Ng, who applied and was accepted to nine universities when she graduated from high school, will be off to MIT in the fall for graduate school. She plans to combine the technology of civil and environmental engineering with business and public policy, something she said most engineers are typically reluctant to do. Upon arriving at UC Berkeley, her father's alma mater, Ng immediately joined the campus section of the Society of Women Engineers and is now its president. She is undaunted by the fact that approximately 80 percent of the students in the College of Engineering are male, and that about 70 percent of those in the civil engineering are male. Ng, whose father is in banking and whose mother is a paralegal, had planned to be an architect until a high school biology teacher nudged her to enter an engineering design contest, and she found her niche.
Civil engineering touches all parts of society all over the globe.
Choosing UC Berkeley was easy after visiting each of her prospective choices, Ng said. I just liked the energy the campus had, and it's a unified community, not just a campus. Students in the college immediately are assigned an adviser who works closely with them, unlike some colleges where students don't get advisers until their junior year. Ng immersed herself in campus and community life and culture from the outset. Ng, who lived all four years in the Foothill residence hall, became a member of the Faculty Committee for Undergraduate Studies, a group that explores new courses proposed each semester for the College of Engineering.