Cost of Registering for the PE Exam

[MetroRAFB]

I half agree. It is an application fee and therefore should not be returned if you do not meet the criteria. However, I don't think that you should have to pay again when you do finally have enough experience, that's just an extension of your original application. I'm sort of speaking directly to the NY process and indirectly to others. I'm not sure what NY's policy is so I don't want to come across like I'm ranting about the board - overall my experience was pretty good. I think that NY might not make you pay another application fee based on two reasons:
(1) The application fee is high at $345

(2) I believe that you can submit your experience over time and they will keep a file on you; although I'm not sure about this since I didn't take that route.

Also, NY offers little in the way of guidance for what counts for experience and what doesn't. But like I said my earlier post, the person I spoke with at the board was friendly and easy to get hold of which was nice.

I'm sure most states handle this differently. In FL, if you don't reapply within 1 year after having an application rejected for whatever reason, they throw your file in the trash can and treat you like a brand new applicant after that. I'm not sure whether or not they charge you another fee if you reapply within that 1 year. It's tough sometimes, but the best course of action is to find someone at the board office in your state that can give you good solid information. I had to more up the chain of command in FL to find that someone, the first echelon of folks sometimes can't answer your questions very well.

 

[ALBin517 v2.0]

$80 for ELSES to tell the state that your education is valid.$235 to register once ELSES gives the nod.

$75 for the license if you pass.

Employer picking up the tab... :winko:

I'm with you... except for the "employer picking up the tab" part.

The $80 for education confirmation is pretty steep considering we also have to arrange for transcripts to be sent to NCEES. So they open the transcript, look at the bottom where it says "BSCE Awarded" and then punch it in. $80 for maybe five minutes?

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

^ $80? That's steep.

I paid $5 for my college to send my transcripts to the board.

 

[ALBin517 v2.0]

^ $80? That's steep.
I paid $5 for my college to send my transcripts to the board.

We Michigan applicants send $80 to ELSES and arrange for our college to send an official transcript to the ELSES. Then the ELSES responds with a "Notice of Application Approval to Sit for the (PE) Examination."

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

In VT it was $100 to apply to the state board to be approved to sit for it. This didn't include costs for transcripts, EIT verification, etc.

 

[K8NY]

I'm an electrical in NY and I applied for the very first PE test that I was eligible for. However, I was worried that the state board wouldn't count all my experience and would hold onto my $345 application fee until I had enough experience to take the test. Obviously I didn't want that to happen. So I called the state board and asked if my application fee would be returned if i didn't have enough experience to be accepted... the answer I got was, "Oh, I think that it probably does." That is from the state board! They couldn't give me a more definitive answer than that. Thank goodness that they were at least pleasant people.

It is a one time application fee. When I first applied they denied some of my work expierence and required 6 more months in specific areas.

A year later I re-applied with more work expierence- no new application fee- and was allowed to sit for the exam. NY actually keeps your application on file and you just add work expirence.

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

I hear NY is brutal on the experience aspect of things.

 

[K8NY]

Honestly I did not find it that bad.

If work for an electrical contractor. So most of my day is not considered engineering. More project management and estiamating.

But we have been lucky to do alot of design build work which qualified for engineering work experience. So yes, they discounted some of the work experience I claimed but only to request a more well rounded experienced engineer.

For a while I thought we were headed in the wrong direction, thinking we could accumulate the requred work experince, in the construction industry, but we did.

So no complaints here about NY.

 

[GTScott]

In GA, ELSES took $220 for the exam and then the Secretary of State took $30 for the application. After passing, the City of Atlanta took $400 for the ^&*(^* business license they require outside of the license my Firm holds. What a rip!

Since I just did my taxes, I summed up all expenses with the exam including hotel, books, regitration, and the $700 prep class and it all came out for be about $1800.

-GT

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

^ I was wondering if PE prep, exam fees were something you can write off. It's something I'll bring up when I get my taxes done.

 

[Dleg]

^that's good to know. I kept all my receipts for everything related to the PE exam. Between the books, the fees, and the travel by air to Guam, I am pretty sure I spent considerably over $2000 for the 2006 tax year PE expenses.