NCEES Record for Initial Licensure, Does Co-Op Experience Count?

[Spitfire6532]

The quote below comes directly from the NCEES record when describing the work experience section.

"If you entered college immediately following high school graduation, begin your list with your first job after graduating from college. Time spent obtaining a bachelor’s degree should not be listed. However, cooperative engineering or surveying work may be included. There can be no gaps in the complete chronological listing."

I had assumed that my time spent as a co-op would not count towards my 4 years of experience, but this leads me to believe that it might. Does anyone have experience with this? Either way I have submitted my co-op job description to NCEES and am waiting to see if they add this to my time. Furthermore, I still have a few months to go, but it will be interesting to see if Colorado accepts this experience if it is listed in my NCEES record.

 

[Hamilton]

Is co-op engineering like an internship while you were in school?

 

[DoctorWho-PE]

Some states will take it, others won't. I know I could get a percentage of my internship (I worked on my senior design project in tandem with my employer) counted as experience, but there was paperwork involved and I didn't want to deal with it.

 

[Spitfire6532]

Is co-op engineering like an internship while you were in school?

Similar, yes. It’s an internship that has 3 separate “rotations”. So for the end of school I alternated between a semester of full time work and then full time classes. I worked for the company for essentially a whole year by the time I was done.

 

[mattl]

Most will but I have a dumb example for you. I co-oped at Purdue and took exam in Oregon using co-op experience. I worked at engineering consulting companies doing the same things as entry level engineers during my co-op. after a couple yrs post grad I moved back to the Midwest. I applied for Indiana PE reciprocity. I was denied as had ‘taken the exam too soon.’ Purdue is an Indiana state school so I asked the co-op lead to contact the board which he did. He told me he had been arguing this for years. No change. I then had to go to Indianapolis and plead my case directly in front of the board. They ended up allowing me reciprocity. Hopefully their process has improved as this was a few years ago. I have later gotten reciprocity at many states and never had another issue.