Graduate Admissions Information

There are six academic areas for graduate study in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Oklahoma State University. Applicants who have not completed a B.S. degree in civil engineering may be required to take additional prerequisite courses. Applicants must apply for acceptance into one of these areas of study: 

• Construction Engineering & Management
• Environmental Engineering
• Geotechnical Engineering
• Structural Engineering & Mechanics
• Transportation Engineering
• Water Resources Engineering

Students are not restricted to taking courses in one area, but with the approval of the student's faculty advisory committee, the student may select courses from any of the six areas of graduate study. Each of the six programs are flexible, and plans of study are developed to meet individual students’ needs. The proper choice of a study program depends on the aptitude, preferences, and interests of the individual student. The faculty listed in the academic areas are those whose major interests fit that particular area, but faculty often teach courses in related areas.

Criteria for admission to the Graduate College to pursue the Master of Science or Master of Civil Engineering included:

• Receive a B.S. degree from an accredited institution (the Bachelor of Science degree or certification in an accredited engineering program is required for the Master of Civil Engineering degree).
• Academic performance in undergraduate work at a level that indicates a high probability of success in a graduate program requiring a 3.0/4.0 minimum G.P.A.
  Recommended for admission to the Graduate College by a professional school in the College of Engineering.
• Statement of Purpose: Discuss the reasons for your desire to attain a graduate degree, your goals while in the program and in the future, and how the degree will help you achieve these goals. Please indiocate your field of interest within civil engineering.
• Three letters of reference: No special form is required; letters may be written on letterhead and submitted in a sealed envelope.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ADMISSION
As a condition of admission to regular graduate study at Oklahoma State University, all persons for whom English is a second language are required to present a score of 550 (Civil Engineering) or 575 (Environmental Engineering) or above on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) regardless of the number of semesters or terms completed in other institutions of higher education or prior enrollment in English language programs. This requirement cannot be waived. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is required for all applicants and can be a deciding factor on admission to the program. As a rule, international students will not be given teaching or research assistantships until they have completed one semester of study. In order to qualify as a Teaching Assistant, international students must take the International Teaching Assistants' Teaching and Evaluation Program, a five-day session given prior to the beginning of each semester.

FACULTY/STUDENT BODY
The strength of the School is its faculty. There are 16 graduate faculty members who are actively engaged in teaching, research, and consulting. They are responsible for the approximately 60 graduate courses taught by the School. There are approximately 70 resident graduate students in any given semester, of whom about seven are Ph.D. candidates. There are approximately 30 additional graduate students in off-campus programs, primarily in Tulsa where the School offers MS programs in both Civil and Environmental Engineering through Oklahoma State University at Tulsa.

COMPUTER FACILITIES 
OSU Information Technology (IT) is the central provider of computing and networking services for the university. Several university computer labs are placed throughout campus and are accessible to all students currently enrolled at the university. Common desktop software packages, such as Microsoft Office, are installed on all of these machines. Software packages that have a university site license, such as Autocad, are also installed on these machines.

The College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology (CEAT) also maintains several computing facilities that are restricted for the sole use of CEAT students. Currently, there are well over 300 computers that are dedicated for use by CEAT students only. These machines, in addition to the common software packages that the university maintains, have specialized engineering and architecture software packages installed on them. There are a mix of both Windows-based PCs and Unix-based high-end workstations.

The High Performance Computing Center (HPCC) is also available for complex computational analyses. The HPCC consists of several computer clusters arranged and managed by OSU IT. Account access is restricted to those affiliated with OSU (faculty, staff, and students). Through the Oklahoma Cyber Infrastructure Initiative (OCII), the University of Oklahoma (OU) and OSU have agreed to provide each other’s researchers with access to all centrally-owned resources at both institutions. This substantially increases the size and complexity of the most challenging problems that Oklahoma researchers can tackle.

