Princeton University

When I was applying to civil engineering graduate schools, it wasn’t hard to like what Princeton had to offer.  The university is one of the most academically prestigious institutions in the world and offers many diverse opportunities to learn how engineering relates to the modern world.  The campus is a great natural and intellectual environment in which to pursue graduate study.  The Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) department, though small, offered the opportunity to get involved in PhD-level research as soon as I arrived on campus - many of the other institutions to which I applied delayed the start of a student’s research to later in the first year or to the second year of study.  In addition, Princeton offered a better package of financial support (which included a first year fellowship for PhD students) than any other university I applied to and reassured me that continued support would be available, either through research or teaching assistantships, throughout my pursuit of a PhD.

The CEE department at Princeton prides itself on fostering a high level of interaction between its graduate students and its renowned faculty.  A product of this interaction is that the students quickly take ownership of their research and make a substantial contribution to the project.  Students often have the chance to travel to conferences and assist their professors in disseminating their work to the broader engineering community.  Throughout my time at Princeton, I have had the privilege of working with Professor Maria Garlock to investigate the behavior and capacity of steel building frames that have been subject to fire.  I’ve had the opportunity to travel as far as Portugal to assist Professor Garlock in presenting our research (I’m hoping to make it to a conference in Singapore next spring), and my work has contributed to several other conference and journal papers.

I’ve been at Princeton for three years now, and the university community, particularly my friends and colleagues in CEE, have made it a great place to live and study.  Whether it’s playing intramural broomball or softball with a team of CEE students, participating in a service project, attending a lecture by a keynote guest speaker, or going to departmental happy hour on Friday afternoons, the members of the CEE department and the College of Engineering have created a welcoming and proactive environment in which it is easy to get involved.

If you have any questions about the graduate program in Civil and Environmental Engineering, particularly the program in Mechanics, Materials, and Structures (MMS), or about Princeton in general, please feel free to email me at squiel@princeton.edu.