take the registration hold removal form to the SoCEE Office, located in Castleman, room 302. Give the form to one of the full-time staff members. They will log into Student Administration and remove your advising hold so you can register. You cannot register in Student Administration until you meet with your advisor and the advising hold is removed. Note that the office staff have other responsibilities, and they might not be able to remove your hold right away. Generally, they will do it by the end of the day (5:00 PM) that you turn in your form. If you need it removed sooner, let them know what you need and they will tell you if they are able to accommodate your request.
4. Login to Student Administration during your enrollment appointment window and sign up for your courses. Be sure to sign up for the courses your advisor directed you to take. If you need to deviate from the schedule you and your advisor discussed, contact your advisor immediately to make sure this will not have repercussions on your course program and planned graduation date.

A preliminary POS is filed after a student has reached junior credit standing (54 credits or more) and outlines the student’s plan for the remainder of their coursework until graduation. Submitting an approved preliminary plan of study is required in the School of Engineering.

The preliminary Plan of Study (POS) allows students to map out the entirety of their degree coursework to assist them in conversations with their advisor about meeting all degree requirements prior to graduation.

A final POS is filed after you have registered for your final semester of coursework. The final POS must demonstrate that the student meets all requirements to graduate. The final POS is a UConn graduation requirement.

Who fills out the POS?

It is the student’s responsibility to fill out and file both the preliminary and final POS. However, students should do so with the guidance of their Academic Advisor. It is ideal to start this process at least one semester ahead of time, that is, in the spring of your sophomore year.

How do I submit a preliminary POS?

First, you must access you academic planner in Student Administration.
SA Self Service > Student Center > Academic Planner

Then you can select “Plan by Requirements” to review your remaining unsatisfied requirements for your degree. You may also add courses to your planner using the “Browse Course Catalog” component.

Once you understand which courses you still need to take, review what semester those courses are offered and enter them into your Academic Planner accordingly. When you have completed this, you can select “Submit Plan of Study” and the document will be sent electronically to your faculty advisor for their review.

Ultimately, if the preliminary POS is denied, you must fix whatever errors are indicated and submit a new, correct POS that satisfies all degree requirements. If the POS is approved, you now have a complete and accurate plan to reach graduation. If you decide to deviate from this plan, it is your responsibility to discuss the changes with your academic advisor and ensure that you are still completing all degree requirements.

If you need further assistance, please access this tutorial or contact your Academic Advisor: Submitting Your Preliminary Plan of Study

How do I submit a final POS?

First, you must apply for graduation via Student Administration.

SA Self Service > Student Center > My Academics > Apply for Graduation

Next, submit your final plan of study. You can do this by navigating the following path:

SA Self Service > Student Center > Academic Requirements (under the drop down menu at the left) > "Submit Final Plan of Study" button

All of your requirements must show as satisfied in student admin to have your final plan of study approved.

For a more detailed tutorial, click here: Submitting Your Final Plan of Study

When should I submit my preliminary and final POS?

Students should submit the preliminary POS after earning 54 credits, which is when a student has reached junior credit standing. Once a student reaches 54 credits, they must submit an approved preliminary POS prior to registering for courses for the following semester, or the student will be prevented from registering.

The final POS must be submitted as soon as possible after registering for your final semester of coursework. The latest a final POS can be submitted is by the end of the fourth week of the semester in which a student plans to graduate.

What are some common mistakes on the preliminary POS in CEE?

Following are the most common mistakes that students make when filling out the POS. Doing any of these will guarantee that your POS will NOT be approved and your graduation may end up being delayed.

1. Failing to supply a course for every requirement.
2. Failing to assign courses to the proper semester.
3. Presenting a POS with fewer than 128 total credits.
4. Submitting a POS with unsatisfied requirements without indicating transfer credit or a substitution, which must be approved by either the Professional Advisor or Director of Undergraduate Studies of the Department (for a CEE requirement), or the Director of Advising, SoE (for School of Engineering or University requirements).
5. Counting the credits for your double-dipped Gen Ed twice. You may use the same course to meet two requirements, but you may only count the credits once.

Once your POS is approved, you will be unable to make revisions to it on your own. Thus, you will need to make the changes when you go to submit your final POS. Hold all of your revisions until the beginning of your final semester, and then do the following:

1. Discuss the changes with your advisor.
2. Make the corrections in the “Academic Planner”.
3. Submit your “Final Plan of Study” with the accurate, updated information.

How do I change my major?

