Survey School was a rite of spring at ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥. For three weeks after final exams, the campus was crowded with engineering students armed with tripods and other equipment, taking physical measurements of the university.
The "school" was in fact a first-year course in elementary surveying offered by the Department of Civil Engineering. Students in the course learn the basic techniques of surveying in a combination of lectures and fieldwork. Instruction in surveying has been offered since engineering began at ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ in 1893 (see Engineering and Applied Science).
Some surveying methods and equipment have changed very little since then; in fact, some of the transits and levels used by students today are the university's original instruments, carefully maintained over a century of use. Other methods have changed dramatically due to modern electronics, and so sleek electronic distance-measurement instruments now keep company at the school with the century-old equipment.
The department offered a two-week field course in advanced surveying, conducted in the vicinity of Kingston every September.
The Survey School has since been discontinued at ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥.