Environmental and water resources engineering professionals typically need a
MS degree to advance because:
- The profession combines aspects of civil and chemical engineering,
as well as the natural and social sciences that cannot be covered in most
undergraduate curricula.
- The profession involves regulatory knowledge, sophistication with laboratory techniques and
computer modeling, and an ability to deal with site specific problems.
- Many state registration boards are requiring continuing education activities to
maintain licensure.
- The American Society of Civil Engineers and the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science
Professors have called for the M.S. degree to be the first professional degree.
- Many professionals in this field do not have engineering undergraduate degrees
and need the engineering credential for advancement.