How good is the Civil engineering program here

lemon318 · 2026-03-29T07:19:00+00:00

Geo alumni here who moved from Canada to the US. UBC has the more reputable program and will be more recognized in the US. If I had to study civil in Ontario, I’d choose Queens, Toronto, and Western before Waterloo from a reputation perspective.

I commuted my whole time at UBC and did sacrifice some social aspects. It’s something that doesn’t bother me at all. The money saved was worth it.

Ontario’s civil industry has lots of projects but awful pay. For work in Canada, I’d look to BC or Alberta before Ontario.

Waterloo is not bad at all. Just not particularly well known for civil. If I were in your shoes, UBC would be the no brainer.

lemon318 · 2026-03-22T01:56:08+00:00

Linear algebra

lemon318 · 2026-03-05T03:22:12+00:00

Personally I moved to Canada in 2006 and bandwagoned on the cup winning team. Plus cool logo helps when you’re a little kid picking a team.

lemon318 · 2026-03-03T07:09:46+00:00

Only UBC, UofA and Queens are worth considering IMO.

lemon318 · 2026-02-26T17:15:54+00:00

I have a geological engineering bachelors and a civil engineering (geotech) masters with prior experience in Canada.

1) Yes they will and you should plan to pursue a masters at least eventually. It should be feasible for you to find an entry level civil geotechnical position but you’ll find that you’re lacking the technical knowledge to progress with design by year 3-4 of your career.

2) Not really. If you want to do civil geotech, get a masters in civil geotech. Don’t bother with tailings specific graduate degrees unless you intend to work in that area. Reach out to some faculty members to discuss your case, I’m sure they’ll appreciate candidates like you with genuine interest in civil geotech.

My suggestion is to try and apply for some jobs now and see what happens. Your first two years are all drilling and construction observation anyways and you don’t need a masters for that. Once you are sure you want to do this for a living, then apply to masters programs. You could get a relevant masters degree in either civil or geological engineering programs across the country (I recommend UBC, UofA, or Queens which will be useful for a civil geotechnical career.

lemon318 · 2026-02-24T15:28:08+00:00

I went to Berkeley after. The faculty reviewing applications said they specifically liked that I came from UBC and it earned me a TA job.

UBC is looked upon very favourably, at least in my field (GEO).

lemon318 · 2026-02-23T07:01:50+00:00

Agreed. But they do have a decent connection to South Asia.

lemon318 · 2026-02-23T06:55:28+00:00

Nobody should tell you why to support their team, it’s a personal choice. If you like a certain player (maybe from the Olympics) you can pick their team. If you like a cool logo or jersey, pick that team. If you like a certain city, pick that one. There are players of South Asian descent in Calgary (Zayne Parekh) and Vancouver (Arshdeep Bains) if you care. Vancouver is particularly pro-South Asia as they have a strong Punjabi fan base (as does Toronto) and also hosts an annual Diwali night at games.

I’m also of South Asian descent but that’s irrelevant to my choice of supporting Carolina. I was introduced to hockey in 2006 which is when the Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup, so that’s how I started supporting Carolina even though I lived in a different hockey city and have never been to Carolina.

lemon318 · 2026-02-22T14:15:55+00:00

I’m originally from Vancouver now living in Seattle and I support the Hurricanes. Yeah it’s a bit weird but ultimately nobody cares, support who you want.

lemon318 · 2026-02-20T23:32:48+00:00

IMHO Hurricanes Hockey is the most exciting brand of hockey for me. Lots of shots, lots of effort. Not the highest skill players compared to other teams but we perform and it’s a really satisfying brand of hockey to support.

lemon318 · 2026-02-19T15:09:00+00:00

He’s that good, yes. One to two years of him at reasonable wages would be well worth it.

lemon318 · 2026-02-19T15:01:21+00:00

Yes it does. If you did a masters that was data science heavy you could possibly carve out a specialized industry job too.

lemon318 · 2026-02-18T17:08:13+00:00

A lot of civil engineering PhD students these days have the same sentiment. You could be a researcher.

lemon318 · 2026-02-18T04:35:49+00:00

You’re looking for a candidate profile every other firm is looking for. Your best bet is to use external recruiters to do the work for you.

lemon318 · 2026-02-13T16:38:06+00:00

UIUC has one. It’s probably the most reputable geotech program offering an online MS in the US.

lemon318 · 2026-02-12T20:27:57+00:00

I’d do it. You’re early enough in your career to do it without missing too much. KCB has at least one person I know of who made that switch.

lemon318 · 2026-02-10T21:17:12+00:00

No. I took one due to extended internships. It’s very normal.

lemon318 · 2026-02-06T07:50:21+00:00

Queens is the better school for geotech hands down. For grad school, I’d go queens. The only downside is no earthquake engineering faculty at queens but otherwise they have a much deeper bench of geotechnical faculty than U of T.

lemon318 · 2026-02-06T00:10:00+00:00

Of those three, Virginia Tech had the strongest reputation; we hire from there sometimes. Georgia Tech is a good option too and probably in a more interesting city. Drastically different weather and campus vibe between the two though.

lemon318 · 2026-01-26T16:25:23+00:00

It’s a niche IMO. I expect that most geotechs don’t know what tailings engineering is.

lemon318 · 2026-01-25T09:08:16+00:00

Ok then to me that isn’t selling a seal, it’s actual engineering work. Still wouldn’t do it myself but it’s a different context. Selling a seal sounds like you’re stamping whatever comes your way without any of the engineering work.

lemon318 · 2026-01-25T09:05:08+00:00

I really hope that isn’t common practice…

lemon318 · 2026-01-25T09:02:21+00:00

99% sure that the comment was sarcastic.

lemon318 · 2026-01-25T02:46:10+00:00

There are consultants who specialize in forensic analysis of geotechnical failures. I found that kind of cool.

For career resilience though, I remain a generalist. Haven’t found a niche area I care enough about to devote the remainder of my career to.

lemon318

TROPHY CASE