To Be a Transportation Engineer or Not? How Civil Engineering Students Choose a Specialization

The transportation industry faces a growing shortage of professional engineers. A key strategy in solving this problem will be to encourage more civil engineering students to specialize in transportation while completing their undergraduate degree so that employers have a larger pool of likely recruits. This paper examines the factors that lead civil engineering undergraduates to specialize in transportation, as opposed to other civil engineering subdisciplines. The primary method used was a web-based survey of 1,852 civil engineering undergraduates. The study results suggest steps the transportation community can take to increase the number of civil engineering undergraduates who choose to specialize in transportation. Educators need to introduce material into required freshman and sophomore courses that shows the range of dynamic career possibilities available in the transportation field, and employers need to increase and better publicize transportation internships.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.3141/2046-10
• 
• Summary URL:
  http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=To+Be+a+Transportation+Engineer+or+Not%3f+How+Civil+Engineering+Students+Choose+a+Specialization&author=A.+Agrawal&author=J.+Dill&publication_year=2008
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://www.trb.org/Main/Public/Blurbs/160229.aspx
• Authors:
  • Agrawal, Asha Weinstein
  • Dill, Jennifer
• Publication Date: 2008

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 76-84
• Monograph Title: Performance Measurement, Demand Management, and Issues of Major U.S. Cities
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
  • Issue Number: 2046
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Civil engineering; College students; Engineers; Highway engineering; Professional employment; Research; Transportation careers; Transportation engineering
• Uncontrolled Terms: Transportation internships
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Education and Training; Highways; Research; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01091629
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780309113199
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Apr 23 2008 9:26AM