Education and Licensing
Education and Licensing
(OP)
I am currently in community college part time to become a civil engineer and plan on transferring to a university in 2017. How ever I have only been able to find one school with a part-time program and its called "general engineering". From what I understand its for majors that aren't going to be specifically doing engineering work its for pre-law, pre-med majors and business and basically gives you a general idea of mechanical, civil, and electrical. Can I manipulate that degree and instead of taking classes in all the different engineers just take classes in civil engineering? You still get a BA in engineering science and I want to get my F.E. then my P.E. When I reviewed the qualifications on the PA board website it didn't say you had to complete your schooling in four years or at the full time level. So, I can't understand why a lot of colleges at least within the Philadelphia area don't allow for part time students to major in Engineering. I attached the general engineering description to this from Temple University. Can anyone please help? There's no way all the engineers in PA went to school full time. And I just don't have the option to go full time. I pay out of pocket for my tuition and in order to pay for tuition I have to work.





RE: Education and Licensing
You need to contact the school where you plan to go in the future. Ask the future school if the credits from the initial school will transfer. It is up to the school to accept the credits. If the credits will not transfer, you would be wasting your time at the first school.
The first year and a half at engineering school, the courses are mostly the same for all engineering students. After the year and a half, engineering education begins to be specific to a discipline.
RE: Education and Licensing
RE: Education and Licensing
If the program is not ABET accredited, there's probably not a snowball's chance in hell you'll get to take the PE exam.
RE: Education and Licensing
RE: Education and Licensing
RE: Education and Licensing
Make sure you will be allowed to take the FE exam in your senior year or upon graduation, then go through the internship requirement (4 years of relevant experience under the supervision of a licensed professional engineer). At that point, assuming proof of experience, you should be able to take the PE exam (Principles and Practices Exam). Check with your state board along as you go.
Also keep in mind that if you want to universally practice structural engineering, you'll need to take the 16 hour structural exam, either in lieu of the PE or in addition to....your choice.
RE: Education and Licensing
RE: Education and Licensing
http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails...=
RE: Education and Licensing
RE: Education and Licensing
Here is general engineering technology
http://engineering.temple.edu/department/engineeri...
They are two different things
RE: Education and Licensing
RE: Education and Licensing
RE: Education and Licensing
RE: Education and Licensing
RE: Education and Licensing
Go Owls
RE: Education and Licensing
"Graduation from an ABET-accredited graduate-level engineering curriculum"
http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/049/chapter37/s3...
The Construction Management Technology, BS is not an ABET-accredited graduate-level engineering curriculum. It is "Technology Accreditation Commission".
http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails...
RE: Education and Licensing
The Construction Management Technology Program is accredited by the Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission (ETAC) of ABET. Therefore it is ABET accredited. You are able to sit for the FE and PE with this degree in the state of PA.
RE: Education and Licensing
While this is true, I know quite a few people who got engineering degrees from Georgia Tech who went on to law school or medical school after undergrad, without a lot of the "pre-___" coursework. Turns out, part of what gets you into med school or law school is simply being smart, and focused.
Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East - http://www.campbellcivil.com
RE: Education and Licensing
My advice, without consideration of the specific programs, is pick an engineering school that offers a program in the field you want to work in, i.e. Civil, Mechanical, etc. Once you identify the school,apply. If you have to work and can only go to school part time, so be it; most schools will work with you.
I do not under any conditions recommend spending any time/money in community college. I know this is unpopular, but the level of education is substandard compared to engineering school. You will spend years in school and then get to the engineering school and find that you are totally unprepared. In many cases the engineering schools are being forced to accept transfer of credits, but that doesn't mean you will be able to keep up once you transfer.
Engineering school is hard, it takes time, and it costs money. Sorry, but that is just the way it is. There aren't short cuts.
I wish you the best of luck and I hope you find a way to make it all work out.
Mike Lambert
RE: Education and Licensing
Correct. If there is a room with students with a psy major, elem. edu. major, phy ed. major, pre-med (whatever that is), eng. major, they will teach to the lowest common denominator.
RE: Education and Licensing
I was appalled at how terribly the university education was preparing people for real world problems. The university course work and projects were geared towards the research fields (in all disciplines from what I observed) and little to none of what I did felt directly applicable to real world problems.
I learned more stuff that I use every day in the field in college than I did in university.
