M.S. in Civil Engineering | Civil and Environmental Engineering | SIU

M.S. in Civil Engineering

The School of Civil, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering requires that applicants to the MS program hold a bachelor’s degree in Civil or Environmental Engineering (or equivalent), or have completed all undergraduate degree requirements prior to registration, with a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 (A = 4.00) for the last 60 hours of undergraduate work. Students having a GPA between 2.7 and 3.0 will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

All applicants are required to submit official GRE scores in support of their applications for admission. Minimum GRE scores required are: 147 Verbal, 152 Quantitative, 3.5 Analytical Writing. The GRE scores must be less than five years old from the test date to the month of admission (when coursework begins). Applicants whose primary spoken language is not English must provide an official TOEFL score of at least 80 (internet based), 550 (test center) or 220 (computer based). The TOEFL score must be less than two years old from the test date to the month of admission (when coursework begins). IELTS are accepted in place of the TOEFL and must be a minimum of 6.5. Minimum requirements for GRE verbal and analytical writing may be waived if the student’s TOEFL score is greater than 570 (test center) or 230 (computer based) or 82 (internet testing) or IELTS score is greater than 7.0, and he/she possesses good communication skills. Step-by-step instructions to apply are on these checklists for domestic applicants OR international applicants.

Completing the M.S. degree program requires the completion and successful defense of a Master's Thesis. In addition, a minimum of 30 semester hours (of which 3 to 6 hours may be CE 599 Thesis) of acceptable graduate credit (with a GPA of at least 3.0) is required. Of this total, 18 semester hours must be earned in the School. Furthermore, at least 15 semester hours must be 500-level and completed at SIUC. The complete procedures and requirements for the M.S. Degree are described in the Graduate Catalog.

MS Thesis

A Master's thesis should demonstrate the student's ability to complete a full cycle of problem formulation, methodology, research, and evaluation under the direction of the student's graduate faculty committee.  Upon completing the thesis, the student must satisfactorily defend it as part of a comprehensive examination given by the graduate faculty committee and covering all of the student's CEIE graduate work at SIUC.  Parts of this examination may be written, at the discretion of the graduate faculty committee.  The student's performance on the examination is evaluated by the graduate faculty committee and reported to the Graduate School.  The Master's Thesis defense is open to the public.