Information for Graduate Students

TSE Graduate Research Assistantships are available only upon admission to the University of Nebraska and funding availability. Below are the University's Civil Engineering Masters and Doctoral program information.

• Get more information about becoming a Graduate Research Assistant at TSE.
• Learn about our current Graduate Research Assistants.
• To find out what TSE's current graduate students do in their research.

Master's Program

To be admitted into candidacy for the masters degree, an applicant must have completed an undergraduate degree in civil engineering or have a bachelors degree in one of the physical or biological science or another engineering field and have completed specified deficiency course requirements at the undergraduate level.

Graduate students may be admitted in one of the following categories:

1. Full Graduate Standing: Students who have met all requirements for admission and have been accepted by the Department.
2. Provisional Status: Students who show potential for successful graduate work but have deficiencies in prerequisite course work or other academic admission requirements. Students admitted on a provisional basis must be recommended for Full Graduate Standing by the departmental Graduate Committee and approved by the Dean of Graduate Studies before they become degree candidates.
3. Unclassified Status: Students who satisfy minimum admission requirements and desire to complete some course work without reference to a specific degree objective. Students with Unclassified Status are not candidates for an advanced degree, and may take a maximum of nine graduate credits in civil engineering unless approved by the Graduate Committee. This admission category is not available to international students who want to start graduate studies at UNL. Unclassified students are not eligible for financial aid or graduate research or teaching appointments (GRA or GTA).

Graduates of ABET-accredited civil engineering programs who have maintained a grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.00 (4.00 scale) may be accepted with Full Graduate Standing (Full Status). Students whose GPA is 2.80 or above may be accepted with Provisional Status. In this case, recommendation for full status will be made by the departmental Graduate Committee to the Dean of Graduate Studies if the student maintains a B average (3.00/4.00), or higher, in the first nine semester hours of graduate coursework.

Graduates of non-ABET-accredited civil engineering programs will be reviewed by the Graduate Committee of the Department on an individual basis.

UNL does not discriminate in its academic admissions or employment programs and abides by all Federal regulations pertaining to same.

Students without an undergraduate civil engineering degree will not be initially admitted with Full Graduate Standing. In general, a GPA of 2.80/4.00 or above in undergraduate engineering, mathematics and science courses, and a cumulative GPA of 3.0/4.0 or above, are required for provisional admission.

Students without equivalent courses in their undergraduate program must take for no program credit a minimum of:

1. All mathematics required in the undergraduate civil engineering program,
2. Five courses from a list of approved science and engineering science courses plus a course in computer programming, and
3. Three courses from a list of approved civil engineering courses.

The Department of Civil Engineering welcomes applications from graduate students world-wide. Any international applicant for admission who has not graduated from an accredited undergraduate civil engineering program in the United States is required to take the verbal and quantitative sections of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). International applicants must also complete the TOEFL examination. A minimum equivalent ranking of 85% in the GRE quantitative examination and a TOEFL score of 550 are required for full status admission. These scores should be reported to the UNL Graduate Admissions Office.

Graduates of international civil engineering programs who have met the above conditions and who are in the top ten percent of their graduating class, or equivalent standing, from a civil engineering program comparable to accredited (ABET) programs may be admitted with full status. Students in the upper 20 percent of their graduating class or equivalent standing from a recognized civil engineering program may be admitted with provisional status. Students will be recommended for full status after removing all specified undergraduate deficiencies and maintaining at least a B average (3.00/4.00) in the first nine credits of program graduate coursework. Exceptions may be made to these guidelines at the discretion of the Graduate Committee of the Department.

The Department of Civil Engineering graduate continuance requirements are as follows:

1. Students admitted on Full Status must satisfy the scholarship requirements of the UNL Graduate College.
2. Students admitted on Provisional Status must receive a minimum grade of B in each undergraduate deficiency course, a minimum GPA of 3.00/4.00 in the first 9 hours of program graduate credit courses and satisfy the scholarship requirements of the UNL Graduate College.
3. Students failing to satisfy these continuance requirements may not continue in the program without permission of the Graduate Committee of the Department.
4. Students have six years from the time they took the first course listed on the Memorandum of Courses to complete the M.S. After that time, courses taken more than six years prior may be dropped from consideration for the degree.

Students interested in studies leading to the Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering should contact the Graduate Committee Chair in the Department of Civil Engineering or the Doctoral Programs Coordinator in the College of Engineering and Technology:
Doctoral Programs Coordinator
College of Engineering and Technology
114 Othmer Hall
Lincoln, NE 68588-0642

Students holding the M.S. degree from a recognized engineering school or having substantially completed the requirements for that degree may apply for admission to the Ph.D. program in Engineering. Those with the M.S. degree in other disciplines may be required to satisfy prerequisite deficiencies. Normally, either the B.S. or the M.S. degree or both should be held in some engineering discipline before admission to the Ph.D. program. Those holding only the B.S. degree may be advised to enter first a program leading to the M.S. degree. Admission to the Ph.D. program will depend upon academic performance at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Also, three letters of recommendation must be submitted to the Unified Ph.D. Program Coordinator. Graduates of universities outside of the U.S. or of non-accredited engineering programs must submit GRE aptitude and advanced scores for evaluation before admission.