LABORATORY FACILITIES 
Structures Laboratory. The structural engineering program has over 4,000 square feet of floor space in the Civil Engineering Laboratory building devoted to research and instruction. This laboratory features a wide-range of experimental equipment including: static and dynamic test frames, acoustic emission (non-destructive evaluation) instrumentation, and data acquisition equipment supporting a variety of measurement devices. The current inventory of equipment in the structures laboratory includes: 600k, 250k, 60k (x3) Compression Test Frames; 55k and 22k (x2) MTS (Material Testing System) Frame; 420 in-kip Torsional Test Frame; 250k Actuator; 1000k (x4) Simplex Rams; Portable Hydraulic and Pneumatic Pumps; 16ft x 24ft Strong Floor (5ft Depth); 3-ton Gantry Crane w/ Motorized Hoist; 5,500lb Capacity Fork-Lift; Coarse and Fine Aggregate Bins; 1.75ft3 Shear Mixer; (2) 3ft3 Rotary Mortar Mixers; and Machine/Fabrication Shop with Metal Working Facilities.

Concrete Laboratory. The structural engineering program maintains an approximately 1,000 square foot laboratory devoted to facilities for testing concrete. Included in these facilities are freeze-thaw cabinets, a walk-in curing room, and various test frames. The current inventory of equipment in the concrete laboratory includes: Mortar Flow Table; Elastic Modulus Rings; Dynamic Modulus Test Frame; Coarse and Fine Aggregate Sieves; LA Abrasion Test Machine; Freeze/Thaw Chamber; Test Oven to Maintain ASTM Specifications; Rapid Chloride Ion Permeability (RCIP) Testing; Cement Kiln; Hydraulic Concrete Flexural Test Frame; 300k Compression Test Frame and 1000ft3 Environmentally Controlled Concrete Curing Room (10ft x 10ft x 10ft)

Environmental Lab. The environmental engineering program has about 5100 square feet of laboratory space in which to conduct research and carry out its teaching functions. Included in this space allotment are a 1200 square feet teaching laboratory, five graduate research laboratories totaling 2500 square feet, a 900 square feet pilot plant laboratory and a 480 square feet research instrument laboratory. An additional 1036 square feet of research space in the new Advanced Technology Research Center (ATRC) is devoted to environmental research. The research and teaching laboratories are equipped to perform routine water and wastewater analyses. Instrumentation available for research includes a microwave digestor, three gas chromatographs (with FID, TCD and ECD detectors), a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer, an atomic absorption spectrophotometer with a graphite furnace, a total organic carbon analyzer, two high pressure liquid chromatographs, including a photo-diode array detector, and a ion chromatograph. The pilot plant laboratory contains equipment for conducting large-scale experiments, including a rotating biological contactor, biological tower, settling column and air stripping tower.

Asphalt Lab. The Cummins Asphalt Laboratories houses facilities determining the Superpave consensus and source aggregate properties, Superpave mix designs and cold mix (emulsion) mix designs. Mixture performance testing includes a servo-hydraulic testing machine for resilient modulus and dynamic modulus testing (AASHTO TP 62), indirect tension creep compliance (AASHTO T 322), and the simple performance testing of static creep (flow time) triaxial repeated load permanent deformation (flow number) and resilient modulus of soil and aggregates. Rutting performance can be measured using the Hamburg device and the Asphalt Pavement Analyzer. Field testing capabilities include dynamic cone penetrometers, permeability measurements and pavement stiffness using a light weight deflectometer (LWD). Liquid asphalt and emulsified asphalt testing capabilities include ductility testing; kinematic, absolute and Saybolt viscosity; ring and ball softening point; penetration; distillation and recovery; specific gravity; and flash and fire points.

Soil Mechanics Laboratories. The soil mechanics laboratories encompass approximately 2850 square feet of space in the Civil Engineering laboratory building provide space for both undergraduate instruction and graduate research in the areas of soil properties, behavior of unsaturated soils, soil suction measurements, surface energy propertiesof construction materials, construction quality control, and field behavior of soils. The undergraduate laboratory facilities provide space and equipment to conduct the basic soil mechanics tests, including grain size distribution, plasticity, compaction, consolidation, permeability, and shear strength (triaxial and direct shear tests). The research facilities generally reflect ongoing research topics, which include characterization of the properties of unsaturated and expansive soils, physical and chemical modification of soils, and measurement of field performance of soils.

For further information, contact the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering or the Office of the Dean of Engineering.

A flexible study plan is designed to meet each student's individual goals.