Comments on: Inaugural Ranking of the Top Undergraduate Construction Schools

By: Bird's the Word

Bird's the Word — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:22:36 +0000

It seems no one has posted for awhile, but I’ll give my two cents. First off, not to disrespect but as a undergrad at Florida I didn’t even know FIU had a program. I competed in the ASC’s LEED National Problem in Reno last year and Cal Poly took 1st in my competition and many others. However, after talking to students from there their curriculum is designed similar to competitions so I can understand their advantage in the short run.
This seems like a good list, with that said (acknowledging bias) I believe UF should be higher in terms of Commercial Construction. Our CM and design-build teams consistently place high in competitions and our inaugural BIM team placed 2nd at the Reno competition this past Spring.
UF’s upper-division curriculum introduces us to tech programs like Revit Architecture (CAD is obsolete) and Suretrak, while also teaching us intro engineering courses. With an emphasis on public speaking, we also take contract law (b law is a prereq), construction finance, and construction management. Besides our quality curriculum, our graduates success speaks for itself. As the oldest CM school in the country, Gator grads hold more exec jobs for industry leaders than any other school in the South. I had a 8 month internship for Holder Construction before I got to upper-division (ENR top 40, 4 of 7 execs Gators), the person who took over my trades was a college grad. The point is while anyone can do entry level office work, only the truly ambitous, educated students (regardless of what “shirt” they wear) will successfully climb the ladder.. Rankings don’t mean shit in College football or the real world!

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:34:39 +0000

ECU definetly got left out.

By: Randy

Randy — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:26:17 +0000

I managed a large hospital project in Texas for a national CM and most of the local “talent” were Aggies. The attitude above was prevalent; however, their talent was mediocre at best, primarily due to a sense of entitlement. Graduates of Purdue, Cincinnati, and Bowling Green are far superior.

I agree that there is little credibility to the methodology behind the list.

By: Brice Johnson

Brice Johnson — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:00:06 +0000

I am a graduate of one of your top schools ,bu tmy experience is different. I had already managed hundreds of millions of dollars of projects before I started and have exceeded that since leaving. The school is great and most of the instructors are wonderful, but this like most “Construction” programs does not prepare learners for management of projects. In fact, the acceditation organizations keep them from doing it. The two schools are engineering aligned fields or jock of all trades master of none programs. CAD, advanced math, structural or civil calculations, surveying, etc. have nothing to do with managing the work and therefore the programs should not include “Management” in the titles. Further, “construction” is as broad as saying “manufacturing” or “transportation” and so it leaves just too much to the engineers of academia to promote and cultivate the “mini-me” culture.
What’s really weird is the dynamic of leaders who were grads of these programs requiring similar educations knowing that they did not prepare them for the work. All I can think of is that they are concerned that if they find people with different credentials who wind up doing better, their superiors will become aware of the ruse. Recruiters only do what they are told and telling them to require a CM degree or engineering degree for construction project managment is setting everyone up for failure.
I would love to see the experieced masters of this industry rise up and demand that construction management programs drop all the engineering stuff and starrt including business, management, finance, HR, contract law, lean planning, etc. into the curricula.
Take care

By: Pat

Pat — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:55:26 +0000

If I understand the concept, the title…”Top Construction Schools ” is misleading and an error in judgement.

If you have a weak program with ten students in proximity to numerous recruiters you could easily be number one on the list. Where is the informational value in that ranking ? It seems a quantitative survey has been named as though it were qualitative, no ?

By: John Poole

John Poole — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:39:52 +0000

Thanks for sharing, I love debating it this stuff.

What about the top graduate programs in Construction Management? That would be a very interesting debate.

The truth about all these ranking is that while, it makes for eye catching article titles, it is too subjective of a topic to rank. You should go to school for what they offer and how it fits your interests and not their rank.

I went to grad school for construction management and while the curriculum fit my interests almost perfectly, employers were a bit intimidated by a young person with a graduate degree.

By: Juan

Juan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:03:23 +0000

Hello all, im an Architect looking for a graduate CM Masters in the U.S. For what I have seen, Illinois Institute of Technology has a very good one as well as Carnegie Mellon´s Masters in Architecture and Engineering Construction Management. Can you tell me which of these do you recomend for a M.S? are there any better ones? your opinion is very important, as there is very few information regarding gaduate programs rankings. Thanks.

By: Rohan Sarda

Rohan Sarda — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:12:20 +0000

Hi, First of all thanks for coming up with this list. I want to find out about the rankings of construction management courses in the UK. I have no idea where to begin because no rankings are available anywhere. I have applied to the Univ of Reading, Loughborough and New Castle. Any help would be greatly Appreciated.
Thanks

By: John

John — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:21:33 +0000

The fact that the University of Florida, which is the oldest construction program in the country and one of the best, isn’t in the top five makes this list worthy of serious evaluation. I feel bad for Auburn at 37.

In terms of jobs, it depends on what region you’re competing in and what companies are around. For example, being a graduate of Texas A&M won’t get you anywhere for a job in the Southeast right out of school, when you already have quality programs like Florida, Auburn, Georgia Tech, and Clemson. Just look at the top executives from construction companies in the Southeast. That’s where they went.

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 03:45:48 +0000

I like that someone actually has a list. I noticed that Fresno State and Nevada-Reno aren’t included. I believe Stanford and Berkeley now have Masters programs in CM but, I’m not sure about undergraduate CM degrees.

Keep up the good work!