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Master of Science in Civil Engineering

Program Overview

The University of Oklahoma’s Gallogly College of Engineering offers a fully online M.S. in Civil Engineering degree designed to provide aspiring engineers the skills and knowledge required for success in this extremely important and constantly- evolving field. The online M.S. in Civil Engineering is an accelerated, 30-credit hour program, which can be completed in 21 months. Four specializations or tracks are available to choose from: Geotechnical Engineering, Structural Engineering, Transportation Engineering, or Water Resources Engineering.

Four Specializations

With specialties in structural, geotechnical, transportation, and water resources engineering, our program takes you beyond the theoretical to make an immediate, lasting impact on both your current and future positions.

Top Engineering School

Earning your master’s degree from the Gallogly College of Engineering puts you in great company as the college is recognized by U.S. News and World Report as a top 100 engineering school.

Distinguished Faculty

The faculty for the M.S. in Civil Engineering are distinguished teachers and researchers, having received numerous awards including eight NSF Career Awards. In addition to their academic credentials, the faculty have over 180 years of combined industry experience, and the majority are licensed professional engineers.

Incredible Student Experience

Each class is carefully selected to foster a personalized, engaging experience with both faculty and peers. The format includes both synchronous and asynchronous activities.

Accelerated, Fully Online

Designed for adult learners who work full time, students may study when and where they want with the online format. The program can be completed in less than two years while still working full time.

Program Requirements

Program Cost

Tuition for the online M.S. in Civil Engineering program is $29,550* for the entire program ($985/credit hour). Fees associated with the program are included in this cost. Books and materials are additional.

Once accepted into the M.S. program, students are required to submit a $350 non-refundable deposit within two weeks. Deposits are applied toward tuition expenses and secure a student’s place in the upcoming class.

*Tuition and fees are subject to change at the discretion of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.

Admissions Requirements

To apply to the online Master of Science in Civil Engineering program, students must hold a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited college of university (or the international equivalent). It is strongly recommended that students applying for the program hold a B.S. in Civil Engineering.

Students who graduate with a B.S. in a field related to Civil Engineering (including Geology, Physics, Computer Science, or another non-Civil Engineering B.S. like Mechanical or Petroleum Engineering) are eligible to apply but may need to take additional pre-requisite course requirements. Admissions will occur on a rolling basis and is at the discretion of the admissions committee. Transfer credits will be accepted at the discretion of the admissions committee.

Students who wish to apply must:

  • Complete the online application.
  • Submit an official transcript from your undergraduate institution and any graduate institution you have attended
    It is strongly recommended that students applying for the M.S. in Civil Engineering program hold a B.S. in Civil Engineering
  • Write and submit a personal statement on your career goals and reasons for applying to the program
  • Submit resume: Include professionally formatted documentation of your past education and work experience.
  • GRE scores are optional and not required for admission, but they may be required by some potential faculty sponsors to be considered for a Qualifying Graduate Assistantship. International students are required to take the TOEFL exam.

Program Courses

Designed for working professionals, the Master of Accountancy (MAcc) from OU can be completed in as little as 21 months. The program helps students prepare for the CPA exam in a convenient online format.

Geotechnical

Focused primarily on subsurface exploration for foundation engineering, and analysis and design of shallow and deep foundations for buildings with respect to bearing capacity and settlement considerations.
Focuses on behavior of soils during seismic loading. Students will be exposed to the state of the practice geotechnical earthquake engineering design techniques. Specific topics include vibration of single- and multi-degree of freedom systems, wave propagation through soils, stress-strain behavior of cyclically loaded soils, liquefaction of soils, dynamic settlement of level ground sites, and dynamic deformation of slopes.
Focuses on the design of rigid Portland cement concrete pavements and flexible asphalt cement concrete pavements and interaction of pavement components. Specific topics include determination of traffic and environmental loading on pavements, mechanical properties of pavement materials and their determination, AASHTO 1993 pavement design methods for flexible and rigid pavements, and the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) approach for pavement design.
Introduces students to concepts and design methods involving the use of geosynthetics in geotechnical and transportation engineering applications. The course provides treatment of geotextiles, geomembranes and other geosynthetic products with application to geotechnical problems involving separation and filtration, reinforcement, erosion control, and waste containment, among others.
An independent capstone design experience that focuses on a real-world, open-ended design problem that applies the skills, knowledge, and techniques learned by the student during their graduate studies.
Introduces students to analytical and numerical solutions to soil-structure interaction problems. Includes methods of solution for beams and mats on elastic foundations; analysis and design of axially and laterally loaded piles and pile groups; and sheet piles and retaining walls. Nonlinear behavior of soils and piles will also be covered, and the students will be introduced to industry standard software such as LPILE and GROUP.
Examines the mechanical and hydraulic behavior of unsaturated soils in contrast to saturated soil behavior. Topics include vadose zone processes leading to soil moisture variability, stress state variables, measurement of soil suction, soil water characteristic curve, seepage, shearing behavior, lateral earth pressure, bearing capacity, slope stability, and volume change due to wetting including heave and collapse behavior.

