undergradly.
Major · Engineering Technology

An applied path into land surveying and geomatics work

Surveying Technology/Surveying (CIP 15.1102) prepares students to delineate, measure, and map land tracts, boundaries, and contours using GNSS, total stations, drones, and CAD. About 544 students complete it across 73 institutions, with five-year tracked earnings around $76,756.

Schools offering
73
Annual completions
544
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$77k

About this major

Surveying Technology/Surveying (CIP 15.1102) prepares students to apply mathematical and scientific principles to the delineation, planning, and positioning of land tracts, water boundaries, and land contours, and to produce the maps, charts, and reports that document them. The CIP definition organizes coursework around applied geodesy, plane and geodetic surveying, photointerpretation, traversing, mensuration, computer graphics, instrument calibration, and basic cartography. Programs alternate between field labs running robotic total stations, GNSS/GPS receivers, drones for photogrammetry, and LiDAR scanners, and desk work in AutoCAD Civil 3D, MicroStation, and ArcGIS. Legal-description writing, deed research, and the rules of boundary evidence sit alongside the math, because surveyors are state-licensed officers of record for property lines.

The major fits students who like measurement, geometry, and the outdoors in equal measure — comfortable being on a construction site or hiking a property corner one day and sitting at a CAD station the next. It rewards spatial reasoning, methodical documentation, and the patience to chase down old monuments and historical deeds. Students considering the licensed-surveyor (PLS) path should weigh the long pipeline: an ABET-accredited Surveying Engineering or Geomatics bachelor’s, four years of experience under a licensed PLS, and the Fundamentals of Surveying (FS) and Principles and Practice of Surveying (PS) exams, plus state-specific exams in many jurisdictions.

One grounded observation about access and pay: 544 students complete this CIP across 73 institutions — narrow compared with the 888 students completing Civil Engineering Technology, partly because many surveying students get rolled into broader civil-engineering-technology and geomatics CIPs at the reporting level. Five-year tracked earnings sit at $76,756, with associate’s graduates at $75,104 and bachelor’s graduates at $78,409, a narrow $3,305 gap that reflects the gating role of licensure and experience over degree level alone. Named labor-market destinations include Surveyors ($72,740, 4.4% growth, bachelor’s typical), Surveying and Mapping Technicians ($51,940, 4.5% growth, high school typical), and Cartographers and Photogrammetrists ($78,380, 6.4% growth). Top producers split between two-year AAS schools like Oklahoma State-Oklahoma City and Tyler Junior College and ABET-track bachelor’s programs at the University of Akron, University of Florida, and University of Maine.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Surveying and mapping technicians $52k +4.5% High school diploma or equivalent
Surveyors $73k +4.4% Bachelor's degree
Drafters, all other $62k -6.9% Associate's degree
Cartographers and photogrammetrists $78k +6.4% Bachelor's degree
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$77k

Associate's vs Bachelor's — early-career earnings

Associate's

$75k

Bachelor's

$78k

Who this major is for

You may thrive here if you’re drawn to fieldwork that mixes geometry with the outdoors — running a robotic total station on a construction site, flying a drone for photogrammetry, hiking property corners to recover old monuments — and comfortable shifting between field crews, CAD stations, and deed-research at the courthouse, you’re looking for an AAS-tier entry into a Surveying and Mapping Technician role ($51,940 median, 4.5% growth) at a private survey firm, state DOT, county assessor’s office, or utility, you’re willing to plan for the long Professional Land Surveyor (PLS) pipeline if you want the licensed-surveyor title and its $72,740 median — meaning an ABET Geomatics bachelor’s, four years under a licensed PLS, and the FS plus PS exams, and you’d enjoy stacking adjacent skills like FAA Part 107 drone certification, GIS fluency in ArcGIS, and LiDAR point-cloud processing to defend against automation pressure on routine topographic work.

Think twice if you want a clean four-year-and-done credential into a high-ceiling career — the licensure stack is real, and Surveying Engineering (CIP 14.3801) is the cleaner ABET-EAC pre-licensure track in many states. Reconsider if you want desktop work without fieldwork; Geographic Information Science and Cartography (CIP 45.0702, 796 completions) is the office-bound spatial-analysis path with no field surveying or licensure ladder. Pause if you’re uncomfortable with the regional and cyclical nature of the work — surveying demand swings with construction and infrastructure spending, and most jobs are at small-to-mid private firms rather than national employers. Also reconsider if you want broader civil-engineering work — Civil Engineering Technologies/Technicians (CIP 15.0201, 888 completions) covers a wider range of public-works applied roles.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Surveying Technology/Surveying

