PE Civil California Requirements

[DoSomething]

Hello,

I have a MS degree in civil engineering from USA but my bachelors is from foreign country. I have 1.5 years work experience in the USA . Can I take PE exam in California next year since it requires 6 years cumulative experience including education experience. Is it correct that under the new rules in CA, a person with MS degree from USA is given 5 yrs experience credit irrespective of undergraduate degree? The additional 1.5 yrs of work experience bumps it up to 6+ yrs?

Thanks.

 

[ptatohed]

http://www.bpelsg.ca.gov/applicants/flowchart_for_pe.pdf

http://www.bpelsg.ca.gov/applicants/faq_eng.pdf

 

[palvarez83]

Hello,

I have a MS degree in civil engineering from USA but my bachelors is from foreign country. I have 1.5 years work experience in the USA . Can I take PE exam in California next year since it requires 6 years cumulative experience including education experience. Is it correct that under the new rules in CA, a person with MS degree from USA is given 5 yrs experience credit irrespective of undergraduate degree? The additional 1.5 yrs of work experience bumps it up to 6+ yrs?

Thanks.

I looked into this type of scenario sometime ago. Yes, you appear to be correct in your interpretation with a small caveat. When the rules were written originally they stated that the undergraduate degrees and graduate degrees needed to be ABET accredited in order to receive full credit. However, the issue I ran into is that graduate degrees are not (typically) accredited by ABET. I was told over the phone by BPELS (so they were called at the time) that what they do in this scenario is check the to see if your school offers an ABET accredited program with your same major. If so, then you are awarded the credit. I believe this is officially written in the rules now. See section 404 (h) and section 424(4) of the board rules. http://www.bpelsg.ca.gov/laws/boardrules.pdf

In other words if your USA university have and ABET accredited Civil Engineering, BS program, you should be in good shape. You can check the ABET site to look up your school and see for yourself.

The flowchart link Ptatohed provided above is a good resource too. This may be obvious, but you have to have an EIT certificate and 4 PE references that can verity your 1+ years of experience.

 

[DoSomething]

Thank you for your replies. I just checked that the MS program that I graduated from is ABET accredited. I will first apply for EIT certificate in CA based on FE that I took while pursuing masters. Thanks once again.

One more question: Although I have 1.5 years experience in the States, but was just curious if my two years of experience in India can be counted in some states for PE which requires 3-4 years experience.

 

[palvarez83]

Thank you for your replies. I just checked that the MS program that I graduated from is ABET accredited. I will first apply for EIT certificate in CA based on FE that I took while pursuing masters. Thanks once again.

One more question: Although I have 1.5 years experience in the States, but was just curious if my two years of experience in India can be counted in some states for PE which requires 3-4 years experience.

Do you already have an EIT certificate from another state? If so, you don't need to apply for one from CA. They will accept that on.

Regarding your question about your experience abroad... it really depends on the rules set forth by each individual state. Some may, some may not. You will have to check with the individual boards. For CA this is what the PE ACT says:

"6751.2. Foreign applicants
The board may consider the professional experience and education acquired by applicants outside the United States which in the opinion of the board is equivalent to the minimum requirements of the board established by regulation for professional experience and education in this state."

The way I read this is that is at the board's discretion whether they will or not. It would be harder to prove since you probably wouldn't have licensed PE references for that. Your best bet is to call the board of your state of interest. Depending on which it, they may make you jump through so many hoops that by the time you know it... you actually have the 3-4 years required!