Civil Engineering: Entrance exams, institutes and job prospects

Civil Engineering is all about planning, designing, building and maintaining construction projects of various scales. These projects include buildings, roads, bridges, railways lines, airports, energy systems, and water supply and sewage systems. If you love to apply Maths and Mechanics to resolve real-world problems, you can go for Civil Engineering courses with a strong industry link.

Studying Civil Engineering:

• You need to clear your Class XII board exams or an equivalent exam with Physics, Chemistry, Maths as compulsory subjects. You need at least 75% aggregate for admission to IITs, NITs and GFTIs.
• You need to clear JEE Mains, conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), for admission to NITs, CFTIs and other engineering institutes.
• You need to clear JEE Advanced to get into IITs and IIT (ISM) Dhanbad. To be eligible for JEE Advanced, you need to be among the top 2,50,000 successful candidates (across all categories) in the BE/BTech paper of JEE Mains.
• You can also get a Civil Engineering degree by clearing any of the state joint entrance exams.
• For a master’s degree in Civil Engineering, you need to clear GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering).

Some top institutes for Civil Engineering:

IIT Kharagpur, West Bengal

Course: BTech in Civil Engineering.

• Duration: Four years.
• Admission: Depends on your rank in JEE Advanced.

Course: MTech in Civil Engineering.

• Duration: Two years.
• Admission: Depends on your GATE rank.
• Click here to learn more.

Jadavpur University, Kolkata, West Bengal

Course: BE in Civil Engineering.

• Duration: Four years.
• Admission: Depends on your rank in the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination (WBJEE).

Course: ME in Civil Engineering.

• Duration: Two years.
• Admission: Depends on your GATE rank.
• Click here to learn more.

Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpur

Course: BTech in Civil Engineering.

• Duration: Four years.
• Admission: Depends on your rank in JEE Mains.

Course: MTech in Civil Engineering.

• Duration: Two years.
• Admission: Depends on your GATE rank.

Course: Dual Degree (BTech and MTech).

• Duration: Five years.
• Admission: Depends on your rank in JEE Mains.
• Click here to learn more.

National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, West Bengal

Course: BTech in Civil Engineering.

• Duration: Four years.
• Admission: Depends on your rank in JEE Mains.

Course: MTech in Civil Engineering.

• Duration: Two years.
• Admission: Depends on your GATE rank.
• Click here to learn more.

Delhi Technological University, Delhi

Course: BTech in Civil Engineering.

• Duration: Four years.
• Admission: Depends on your rank in JEE Mains.

Course: MTech in Civil Engineering.

• Duration: Two years.
• Admission: Depends on your GATE rank.
• Click here to know more.

National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, Odisha

Course: BTech in Civil Engineering.

• Duration: Four years.
• Admission: Depends on your rank in JEE Mains.

Course: MTech in Civil Engineering.

• Duration: Two years.
• Admission: Depends on your GATE rank.
• Click here to learn more.

Job roles with a Civil Engineering degree:

• Civil engineer: They look after infrastructure construction and maintenance. It’s their job to design, test and build a project in keeping with government rules, environmental factors and long-term goals.
• Construction and management engineer: They oversee large building projects and sites. These professionals focus on safety and environmental standards while considering the amount of money and time available.
• Project engineer: They are in charge of the infrastructure construction planning process. Their job is to educate construction workers and prepare a budget based on a project's timeline and requirements.
• Structural engineer: They design, plan and construct public infrastructures such as buildings, bridges, and other structures. It’s their job to create aesthetically pleasing designs and to figure out what materials can make a structure safe and stable.
• Site engineer: They monitor the overall security, health and safety of a site. They also supervise the stock of raw materials and prepare site reports by filling in different types of paperwork.
• Planning engineer: They are in charge of implementing the most effective construction strategies by assessing a project's prospective cost and comparing it to the necessary building materials, people and time to finish it. It’s their job to check if others are complying with safety protocols.
• Structural engineer: They calculate pressures, loads and stresses to figure out the strength construction materials and select accordingly. They also provide technical advice on safe construction.