As a civil engineer, I can honestly say that no company I know of would even consider looking at a candidate with an online civil engineering degree. In fact, I don’t think that such degrees even exist! Most – no, all companies are interested in engineering candidates with degrees from ABET accredited engineering programs, and there’s no way that ABET would accredit an on-line program. If you do come across some place that is advertising an accredited on-line civil engineering degree, treat it like “Bob’s Backyard College of Engineering” and run away because it’s a scam.

If you’re interested in getting a civil engineering degree, you’ll probably have to do it the old-fashioned way. But no fear!! – I studied with several folks who were working their ways through school and were a little older, and they all did great! The one advantage that engineering progams in general seem to have is lots of scholarships. Even if you start empty-handed in most civil engineering programs, if you keep high grades and seek to get involved a little bit extracurricularly, you shouldn’t have a problem getting scholarships.

Engineering and online degrees don’t mix. That’s not to say that such degrees aren’t available. . . but they’re generally a bad idea. Employers will also not think too much of them. What I’ve always heard is that even people who graduate from traditional programs where there’s a lot of hands-on experimentation/trial and error still don’t know much about the real practice of engineering (just the raw knowledge) until they’ve been on the job a while to learn what they don’t teach in class. For one, the laws of physics only work right if you can fully characterize the system. . . and that’s basically impossible outside a textbook setting. If you’re never forced to wade through a bunch of knowledge to figure out what you really need when you’re staring at some physical object that’s not doing what it’s supposed to, I’d be a little concerned.

It depends on the online school, how it’s accredited, and where you plan to practice. In the US, you must attend an appropriately accredited civil engineering school, or you can not take the licensing exam, and you can not practice as a civil engineer.

So, online or not, the type of professional accreditation is what you want to research. If the program isn’t appropriately accredited, by I think it’s ABET, then it’s not worth your time or money.

If you decide to go online, and can find a reputable program that is accredited, then try to attend a school that has a good “offline” rep for it’s brick and mortar university. So, not U of Phoenix, but instead look at:

– Rensselaer Polytechnic

– Worcester Polytechnic

– Brooklyn Polytechnic

– UMass Amherst

– U Maryland

– Ball State

– U Nebraska

These schools all offer engineering, some may offer it online. All have good offline reps, and all offer many subjects online.

I will link to the related Wiki page on civil engineering, because it’s info on licensure for various countries is quite on point.

In fact, check to see if your local community college has an online engineering program – some do. That’d save you a lot of money.

No it is not equivalent. When you go to a traditional university you get a bachelor of science in Civil Engineering. An associate degree is not as respected as a bachelors degree. Plus you will not be earning a degree in civil engineering but you will be earning one in civil engineering technology which is not the same. With an associate degree in civil engineering technology your degree will never be as respected as those with a bachelors and that will make it really difficult to find a job.

An on-line degree is not worth the paper it’s printed on. This is especially true in a highly competitive field like an engineering field. Go to college and meet people. The jobs go to people who meet people and do some networking.

I do not think so. That is not a field that is very sensative to the school you went to. MIT would help but a noname state U or online school are about the same.

Gurpy is wrong Tests of online schools have them averaging much higher than the average college.

Quit reading Wikipedia nothing in it is correct.

Probably, but it’ll depend on which college it’s through. If it’s through some major college or university, then it’d probably be fine. But most online college programs out there aren’t that great.