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City Oklahoma City, OK 38 0 38
University of Akron Main Campus Akron, OH 17 19 36
Tyler Junior College Tyler, TX 28 0 28
University of Florida Gainesville, FL 0 27 27
University of Maine Orono, ME 0 26 26
University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez Mayaguez, PR 0 19 19
University of Arkansas Community College-Morrilton Morrilton, AR 18 0 18
SUNY College of Technology at Alfred Alfred, NY 9 9 18
Southeast Technical College Sioux Falls, SD 17 0 17
Saint Cloud State University Saint Cloud, MN 0 16 16
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Geographic Information Science and Cartography

796 completions/yr

Surveying Engineering

56 completions/yr

Engineering-Related Technologies/Technicians, Other

43 completions/yr

Hydraulics and Fluid Power Technology/Technician

17 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What do Surveying Technology majors actually study day-to-day?
The CIP definition centers on applied geodesy, plane and geodetic surveying, photointerpretation, traversing, mensuration, computer graphics, basic cartography, and survey-equipment operation and calibration. Coursework runs hands-on and field-heavy: running a robotic total station on a real site, GNSS/GPS positioning with Trimble or Leica gear, drone/UAS photogrammetry, LiDAR point-cloud processing, GIS work in ArcGIS or QGIS, and CAD output in AutoCAD Civil 3D or MicroStation. Lab and field labs alternate with legal-description writing, deed research, and boundary-evidence reasoning that prepares students for cadastral work.
Do I need a bachelor’s, or is an associate’s enough?
An associate’s gets you onto a crew as a Surveying and Mapping Technician (SOC 17-3031, $51,940 median, high school plus OJT typical). The licensed Surveyor title (SOC 17-1022, $72,740 median, bachelor’s typical) requires more: an ABET-accredited Surveying Engineering or Geomatics bachelor’s, four years of experience under a licensed Professional Land Surveyor (PLS), the Fundamentals of Surveying (FS) exam, and the Principles and Practice of Surveying (PS) exam, plus state-specific exams in many states. The data shows associate’s grads earning $75,104 versus bachelor’s grads at $78,409 — a narrow gap because the licensure ceiling is gated by the bachelor’s-plus-experience-plus-exams stack, not the degree alone.
What jobs do graduates land — and at what pay?
Named destinations are Surveying and Mapping Technicians ($51,940, 4.5% growth, high school typical), Surveyors ($72,740, 4.4% growth, bachelor’s typical), Cartographers and Photogrammetrists ($78,380, 6.4% growth, bachelor’s typical), and Drafters, all other ($62,010, -6.9% growth, associate’s typical). Realistic employer types are private surveying firms doing boundary and ALTA/NSPS commercial work, civil engineering and AEC firms running construction layout, state Departments of Transportation, county assessor and recorder offices, utility and pipeline companies, mining and oil-and-gas operators, and federal agencies like USGS, BLM, and the Forest Service. Junior titles include party chief, instrument operator, rod-person, CAD drafter, and GIS technician.
How is this different from Surveying Engineering or GIS?
Surveying Engineering (CIP 14.3801, 56 completions) is the four-year ABET-EAC-track sibling — calculus-heavier, geodesy-heavy, and the standard pre-licensure path to the PLS credential in most states. Surveying Technology (15.1102, 544 completions) is the applied-tech track — typically AAS-dominant or non-ABET bachelor’s, strong on instruments and field practice but with a tougher route to PLS in states that require an ABET-accredited bachelor’s. Geographic Information Science and Cartography (CIP 45.0702, 796 completions) is desktop-focused on spatial data analysis in ArcGIS — no field surveying, no licensure path, but increasingly the employer-signal stack that surveying graduates layer on top of their fieldwork.
Is automation replacing surveyors?
Drones and automated point-cloud processing are compressing routine topographic mapping — what used to take a two-person crew a week can now be flown in an hour and processed overnight. The durable lanes are the ones gated by legal liability or licensure: boundary and cadastral surveys (state-license-protected, expert-witness work), construction layout and as-builts on active sites, ALTA/NSPS surveys for commercial real-estate transactions, and hydrographic and marine surveying. Adding an FAA Part 107 drone certificate, GIS fluency, and LiDAR processing skills strengthens the employability stack against the automation pressure.
Why are only 73 colleges offering this CIP?
Surveying Technology runs a narrow program list because the labor market is regional and many surveying students get rolled into broader Civil Engineering Technology, Geomatics, or Construction Management programs at the IPEDS reporting level. Top producers split between AAS-focused two-year schools — Oklahoma State-Oklahoma City (38), Tyler Junior College (28), Univ. of Arkansas Community College-Morrilton (18), Southeast Technical College (17) — and bachelor’s-granting universities running ABET Geomatics or Surveying programs — Univ. of Akron (36), Univ. of Florida (27), Univ. of Maine (26), Saint Cloud State (16). Reading the school list is itself useful: a school showing zero associate’s and meaningful bachelor’s completions usually means an ABET-track Geomatics program with a real PLS pipeline.