As you take more and more courses, you may find that your declared major is not a good match for you and your educational or career objectives. After thinking about it and researching your new major of choice, see your Advisor for an additional point of view. Following is a suggested course of action:

1. Contact the department offering the major you are considering changing to. Find out what the course sequence and admission requirements for that major are.
2. Consider taking courses for one semester that will advance you towards either major, taking one or more courses in the new major to try it out. Do this by consulting with your advisor and with an advisor for the new major. This way if you find the new major does not suit you, you have not fallen behind in your current major.
3. If you decide to change majors within the College of Engineering, please request the change on-line at ppc.engr.uconn.edu. This change will be processed through the Undergraduate Dean’s office.

How do I add a second major or degree?

A second degree outside of CoE (e.g., B.A. in German for EuroTech) requires an additional 30 credits of 2000-level or higher courses beyond the CE degree, for a minimum of 158 credits.  You must fill out an Additional Degree Petition Form with the Registrar’s Office in order to declare a second degree.

A second major (within CoE) only requires you to meet all of the requirements for both degrees. You can declare a double major by filling out a form in the Undergraduate Programs Office, EII room 304.

If you are not automatically assigned a second advisor for your new major or degree, contact the department offering that major or the Director of Advising in the CoE (for majors in CoE), to get assigned an advisor in that program.

The University requires all baccalaureate degree students to satisfy a common core of course work known as the General Education Requirements. Course work in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences is also an integral part of the engineering program. Courses must be taken and distributed to cover the Four Content Areas and the Five Competencies listed below. Please see the University of Connecticut General Catalog for more detailed information.

For a full list of General Education classes, go to http://www.geoc.uconn.edu/approved-gen-ed-courses/ or search by Content Area in the Student Admin Search function.

You may choose your professional requirements to suit your interests. Check out the list of professional requirements here: CE Course Catalog | Professional Requirements. There are suggestions for courses to choose if you wish to focus on one of these areas of CE. These are merely suggestions to suit a particular area of interest, but these concentrations have no formal standing, with the exception of Construction, for which there is a formal Minor in Construction Engineering & Management.

How many free elective credits do I need?

The number of free elective credits varies for each student, depending on many factors. To find out how many free elective credits you need, fill out your Preliminary POS to meet all of the Gen Ed and CE requirements, and then see if there are any remaining credits needed for your credit total. Any remaining credits needed to obtain the 128 you need to graduate can be free elective credits.

What can I take for free electives?

You may take any course, either at UConn or transferred from another college or university, subject to the restrictions listed here: CoE Course Catalog | Requirements.

How do I get credit for courses I took somewhere else?

Courses from other institutions with a grade of C or better can be transferred and can count as credit towards graduation, subject to the credit restrictions noted in the Academic Catalog. Note also that not every course will help you meet course requirements in CE. If you are planning to take a course elsewhere to meet a graduation requirement, check with your advisor or the Assistant Department Head to make sure the course will satisfy a graduation requirement before you sign up for and take the course. You should also fill out the Prior Course Approval form via Student Administration.

The following website gives information about how to transfer in credit for courses taken at other colleges and universities: Admissions | Transfer Credit

You can also search for courses offered at colleges and universities in Connecticut that transfer as UConn courses at the following webpage: Admissions | Transfer Equivalencies

Can I substitute another course for one that is required?

To substitute any general education courses, please follow the steps outlined here: CoE Advising | Substitution

Yes! Review the following link for a full list of Minors offered at UConn: Undergraduate Catalog | Minors. Contact the department or office listed in the Catalog for the minor program in which you are interested to find the courses required. Share this information with your Advisor, and together you can select courses to meet the requirements for both your major and the minor. Major and minor requirements can overlap to use one course to fulfill requirements for both.

Minor in Environmental Engineering

Students majoring in Civil, Chemical or Mechanical engineering can take their degree further with a minor in environmental engineering, within the 128 credits of their major. Students learn about water quality, waste treatment and the environmental impacts of human activities and engineering processes.

Requirements and more detailed information can be found in ENVE website’s degree program.

Minor in Construction Engineering & Management

This minor covers the entire spectrum of construction management, preparing students for jobs in a competitive field. Students learn about project management, scheduling, life-cycle cost analysis, construction engineering principles, and project financing. They apply lessons learned in the classroom to real-world projects that will prepare them for an exciting career. Students in both Civil Engineering and Environmental engineering major degrees can take this minor.

