![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Matt-Moulton-photo-819x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure>\u201cAs the pandemic was winding down, I realized that there were all these online programs now.\u202fI thought, \u2018Maybe I could do something like that to get a master’s degree.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moulton\u2019s search for civil engineering master\u2019s degree program started\u202flocally. The\u202fin-state\u202fprograms he found were expensive.\u202fHis mom\u202fsuggested looking out of state.\u202f<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat’s when I looked at Purdue,\u201d Moulton said.\u202f<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Purdue University\u2019s online\u202fMaster of Science in Civil Engineering<\/a> program, ranked No. 1 for\u202fBest Online Master’s in Civil Engineering Programs\u202fby U.S. News and World Report\u202fin 2026, offered Moulton an opportunity he could not find locally: a quality\u202fonline\u202feducation at a\u202freasonable\u202fprice.\u202f<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI thought, \u2018Wow, it has a higher rank. It\u2019s more affordable than any of those in-state schools.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Around the same time, MDOT started its tuition\u202fassistance\u202fprogram. Suddenly,\u202fMoulton\u2019s goal was within reach.\u202fWhile working on his master\u2019s, he\u202fwas promoted\u202fto\u202fbig bridge management and scoping engineer, but Moulton continued his degree program because he still wanted to learn more about civil engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n Learn more about Purdue’s online master’s in civil engineering<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have a better understanding\u202fof design,\u201d Moulton said.\u202f\u202f\u201cI\u2019m\u202fnot super involved in bridge design, but I help\u202fplan projects.\u202fBeing able to better understand the designers is helpful for my role in the project development process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The program\u2019s online modality offered Moulton the opportunity to fit\u202fclasses in\u202fwhenever possible.\u202f<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was able to get the degree while still working full-time and taking advantage of my employer’s program to help pay for it,\u201d Moulton said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHaving\u202feverything\u202f asynchronous was great. If I had\u202ffree evenings after work, I could\u202fsit down and watch a lecture or do homework.\u202f Or on the weekends. I\u202fdidn’t\u202fhave to\u202fplan it\u202faround anything.\u202fIt\u202fworked out\u202freally well.\u201d\u202f<\/p>\n\n\n\n After\u202fcompleting his degree in 2025, Moulton said he appreciates the value of continuing education.\u202f\u202f<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI got out of it what I wanted to get out of it: more experience in civil engineering topics, more details about what I learned in my undergrad,\u201d Moulton said. \u201cAnd I got to take some electives that I didn’t get in my undergrad. I took a plastics in infrastructure course. I never had any courses like that before. I would say it was a great program, and it was very flexible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more information about Purdue\u2019s online\u202fMaster of Science in Civil Engineering,\u202fvisit the program\u2019s website.\u202f<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It wasn\u2019t Matthew Moulton\u2019s goal of developing and maintaining safer bridges for the state of Michigan that drove him to return to college for his master\u2019s degree in civil engineering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":7329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"area-of-study":[11],"person":[74],"class_list":["post-10243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-success","area-of-study-engineering","person-students"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Civil-Engineering-2.jpg",1800,1200,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Civil-Engineering-2.jpg",1800,1200,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Civil-Engineering-2.jpg",1800,1200,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Civil-Engineering-2-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Civil-Engineering-2-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Civil-Engineering-2-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Civil-Engineering-2-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Civil-Engineering-2.jpg",1800,1200,false],"rt_custom":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Civil-Engineering-2.jpg",1800,1200,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Marcia Sweet","author_link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/author\/sweet10\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Student Success<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"It wasn\u2019t Matthew Moulton\u2019s goal of developing and maintaining safer bridges for the state of Michigan that drove him to return to college for his master\u2019s degree in civil engineering.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10243"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10250,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10243\/revisions\/10250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10243"},{"taxonomy":"area-of-study","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/area-of-study?post=10243"},{"taxonomy":"person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person?post=10243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}