The American Society of Civil Engineers has adopted a policy of urging students to obtain a master's degree as the entry-level degree in the profession. The faculty of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering has concluded that in many civil engineering program areas, a master's degree is necessary for students to have sufficient background to be successful professionally.

The joint five-year B.S./M.S. program is designed to attract the best-of-the-best undergraduate students and is especially intended for students who demonstrate an interest in, and ability for, additional education beyond the bachelor's degree.

Students are eligible to apply for the program after they have completed thirty semester credit hours at Georgia Tech, typically at the end of the freshman year, and they have shown appropriate progress in their degree program. A grade point average of 3.5 or higher is needed for admission to the five-year B.S./M.S. honors program. Students must apply to the program before the completion of seventy-five semester credit hours, including transfer and advanced placement credits, typically at the mid-point of the junior year.

The key components of this program are intense interaction among students and faculty, including mentoring and undergraduate research, and careful advising and course planning to enable students to begin challenging coursework in their fourth year of study.

Students in the joint B.S./M.S. program remain undergraduates until they meet the requirements for the bachelor's degree, at which point they will receive the B.S.C.E. degree. They will then be changed to graduate status. Graduate school application fees and the GRE requirements are waived.

Once admitted, a GPA of at least 3.0 must be maintained to remain in the program. Additionally, students in the B.S./M.S. program are eligible to use the Graduate Course Option (described above) even if their cumulative grade point average is below 3.5 at the time they complete their bachelor's degree.