Construction Management, M.S.CM

(MCM)

The construction management (CM) MS graduate program is offered 100% online or delivered traditionally on-campus. It is designed to blend engineering, business, and construction management concepts together to produce a professional graduate who can manage construction processes effectively and efficiently. It also provides a path for those interested in research and a career path in academics. The students will have an in-depth education in state of the art construction specializations including, sustainable construction and materials, hazard management construction, building information modeling, decision-making, and advanced productivity. The program is offered in three paths as follows:

Professional

This path is offered to both the LSU on-campus MSCM students as well as the MSCM online students.  It is a professional practice-orientated advanced degree that offers a unique blend of 36 credit hours of construction management, engineering and business management courses. The degree is designed to develop leaders/managers for building projects with mastery in the best practices contained within sustainability, building information modeling, project delivery, and decision making. Those without a construction related baccalaureate degrees may be required to complete leveling (foundation) CM courses prior to full admission into the program.

The program requires 36 credit hours of graduate studies. Hours are divided into required categories:

CORE CM Courses – 9 credit hours (3 required courses)

• CM 7010 Research Methods in Construction Management (3)  
• CM 7030 Project Delivery (3) 
• CM 7150 Decision Making Tools in Construction Management (3)  

Additional courses will be developed in the future and offered as additional electives.

Executive

This path is offered only to on-campus MSCM students.  This path is designed to serve the construction professionals that are interested in learning more about construction research. This path consists of 36 credit hours, with 33 credit hour courses and a 3 credit hour research project. It blends engineering, business, and construction management concepts together to produce a professional graduate who understands basic research methods and can manage higher level construction processes effectively and efficiently. Final program of study is developed by the student’s supervisory committee. Those without a construction related baccalaureate degrees may be required to complete leveling (foundation) CM courses prior to full admission into the program.  Focus research areas within the construction management department include:

• Advanced Materials & Sustainability
• Building Science For Disaster-Resistant Communities
• Built Environment Informatics 
• Capital Facility Management

CORE CM Courses – at least 9 credit hours (3 required courses)

1.    CM 7010 Research Methods in Construction Management (3)  

2.     EXST 7004, EXST 7005, EXST 7006, CM 7150 or equivalent

3.     Construction Management courses – 3 credit hours (one course) selected from the following list:

• CM 7030 Project Delivery 
• CM 7110 Advanced Productivity  
• CM 7111 Construction Scheduling and Diagnostics 
• CM 7150 Decision Making tools for CM 
• CM 7203 Advanced Sustainable Construction
• CM 7214 Concrete Materials in Construction
• CM 7303 Environmental Life cycle assessment 
• CM 7211 Construction Dispute resolution 
• CM 7213 Soils in Construction 
• CM 7220 BIM 
• CM 7230 Lean construction 
• CM 7250 Natural Hazard Resistant Construction 

PROJECT COURSE – 3 credit hours (1 required course)

• CM 7207 

4. ELECTIVES – 26 credit hours can be selected from the courses offered within the College of Engineering including the Construction Management Department to accommodate one of the four research areas. 

Research

This path is offered only to on-campus MSCM students.  This path is designed to serve a construction professional that would like to pursue research in construction and graduate with a thesis.  This path consists of 30 credit hours with 24 credit hour courses and 6 credit hour thesis. The program of study focuses on higher levels of research but also blends engineering, business, and construction management concepts together to produce a research graduate planning a career in academia. Final program of study is developed by the student’s supervisory committee. Those without a construction related baccalaureate degree may be required to complete leveling (foundation) CM courses prior to full admission to the program.  Focus research areas within the construction management department include:

• Advanced Materials & Sustainability
• Building Science For Disaster-Resistant Communities
• Built Environment Informatics 
• Capital Facility Management

CORE CM Courses – at least 9 credit hours (3 required courses)