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BS in Construction Management  - Curriculum

The Construction Management curriculum is designed to blend the technical aspects with the business aspects of the construction industry to produce a professional graduate who can manage construction processes effectively and efficiently. The curriculum is accredited by the American Council for Construction Education (ACCE) and may be divided into four segments. The first area is general education requirements by the University. This area includes courses in English, math, natural sciences, social science, art, and humanities. The second area is construction science with required course work in the design disciplines' processes.. The third area is business administration. Courses in this area include management, marketing, accounting, finance, and economics. The fourth area is construction. Course work in this area includes graphics, estimating, contract documents, project planning and scheduling, construction materials and methods, cost control, administration, law, and construction management.

The Construction Management Program at LSU is an ACCE accredited program. This page overviews the program's curriculum and requirements, as well as issues that may be relevant to students seeking admission to the program.  Please be aware that the LSU General Catalog for the year you enter college is your ultimate rule book for the curricular requirements to earn your degree, and that the information presented here is intended only to summarize and supplement that document for the current catalog year (2008-09).

Applying and Admission Requirements

Please visit LSU's Prospective Student Page for information on applying for a degree, admissions requirements, tuition, and many other aspects of student life.

Course Requirements

To obtain a BS in Construction Management you must take all the courses listed for the Construction Management curriculum in the LSU General Catalog for your catalog year. New students, or students re-entering after 2 or more semesters leave from LSU, will enter on the current year's catalog.  The course requirements for the current 2008-09 catalog year are listed below. These requirements are also graphically presented in flowcharts which are used extensively in our advising process - see the flowcharts link at the top of this page. 

2008-09 CATALOG REQUIREMENTS FOR BSCM DEGREE

TOTAL SEM. HRS. . 126

Admission into the College of Engineering is required for construction management majors prior to taking any construction management course numbered above CM 2121.

A grade of "C" or better is required in all CM prerequisite courses; ENGL 1001 and 2000; MATH 1550; PHYS 2001 and 2002. General education required courses are marked with asterisks (*).

FRESHMAN YEAR SEM. HRS.
Construction Management 1010, 2012. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
English 1001*. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
General education arts course*. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
General education life sciences course*. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
General education humanities course*. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Geology 1001*. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
ISDS 1100 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Mathematics 1550*. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
  32
 
SOPHOMORE YEAR SEM. HRS.
Accounting 2000, 2101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Construction Management 2121, 2131, 2141 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Economics 2030*. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
English 2000* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Physics 2001,* 2002*. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
General education communication studies course* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
General education social sciences course *. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
  33
 
JUNIOR YEAR SEM. HRS.
Construction Management 3000, 3100, 3121, 3131, 3141,
      3210, 3303, 3400, 3505. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
27
Experimental Statistics 2201* or Mathematics 1552*. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
  31
 
SENIOR YEAR SEM. HRS.
Construction Management 3506, 4200, 4201, 4202. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Approved business/management electives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Approved electives or ROTC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Industrial Engineering 3201 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
  30

Grade Requirements

To graduate with a BS in Construction Management you must have a C average (2.0) or better overall AND in your major for all course work at LSU and transferred to LSU from other institutions. This is a requirement on your average grade point.  

To demonstrate proficiency in basic science and math, CM students must complete MATH 1550, PHYS 2001, and PHYS 2002 with a "C" or better.

English proficiency is also a requirement for graduation. Student must demonstrate English proficiency by earning a C or better, or receiving advanced standing credit, in ENGL 1001 and ENGL 2000.

General Education Requirements

General education courses provide students with a broader understanding of the world around them, insuring that they can relate to the diversity of cultures, attitudes, and backgrounds that they will encounter in their careers.  They are the means by which students learn to think, describe, interpret, and analyze the world. Their primary aim is to educate, rather than train, and to instill a desire for life-long learning.

To fulfill these requirements, students must complete 39 hours of course work in six major areas:

  • English composition (six hours)
  • Analytical reasoning (six hours)
  • Arts (three hours)
  • Humanities (nine hours)
  • Natural sciences (nine hours)
  • Social sciences (six hours)

The CM program requires specific courses be taken in several of these categories.

General Education Area Courses Required
English composition (6 hrs) ENGL 1001, ENGL 2000
Analytical reasoning (6 hrs) MATH 1550, MATH 1552 or EXST 2201
Arts (3 hrs) Choose 1 from the Gen. Ed. list
Humanities (9 hrs) Choose 3 from the Gen. Ed. list. At least 1 course to be a CMST elective
Natural sciences (9 hrs) PHYS 2001, 2002, GEOL 1001
Social sciences (6 hrs) ECON 2030 plus 1 from the Gen. Ed. list
Life Sciences (3 hrs) Choose 1 from the Gen. Ed. list

Students may alternatively take the Honors college equivalent of these courses.

The General Education list may be found in the LSU General Catalog for your catalog year. You can find links to these lists on the flowchart link at the top of this page. It is critical that you only choose General Education courses listed for your specific catalog year.

There are some additional regulations regarding General Education requirements:

  • Only those courses on the approved list, and their honors equivalents, may be used to satisfy the general education requirement.
  • No more than six hours of credit taken through correspondence study may be applied to a student's general education requirement.
  • An entering student may receive three or six hours of credit in English composition on the basis of ACT scores and/or performance on approved placement tests.
  • An entering student may receive credit for one or more of the required mathematics courses on the basis of placement test scores.
  • Advanced placement and advanced standing credit may be used to satisfy the general education requirement.
  • General education courses will be graded on the “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” “F” system. No courses taken on a pass/fail basis will count toward the general education requirement.

