For some time I have been interested in a study of the place of surveying in its different branches in the curricula of American colleges and universities, particularly as it is taught to students in civil engineering. About two years ago, I examined the catalogues of a large number of the principal engineering schools and made a tabulation of the number of credit hours devoted to surveying.It was found that there is a great variation in the names of the courses, in the subject‐matter covered, and in the distribution of it throughout the curricula. In spite of this variation we may consider that most of the courses offered might have been entitled by one of the following designations, or by what I might call type‐names for courses: Elementary surveying; advanced surveying; topographical drawing; route surveying; practical astronomy; least squares; geodesy; photographic surveying; and summer sur