RE: Education and Licensing
Because I'm not fresh out of high school actually next year will be 10 years. Lol. All university's at least in PA have this thing called general education courses you have to take first before you actually start in your program. Its like English, pre calc, stuff like that. That's all I'm taking at my community college before transferring to Temple. I'm not even taking Engineering courses. Just my basics because its cheaper and the same shit. Its actually what Temple advised since I pay out of pocket for tuition. I completely understand what you are saying though. I am still a bit nervous about engineering school, but its really what I want to do.
RE: Education and Licensing
I agree with others that university curricula have a significant divide between academia and actual practice. Being involved in both worlds (I teach at a regional university and I practice engineering on a daily basis), I know clearly the disconnect between academia and practicality. I try very hard to close that gap in my coursework; however, it is increasingly difficult with the academic administrative restrictions and requirements that are placed on those teaching the courses. As an example, I see instructors who are full time faculty members who have never spent a day in actual practice. They don't deal with the dynamic of an engineering practice and they don't have to solve issues that require immediate judgment and still maintain the health, safety and welfare of the public while doing so.
Don't get me wrong. There are some terrific, hard working and very effective professors who "get it" and pass it along to their students. Students who get these professors are fortunate, indeed.
Your formal education is but one step in the process. It opens doors to allow you to really learn engineering and to deal with what you learn in actual application. I've learned tremendously more in my years since graduation than I could have ever learned in an academic setting. I'm sure others feel the same, though I see engineers who are in practice being complacent and content with just their basic education and a limited range of practice. I can't be that way...I strive to learn from every experience, including being involved with Eng-Tips. You will find some of the better practical and academic minds in the world on this site. Don't let your formal education be the end of your learning experience. Let it be the start. Best of luck.
RE: Education and Licensing
RE: Education and Licensing
RE: Education and Licensing
"Graduation from an ABET-accredited graduate-level engineering curriculum"
http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/049/chapter37/s3...
It does not state: "ABET-accredited Engineering Technology curriculum ".
RE: Education and Licensing
With the technology degree, you may qualify for a professional land surveyor:
"§ 37.47. Requirements for certification as a surveyor-in-training and for licensure as a professional land surveyor.
....
(ii) Graduation from an associate’s degree program in a surveying technology curriculum accredited by ABET."
Or if you have a Masters Degree in Engineering in addition to the BS technology degree, you may get the PE license.
http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/049/chapter37/ch...
RE: Education and Licensing
This degree does qualify. You were looking at the section pertaining to graduate level engineering curriculum. This degree does qualify under the ABET accreditation. I have this degree, and I was able to sit for my FE exam. This degree is one that is allows someone to take the degree at night part time. Yes there may be some challenges in some states with licensing, but PA is not one of them. I simply did not want to discourage the OP from taking this course at Temple.
"Engineer-in-training. A candidate for certification as an engineer-in-training shall be of good moral character and achieve a passing score on the NCEES fundamentals of engineering examination. To qualify for the fundamentals of engineering examination, the candidate shall possess one of the following qualifications:
(i) Graduation from an undergraduate engineering curriculum in the United States accredited by ABET. A student who has completed 2 years in an ABET-accredited undergraduate curriculum in the United States and has maintained current enrollment may, with Board approval, sit for the fundamentals of engineering examination, but will not be eligible for certification as an engineer-in-training until the student provides proof of graduation. The effective date of certification will be the later of the date of graduation or the date of notification from NCEES of achieving a passing score on the fundamentals of engineering examination."
RE: Education and Licensing
I would say that it is as clear as mud.
In South Carolina, you can read the law and see that the technology degree is accepted:
"(2) graduation in a baccalaureate degree program and completion of an engineering curriculum found to be substantially equivalent to an engineering curriculum accredited by EAC/ABET or graduation in a TAC/ABET accredited engineering technology curriculum of four or more years from a school or college approved by the board as being in satisfactory
standing and passing NCEES examinations as required by the board."
Some states like Wisconsin formerly accepted a technology degree, but no longer do.
The NCEES registration page for PA states "EAC/ABET Engineering Bachelors".
The real question is why would anyone bother to get an engineering education to obtain a License, if all you needed was a presumably less rigorous and less expensive technology education?
RE: Education and Licensing
Section 37.31 of the law states:
(a)(1)(i) “Graduation from an undergraduate engineering curriculum in the United States Accredited by ABET…”
Sincerely,
Danalyn S Merino | Reviewing Officer
Pennsylvania Department of State | Bureau of Professional Licensing"
As long as Pennsylvania interprets the law this way, the easiest path to a license is the technology degree.
RE: Education and Licensing
RE: Education and Licensing