Louisiana·Architecture and Engineering Occupations·SOC 17-2051

Best Civil Engineer programs in Louisiana, ranked by enrollment

Perform engineering duties in planning, designing, and overseeing construction and maintenance of building structures and facilities, such as roads, railroads, airports, bridges, harbors, channels, dams, irrigation projects, pipelines,.

6 schools in Louisiana run programs that feed this job, graduating 292 people a year. The job pays a median of $105,380 in Louisiana across about 3,780 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledEngineerCivil EngineerCounty EngineerDesign EngineerProject EngineerTraffic EngineerConsulting EngineerStructural Engineer
Graduates / yr
292
in Louisiana
Median pay · Louisiana
$105,380
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
3,780
people employed
Schools
6
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
56%
across those schools
Median net price
$33,106
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in Louisiana that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

3 programs in Louisiana that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in Louisiana (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Louisiana page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1
CIP 14.0801In Louisiana
230
78.8%
5$69,574$24,625
2
CIP 14.3301In Louisiana
58
19.9%
1$75,998$25,314
3
CIP 14.0805In Louisiana
4
1.4%
1$69,574$24,625

Top 6 schools in Louisiana

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 5 of the 6 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
Baton Rouge, LA Public · 2 feeder programs
193Civil Engineering, General$67,55269%73%
2University of New Orleans
New Orleans, LA Public · 1 feeder programs
34Civil Engineering, General$65,11938%74%
3Louisiana Tech University
Ruston, LA Public · 1 feeder programs
31Civil Engineering, General$61,86864%86%
4University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Lafayette, LA Public · 1 feeder programs
22Civil Engineering, General$69,17753%87%
5Southern University and A & M College
Baton Rouge, LA Public · 1 feeder programs
8Civil Engineering, General$60,21927%35%
6Tulane University of Louisiana
New Orleans, LA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs
4Water Resources Engineering86%$33,10614%

All 6 schools in Louisiana

Every school in Louisiana with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in Louisiana that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical CollegeBaton RougePublic1932
University of New OrleansNew OrleansPublic341
Louisiana Tech UniversityRustonPublic311
University of Louisiana at LafayetteLafayettePublic221
Southern University and A & M CollegeBaton RougePublic81
Tulane University of LouisianaNew OrleansPrivate not-for-profit41

What civil engineers earn in Louisiana

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in Louisiana
$105,380
Mean annual
$108,250
Jobs in state
3,780
What the range looks like
10th pct$64,570Median$105,38090th pct$156,610
Versus the national median
+4.5%

U.S. median $100,840. Louisiana pays above the national figure.

Job concentration
0.82×

1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.

Metro areas in Louisiana

Baton Rouge, LA
$112,430median
1,140 jobs
New Orleans-Metairie, LA
$108,240median
1,070 jobs
Slidell-Mandeville-Covington, LA
$101,820median
240 jobs
Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA
$107,400median
130 jobs
Lake Charles, LA
$97,490median
120 jobs
Shreveport-Bossier City, LA
$98,550median
210 jobs
Alexandria, LA
$92,290median
60 jobs
Lafayette, LA
$97,410median
360 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+5.0%
Faster than average
Openings per year
23,600
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
18,500
368,900 → 387,500
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Civil Engineers page.

How to become a Civil Engineer

Job zone 4 of 5 · SVP 7.0 to < 8.0
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Top skills

Critical ThinkingReading ComprehensionMathematicsSpeakingActive ListeningWriting

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in Louisiana

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 7 majors mapped to Civil Engineers7 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 14.0801Civil Engineering, General
  • 14.0802Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
  • 14.0803Structural Engineering
  • 14.0804Transportation and Highway Engineering
  • 14.0805Water Resources Engineering
  • 14.0899Civil Engineering, Other
  • 14.3301Construction Engineering

Common questions

Answers for people weighing civil engineers programs in Louisiana.

What degree do you need to become a Civil Engineer?+

Bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Civil Engineering, General, which awarded 230 degrees in Louisiana in 2024-25, 78.8% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Civil Engineer?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 3 programs to this occupation. The largest are Civil Engineering, Construction Engineering. Together they graduate about 292 people a year in Louisiana.

How much do civil engineers earn in Louisiana?+

The median is $105,380 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 4.5% above the U.S. median of $100,840. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for civil engineers growing?+

BLS projects a +5.0% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, faster than average, with roughly 23,600 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in Louisiana?+

6 institutions in Louisiana reported graduates from at least one of the 3 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do civil engineers work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Engineer, Civil Engineer, County Engineer, Design Engineer, Project Engineer, Traffic Engineer among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 17-2051.

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

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