Structural

Design procedures for pretensioned and post-tensioned concrete structures, with emphasis on the behavior of prestressed concrete. Topics include: methods of analysis, time dependent effects, fabrication and construction procedures, connections, highway bridges, frames, composite construction, continuous structures, and anchorage zone detailing.
Material properties and behavior of wood. Analysis and design of solid and laminated structural members, connections, systems, trusses, and arches. Current developments in structural wood design and research.
Advanced reinforced concrete behavior and design including limit design, anchorage design, slender columns, truss models for shear and torsion of beams, two-way and flat slabs, and the art of detailing.
Advanced structural steel design including steel deck diaphragms, column and beam bracing, composite beam design, rigid frame design, torsional member design, plate girder design, and design of building connections.
An independent capstone design experience that focuses on a real-world, open-ended design problem that applies the skills, knowledge, and techniques learned by the student during their graduate studies.
Introduces students to analytical and numerical solutions to soil-structure interaction problems. Includes methods of solution for beams and mats on elastic foundations; analysis and design of axially and laterally loaded piles and pile groups; and sheet piles and retaining walls. Nonlinear behavior of soils and piles will also be covered, and the students will be introduced to industry standard software such as LPILE and GROUP.
Free vibration, forced vibration, and transient response of structures having one, multiple, or infinite number of degrees-of-freedom; structural damping effects; numerical solution techniques; Lagrange’s equation of motion; Rayleigh-Ritz method. General matrix formulation for multiple degrees-of-freedom and modal coordinate transformation. Introduction to earthquake engineering concepts.

Transportation

Designed to help students learn introductory to intermediate concepts of geographic information science (GIScience) and become proficient users of geographic information systems (GIS). The course covers a variety of topics but focuses on GIS data models, data structures, and spatial analysis.
This course provides fundamental concepts in probability and statistical inference. Probability topics include counting methods, discrete and continuous random variables, and their associated distributions. Statistical inference topics include sampling distributions, point estimation, confidence intervals and hypothesis testing for single- and two sample experiments. Other topics in nonparametric statistics and regression may be introduced as time permits. The use of Excel to solve class examples will be demonstrated and to solve some homework problems will be expected.
This course will focus on fundamental elements of transportation asset management and application of its principles in practice. It will explore the impetus, philosophy and policy for implementing a long term, comprehensive plan for managing infrastructure assets. It will present engineering and economic analysis concepts and processes used to evaluate and support strategic and systematic investment, performance, measurement, management and preservation of a transportation system.
Focuses on the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of highway infrastructure. Includes roadway geometric design, route location, drainage, earthwork, cost considerations, environmental assessment and social and safety impacts of highway construction, among other topics.
This course will focus on the key elements involved in the planning and financing of transportation infrastructure projects and systems. It will explore the impetus, philosophy and policy for development and implementation of a long term, comprehensive transportation plan for investing in infrastructure assets. It will present engineering and economic evaluation concepts and processes to include consideration of revenue sources, future system demand, revenue and expenditures and evaluating risk, uncertainty and trade-offs to support forecasting functions, financial analysis and decision making for transportation system investment.
An independent capstone design experience that focuses on a real-world, open-ended design problem that applies the skills, knowledge, and techniques learned by the student during their graduate studies.
Focuses on traffic flow theory, analysis of traffic data, and advanced technology applications for data collection, traffic control, and real-time system management. Includes emphasis on highway capacity, signal integration, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), and impacts of advanced technology including automated vehicles.
Focuses on transportation modes, including land, air and marine, modal shift and its impact on the transportation system. Study of transportation functions and transportation systems including highway, rail, air, and water and design of system elements such as travel ways, controls and terminals.

Water Resources

An applied course dealing with properties of aquifers, modeling of groundwater flow, groundwater hydrology and its interrelation with surface water, well hydraulics, pumping tests and safe yield of aquifers.
The course provides students with an in-depth study of precipitation estimation as well as data analysis and computational methods for hydrometeorology, including disaster prevention and decision making under uncertainty. The overarching goal is to train students to conduct critical thinking across atmospheric science and hydrology and across water science and engineering.
The system of water rights; riparian, appropriation, and prescriptive rights; stream, surface, and groundwater; transfer and termination of rights; injuries caused by water; development of water supplies; federal-state, interstate, and intrastate conflicts; water pollution control; federal and Indian rights and federal water resource problems.
Theory, analysis and design of channels, aqueducts, headworks, siphons, spillways and hydraulic structures. An in-depth study of critical flow and measurement techniques. Backwater analysis by analytical, calculator and computer methods. Special emphasis on practical problems of general interest, such as channel design and floodplain analysis with HEC-RAS.
Interdisciplinary course to study human decision making in the context of effective water management, with the goal of optimizing social, economic, ecological and environmental benefits, security and equity, and natural yields, which are all intimately tied to water. This course is designed to educate and foster future water managers and planners.
This class will look at the topic of water security through multiple perspectives, including historical to current day examples of water security challenges, water security at the nexus of water quality, water quantity and water equity considerations, water security in the face of competing demands and threats, and water security planning.
Water Reuse and Health Impact is designed to introduce current and future water resource professionals to the application of water quality principles in two important areas: the health impacts of water and wastewater and the potential of water reuse and reclamation.

What kind of career
can I pursue?

  • Civil Engineer
  • Structural Engineer
  • Transportation Engineer
  • Geotechnical Engineer
  • Environmental Engineer
  • Water Resource Engineer
  • Construction Project Manager
  • Design Engineer
Learn More
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