UTRGV program ranked among top Civil Engineering majors in Texas

Civil 7th Top Ranked Program

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has been ranked in the top seven colleges in Texas for civil engineering majors by Zippia.com, a career resource website. Shown here is UTRGV Civil Engineering Assistant Professor Jongmin Kim during a class at the Academic Services building on the Edinburg Campus. (UTRGV Archive Photo by Paul Chouy)

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RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – OCT. 30, 2017 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has been ranked one of the top colleges in Texas for civil engineering majors by Zippia, a career resource website.

UTRGV’s civil engineering program was ranked No. 7 on the list. The only other UT System university, UT Austin, was third.

The civil engineering program began in 2010 and offers four areas of study: environmental and water resources, construction and structures, geotechnical and transportation and energy and utility infrastructure engineering. The program awards a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering and is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, http://www.abet.org.

In 2015, 32 UTRGV undergraduates earned civil engineering degrees. Also, in 2015, an estimated 441 students were enrolled in the program. In addition, Zippia.com reports that median mid-career earnings for UTRGV civil engineering graduates is $41,600.

“It’s hard to argue with a selective school that features Civil Engineering and produces strong earning potential for your career,” Zippia.com says.

Dr. Andrew Ernest, chair of the UTRGV Department of Civil Engineering and principal investigator on the watershed project, said a lot is happening in the department.

  • Civil Engineering faculty recently received a grant from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to develop a Watershed Protection Plan that will focus on reducing pollution in the Laguna Madre.
  • The department is working with Cameron County to promote the Laguna Madre to the National Estuary Program, and a member of the faculty is a Joint Appointment with Cameron County serving as director of the Estuary Program.
  • In addition, a Master of Science in Civil Engineering is pending approval in January by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, with official deployment of the MS in fall 2018, if approved.

ZIPPIA.COM’S RANKING METHODOLOGY

According to the website to identify the best civil engineering schools, Zippia.com “wanted to approach the ranking like a civil engineering major would, by looking at data on how schools perform and comparing them to one another. So with that mind, we looked at the following data from the NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) and College Scorecard data from ED.gov to understand what civil engineering departments offer the best career opportunities.”

The methodology is available here.

ABOUT UTRGV

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) was created by the Texas Legislature in 2013 as the first major public university of the 21st century in Texas. This transformative initiative provided the opportunity to expand educational opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley, including a new School of Medicine, and made it possible for residents of the region to benefit from the Permanent University Fund – a public endowment contributing support to the University of Texas System and other institutions.

UTRGV has campuses and off-campus research and teaching sites throughout the Rio Grande Valley including in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville (formerly The University of Texas at Brownsville campus), Edinburg (formerly The University of Texas-Pan American campus), Harlingen, McAllen, Port Isabel, Rio Grande City, and South Padre Island. UTRGV, a comprehensive academic institution, enrolled its first class in the fall of 2015, and the School of Medicine welcomed its first class in the summer of 2016.

MEDIA CONTACT 

Marci.Caltabiano@UTRGV.edu 
UTRGV Director of News and Internal Communications / 956-665-2742