Construction Management Electives

In the BSCM curriculum, you will see 6 credit hours (2 courses) of "Approved Electives" and 9 credit hours (3 courses) of "Approved business/administration electives" listed in the Senior year. The list of approved elective courses may be found on the "flowcharts" link at the top of this page.  The electives allow a student to begin specializing into a particular area of Construction Management matching their career objectives.

Minors

Many Construction Management students also pursue one or more Minors in addition to their CM major. A minor is additional coursework in a particular specialization area. Students take minors which they feel with strengthen their career preparation and make them more competitive in the job market. Most minors require 18-30 credit hours of coursework. Completed minors are noted on your official transcript.

The "Minors" link at the top of this page provides information on the requirements for minors commonly pursued by CM students.

Occasionally it is impossible for a student to take all required courses (for example, a course on an older catalog may no longer be taught). In such cases it is possible to substitute an equivalent course. Such substitution requires the approval of the CM Undergraduate Coordinator. The substitution will appear on your degree audit and transcript once approved.

Taking Courses at Other Schools

You may decide to take a course at another university or another campus in the LSU system, perhaps during the summer. If you plan to use these credits toward degree requirements, you must be in good academic standing at LSU and you must obtain prior approval in writing for each course. Approval forms are available in the College of Engineering office (3304 PFT Hall). Approval for construction management courses must be obtained from the CM Undergraduate Coordinator and possibly the coordinators of other programs (if taking non-CM courses).  The approval form also establishes what the equivalent course at LSU is. To see course equivalencies for Louisiana Colleges and Universities, see the Louisiana Board of Regents Master Articulation Matrix.

Be aware that other universities may have different credit hour and semester systems. For instance, a 4 credit hour course at a University with a trimester system (8-10 week semester) may only transfer as 2.5 credit hours to LSU.  You should make sure that courses taken at other schools will transfer with sufficient credit to replace the equivalent course at LSU.

LSU has a special relationship with Southern University and Baton Rouge Community College which allows cross-registration in courses considered equivalent to LSU courses (students can take courses at Southern and BRCC at the same time taking courses at LSU).  For courses taken during the normal academic year semesters, students are limited to at most 1 math, 1 science, and 1 engineering/cm course.  This limit does not apply to courses taken during the summer terms. See the College of Engineering counselors for approval and instructions for cross-registering.

Note that there is a minimum residency requirement for College of Engineering. Students must take AT LEAST 30 credit hours of coursework within the College of Engineering at LSU.  This limits the number of CM courses that can be taken at other universities.

Exchange Programs

LSU has been actively promoting having students study abroad for one or more semesters. Exchange programs broaden students exposure to and understanding of other cultures, which is critical in our increasingly global economy. Please see http://ocs-web2.ocs.lsu.edu/apa/ for more details on these opportunities and how to arrange them.

Transfer Students

To be considered for admission the College of Engineering, transfer students must have earned a 2.5 GPA for all college-level course work attempted as well as all other college admission requirements. The calculation is made using LSU's system of counting all attempts at all courses, even if your former institution used another system, such as replacing grades in repeated courses. The catalog allows the Dean to grant admission in exceptional cases if the GPA is below a 2.5, but above a 2.0. Upon written request, the Dean will evaluate an applicant's entire academic record and may grant admission to the College.

The transfer process is a multi-step process:

  1. First apply and have your transcripts sent to LSU.

  2. Attend a Transfer Student Orientation (you will be assigned an orientation date once you are accepted to LSU).

  3. Once you arrive at LSU, LSU Admissions will evaluate your coursework taken at other institutions to determine if they can be accepted at LSU.  This process does not evaluate whether courses are equivalent to existing courses at LSU (exception: other higher education institutions in Louisiana have established equivalency relations with LSU for many courses).

  4. Transferred courses are then evaluated by specific programs (Physics transfer courses would be evaluated by Physics for example) and by the CM Undergraduate Coordinator to determine equivalence to existing LSU courses required by the CM program.  Substitutions are then made for courses deemed equivalent.

Student's contemplating transferring often would like an idea of what might transfer before applying to or arriving at LSU. While an official evaluation cannot be made until you are accepted and arrive at LSU, it is recommended that you contact the CM Undergraduate Coordinator (see "Contact Us" link for contact information) to get an idea of which courses will likely transfer and apply to the CM program. To see course equivalencies for Louisiana Colleges and Universities, see the Louisiana Board of Regents Master Articulation Matrix.

Advising Process

The College of Engineering has a formal advising process designed to keep students on track in the curriculum and help them resolve any problems they encounter.

Once a student meets the college eligibility requirements and formerly enters the College of Engineering and declares Construction Management as a major, then they are assigned a faculty advisor. Students must see a counselor in the Dean's Office (3304 PFT Hall) to formerly enter the college. They will need to meet with their CM advisor each semester prior to registration (a registration block is placed making advising mandatory). Click here to find out who your assigned CM faculty advisor will be.

Students - including freshman not yet in the College of Engineering - can also see the CM Undergraduate Coordinator at any time with advising questions.

For questions about General Education requirements, please see one of the College of Engineering counselors (in 3304 PFT Hall). They stay up to date on the latest approved courses and rules.

For questions on course transfers and substitutions, see the CM Undergraduate Coordinator.

The "Advising FAQ" link at the top of this page contains a good deal of additional useful information about advising and advising-related issues.

Meeting Graduation Requirements

In addition to advising, the College of Engineering has a procedure called "Senior Check-Out" which is designed to assure you meet graduation requirements. The check-out procedure occurs early in the semester prior to the semester in which you anticipate graduation. You will be contacted by the College of Engineering to initiate the check out process. See the CM Undergraduate Coordinator for this procedure and NOT your assigned CM advisor.

Get to know your classmates and the CM students a year or more ahead of you. They know the ropes and can help answer your questions. Join the Construction Students Association. It will help you get to know fellow students and alumni in profession.
 



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