Hello Friends, I have passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (formerly refered to as the EIT) Examination and was wondering if there is any possiblity of using it to obtain credits in an ABET program, at any school, for some (or all) of the courses it covers (statics, dynamics, thermodynamics, engineering economics, ethics, computers, materials, chemistry, biology, etc.)? I'm guessing as a general rule, probably not, but I have substantial engineering experience and plan on sitting for the PE Exam in California in April. To become licesnsed in my own state of Alaska though, I will need three quarters of an ABET curriculum completed. I have all general education requirements completed, plus many of the lower division courses that would apply to a bachelor of Civil Engineering (all the calculus, chemistry, physics, geology and several others). Can someone help? Thank you in advance!
Sorry, I have never heard of any ABET-accredited engineering program that provided academic credit for passing the FE exam. It's not a crazy idea -- an EIT certificate could be informally considered as equivalent to an ABET BS, and I believe there are ABET BS programs that require you to pass the FE exam in order to graduate. But I would be surprised if you can get formal academic credit for the FE exam (or PE exam) at any ABET school. It may be that ABET does not allow this. As you have apparently realized, California is quite flexible on education requirements; you can take the FE/PE exams without any college education at all, as long as you have sufficient work experience. Note, however, that California requires Civil PE candidates to take two extra PE exams, on Seismic and Surveying issues, in addition to the nationwide 8-hour NCEES exam. If you pass the NCEES exam in California, Alaska should honor the result; however, Alaska won't care about the California seismic and surveying exams. Note also that Alaska requires PE candidates to pass a graduate-level course on Arctic Engineering. I believe you can take this course by distance learning, and it might count towards your educational requirement.
You might want to take a look at TESC. I don't know if they offer credits for that, but I wouldn't be suprised if they do.
Thomas Edison State College (TESC) in NJ has a BSAST program in "Civil Engineering Technology". TESC is primarily a DL school, and is noted for flexible credit options. If there was a program that would offer academic credit for the FE or PE exams, it might be this one. Unfortunately, there are two serious limitations to the TESC program. First, it is a "technology" program, not a true "engineering" program. Secondly, it is not ABET accredited (in either the "technology" or "engineering" categories). So even if you could get academic credit towards the TESC BSAST, there is no assurance that a state licensing board would accept this as a suitable degree program for purposes of engineering licensure. The TESC BSAST will not work if a state board strictly requires an ABET engineering degree, because it is neither "ABET" nor "engineering".
Thanks for the help guys. Caldog, You definately know your stuff here and I appreciate your words. I am currently about to enroll in the arctic engineering course from the University of Alaska (yes by distance learning). This will fulfill one of my remaining requirements for licensure in Alaska. I have no plans to live and work in California, but by registering there, it has allowed me to sit for the same exams accepted by Alaska without having been eligible for licensure here. Your words about the problems with the TESC program are right on. I have about nine years of professional engineering experience. Based upon this level, the State of Alaska will allow me to be eligible for my P.E. with either three quarters of an ABET program in engineering completed, or a fully completed ABET program in engineering technology, or a fully completed non-ABET program in engineering. I have attended several schools, and am VERY close (if I haven't already obtained) the three quarters of an ABET engineering program threshold. I would like to add some credits in the next six months though, to make my application look better to the Board, when I apply to Alaska (after completing the license for California). Does anyone have any ideas? I think that I might approach the University of Alaska - Anchorage and see if I can challenge a few courses that I have yet to complete. They have a general policy that courses can be challenged, but I don't know if this extends to engineering courses. Perhaps ABET would have a problem with this?
One futher idea I had... Does anyone know of any masters DL programs in Civil Engineering, which would allow admission to someone with a passing score on the FE/EIT, but who held a non-engineering bachelor degree? This could alternatively provide the education I need to be eligible for licensure in Alaska.
As it happens, I am a California Civil PE without an engineering degree (I do have science degrees). I have looked casually into civil MS programs by DL; examples are at Univ. of Idaho, Missouri Univ. of Science & Tech., North Carolina State, Kansas State, Norwich University, and Univ. Wisconsin-Platteville. If any of these look attractive to you, I would contact them directly and ask about admissions requirements. Even if their admissions requirements explicitly call for an ABET degree, I suspect that they might be willing to bend the rules for someone with an FE and several years of experience. Your chances would be even better with a PE. Also, note that some schools have "graduate certificate" programs. These are like abbreviated versions of the MS programs, and they typically have looser admissions requirements than the MS programs. Might be a good fit for you, if you only need a few DL courses to meet the 75% threshold. I don't "need" the MS in the same way that you do, since California has already allowed me to become licensed without one. And the cost of DL MS programs (typically about $20,000 for out-of-staters) has discouraged me from pursuing them further. I find it surprising that there are no equivalent DL programs available from the public UC or CSU systems here in California.
UF has a DL MS Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering degrees, and unless they are different from the other engineering departments at UF, does not require an engineering bachelors degree. See http://www.distancelearning.ufl.edu/program.aspx?p=57 A passing score on the FE can be used in place of the GRE.
