OVERVIEW

M.S. students in our department gain advanced knowledge in environmental, geotechnical, structural, or transportation engineering. Students pursuing a research-based M.S. are expected to not only gain but also develop and share advanced knowledge to solve today's challenging problems including, but not limited to, harmful algal blooms (HABs), artificial intelligence in transportation, and infection disease tracking through analysis of wastewater. The department faculty conduct both applied and fundamental research and tailor the research to students’ interests and skill sets. Students are expected to present their work in local and national conferences. Our department has an excellent track record with our M.S. students finding employment in industry or consulting firms prior to or shortly after graduation. M.S. students interested in an academic career often publish their research before continuing on to obtain a Ph.D. degree either in our department or at another institution.

ADMISSIONS REQUIREMENTS

Background of students:  Admission for graduate students at The University of Toledo requires a four-year bachelor's degree from an accredited college of university.  Most students admitted have a strong GPA from a civil, environmental, or chemical engineering department and have a GRE quantitative score of 160.   Students with non-engineering backgrounds can be admitted or provisionally admitted on a case-by-case basis after review of the applicant's transcripts and prior accomplishments.  If provisionally admitted, students will need to take certain undergraduate courses to prepare for graduate courses.  These courses will be identified prior to admission and will appear on the student's plan of study.

Test scores: For all applicants from an accredited U.S. or Canadian university with an undergraduate GPA below 2.7 and for all international applicants from non-English speaking countries, GRE scores must be submitted with a quantitative GRE score of at least 150. For all international applicants from non-English speaking countries, an English test score is required. Minimum test scores should be TOEFL speaking score of 22 (total 81), IETLS Band 6.5 or Duolingo (105). Students not meeting these scores could be provisionally admitted by completing the GAP (https://www.utoledo.edu/cisp/gap.html) option.

Recommendation letters: The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering requires two letters of recommendation.  The letters can be from professors, employers or workplace supervisors. Unless it has been a long time since the applicant were a student, at least one letter should be from a professor.

Statement of purpose: The applicant should indicate their area of interest (environmental, geotechnical, structural, or transportation) in the statement of purpose.

Review of the application: Once the application is deemed complete by the College of Graduate Studies, the application is made available to the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. The admissions committee of the department considers the application as a whole, including statements of purpose and reference letters. While exceptions for some circumstances have been made, the minimum expected GPA of admitted applicants is the equivalent of 70%.

PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS

For the master of science in civil engineering (M.S.C.E.) degree, a minimum of 30 credit hours is required – 21 cr hr of graduate course work and 9 cr hr of thesis research (CIVE 6960) performed under the supervision of a full-time faculty member approved by the department of civil engineering. The department also offers a M.S.C.E. degree with a project or course work option with the written approval of the department chair or graduate program director. In the project option, a minimum of 30 cr hr is required – 24 cr hr of graduate course work and 6 cr hr for the project report (CIVE 6920). In the course work-only option, a minimum of 30 cr hr in graduate course work is required. Courses taken on an audit basis do not count toward the degree. Additional requirements include:

• A maximum of 6 cr hr of CIVE 6990 Independent Study is allowed toward the degree.
• Students must prepare a plan of study in conjunction with the adviser (graduate program director for the first semester) with a concentration of required and elective courses in one of the department’s research focus areas of graduate study and receive approval from the graduate program director. Required core courses in each area are determined by the faculty comprising that research area in conjunction with the graduate program director.
• No more than 9 cr hr toward the M.S.C.E. may be earned at another university, and in no case may the thesis or project be satisfied by work completed at another institution.

Combined bachelor's to master's - Civil Engineering

Undergraduate students accepted to the BS/MS pipeline program option will be admitted to the MS program of Civil Engineering and allowed to complete up to three graduate level classes (nine credit hours) during their final academic year of undergraduate studies. Students admitted into the pipeline program must apply for admission to the College of Graduate Studies for the semester that they intend to matriculate. They will then continue in  to the graduate program upon completion of the undergraduate degree requirements. The graduate coursework (up to nine hours) may be applied to completion of both undergraduate and graduate degree requirements. It will be the joint responsibility of the faculty and administrators in the undergraduate and graduate programs to supervise students admitted to the combined program option, to ensure that the limit of nine hours taken as an undergraduate is strictly enforced, and to request that the College of Graduate Studies change their matriculation from Undergraduate to Graduate when they meet all undergraduate degree requirements. 

The following provisions apply for classes taken for graduate credit: 1) graduate classes taken at The University of Toledo only after the student is accepted in the program, 2) CIVE 5300, CIVE 5320, CIVE 5340, CIVE 5440, CIVE 5480, CIVE 5610, CIVE 5710 and other elective coursework as approved by the Undergraduate and Graduate Program Directors may be included in the approved nine semester hours of graduate credit taken as an undergraduate. Students interested in the combined program must submit a graduate admission application to the College of Graduate Studies. 

• PLO 1. Solve engineering problems in one of the two specialty areas (Infrastructure and Environmental).
• PLO 2. Solve engineering problems using mathematics in one of the two specialty areas indicated in SLO (1).
• PLO 3. Successfully present the results of engineering research in oral and written forms.
• PLO 4. Synthesize the completed research for publication in a journal, book, or conference for thesis students.
• PLO 5. Practice responsible citizenship in local and global communities by using skills including but not limited to professional ethics, diversity and inclusion, and social equity.