Environmental Engineering Prerequisite Classes

The environmental engineering program welcomes students who have undergraduate degrees from a variety of disciplines outside of environmental engineering. Typically, 30-40% of our entering graduate students have received their degrees from fields outside of engineering. To prepare for graduate coursework in environmental engineering students may need to complete several undergraduate prerequisite classes during their first year.

Prerequisite classes for the environmental engineering program consist of the following classes (the UC Berkeley equivalent class is listed in parentheses for reference):

Fluid Mechanics (CE 100)
Introduction to Environmental Engineering (CE 111)
Hydrology (CE 103) or Water Chemistry (CE 115)

If you have not already taken these classes, you may take these classes after enrolling in the graduate program. Only one of CE 103 or CE 115 can be counted towards the units required for the MS degree, and credit will not be granted for CE 100 or CE 111.

Completion of the pre-requisite classes listed above require a suitable background in math, physics and chemistry. We recommend that students have at least two years of college math (including differential equations and linear algebra), one year of physics (with calculus), one class in chemistry and one computer programming class prior to being admitted to the program. Students who don't meet these minimum requirements need to make them up prior to matriculating in the program. If you have not taken these classes but think that other coursework has prepared you for the prerequisites listed above (i.e., CE 100, CE 111, CE 103 and CE 115) please contact the graduate admissions officer.