Some other popular minors for CE students are:

• Minor in Engineering Management (School of Business)
• Minor in Mathematics (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences)
• Electronics & Systems Minor (College of Engineering)
• Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Minor (College of Engineering)
• Nanomaterials Minor (College of Engineering)

What If I decide I want to take a different course after seeing my advisor?

Contact your advisor before signing up for a different course schedule than what you agreed upon in your advising session. Making a change in your schedule without talking to your advisor could result in missing a critical graduation requirement and postponing your graduation by a semester or even a year.

How many credits may I take per semester?

Engineering students may take up to 19 credits in one semester. To enroll in 20 or more credits you must get an overload approval form from the Registrar’s website signed by your advisor (or the Director of Undergraduate Studies of CEE) and the Associate Dean of Engineering (in the Undergraduate Programs Office). This form must be returned to the Registrar.

What if I get lower than a “C-” in a required course?

The CE program requirements in the catalogs of 2011-12 and later state “A minimum grade of C- is required in each of the following courses: ENVE 2310, CE 2110, 2211, 2251, 2410, 2710, 3110, 3120, 3510, 4900W and 4920W”. If you receive a grade lower than “C-” in any of these courses, you must retake it and earn a grade of at least “C-”.

May I take graduate courses as an undergraduate student?

Yes! You will need to get a permission number from the instructor teaching the course. The instructor will ask if you have the necessary preparation or pre-requisites that would be expected of graduate students taking the course. Most CE seniors have the preparation necessary to take entry-level graduate courses in the Department. In general, if you have a GPA of at least 3.0, and have the necessary preparation courses, you should be able to successfully complete a graduate course as an undergraduate. There are two ways you might apply a graduate course to your academic record:

1. As a regular course on your CE undergraduate POS. You may use it either as a Professional Requirement course or as a free elective. If you choose this option you may reduce the credit requirements for a MS degree in CE at UConn up to a total of 6 credits if you earn at least a B+ in the same number of graduate credits used on an undergraduate POS.
2. If you don’t need it for your undergraduate POS, then you can take it as an extra course and save it to use for a graduate degree at UConn or another institution.

Internships and CO-OPS

Most of our students are able to find employment during the summer break at local engineering firms or government offices. The ASCE student chapter and the College of Engineering regularly schedule Career Fairs at which dozens of companies come to campus looking for students to fill both permanent and temporary positions. Watch your engineering email address for announcements about these career fairs. Many employers contact faculty directly about job opportunities as well. These opportunities will also be posted on bulletin boards on the third floor of the Castleman Building and to the student engineering email list. You can learn more about co-op and internship opportunities at this link: Center for Career Readiness | Internships & Co-Ops

UConn’s Center for Career Development (CCD), located in the Wilbur Cross building, is a great place to get started. They provide help with resumes, interview skills, and internship & job-searching.

There is a Career Consultant that works exclusively with Engineering students. You can schedule an appointment online at  https://nexus.uconn.edu. You can find the Engineering Career Consultant under ENGR (Undergraduate Programs Office). Please find additional contact information below.*

*updated March 13, 2025

Study Abroad

The College of Engineering’s International Engineering Programs offers unparalleled experiences both on campus and abroad for students looking to become global engineers. Students can participate in international programming on campus through an enrichment program titled Engineers Around the World, which promotes discourse and engagement for all engineers interested in an educational experience abroad. Additionally, students with a specific language and culture focus can enroll in one of IEP’s five-year, dual degree programs, where enrolled students earn two degrees simultaneously: a BSE or BS in their engineering discipline and a BA in French, German or Spanish. By combining the power of a strong engineering program and the immersion in a foreign language and culture (which includes a full academic-year abroad), the five-year, dual degree program prepares students for rewarding careers in a diverse array of engineering fields in a global context.

Learn more at this link: International Engineering Programs

You can learn more about the Study Abroad programs available to UConn students at this link: Experiential Global Learning

Note that when taking a semester away from UConn, if you want to still graduate in four years it is critical to discuss your plans with your advisor as soon as possible to make sure you can meet all course requirements. Studying abroad takes research and careful planning, but it is a truly unique and enriching experience!

• SoE Undergraduate Programs Office: Undergraduate Programs | Frequently Asked Questions (uconn.edu)
• Preliminary and Final Plans of Study: Undergraduate Programs | Plan of Study (uconn.edu)
• Summer Session: Engineering | UConn Summer Session
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• What is the College of Engineering Supplemental Scholastic Standards Policy? CoE | Scholastic Standing and how is it different from UConn’s Scholastic Standing Policy? UConn | Scholastic Standing