NYS PE License without a degree

[bragase]

Hey folks! For those familiar with the process of getting a PE License in the state of New York, it's possible to qualify for the examinations if you have 12 years of relevant experience.

This chart shows the number of years of experience you need to take Part A or Part B of the examination.

However, I've never met anybody or heard about anyone who got the license this way.

I started my career abroad after technical school, got into the college but I quit after couple of years and never graduated.

Today I believe I have enough relevant experience to meet the requirements, but I would like to hear from someone who did it before.

Thank you!

 

[JAE]

Some states in the US have had an experience-only path to licensure. Some have dropped that path over the years.
For NY - I think you'd simply need to call the NY board of engineering and ask them about it - or peruse their website and laws/regulations.

 

[fel3]

I don't know about doing this in New York, but two of the very best PEs I ever worked with (same company, different offices) did not have college degrees in engineering and earned their California Civil PEs via a similar path that you describe.

One guy had a bachelor's in Industrial Technology and the other guy had two semesters of junior college. Both started as board drafters back in the mid-1960s and found they were at least as smart as the engineers they were working under. Both asked for and received EIT-level technical tasks to do along with their drafting. Both also went back to college to take specific courses that were useful for the types of work our company did (e.g. Fluid Mechanics), but neither attempted to complete a civil engineering degree. When I worked with them, except for certain arcane theoretical subjects, they were as knowledgeable as the degreed engineers I worked with. In some cases, they were better because they had filled in their educational gaps through hard self-study as adults, while most of us who went the degree route did it as old teens/young 20s and were not as mature as these guys when they took on the subject of civil engineering.

The moral of this story is: what you propose can be done, it's not easy, but if you're good you will succeed and it will be worth it.

============
"Is it the only lesson of history that mankind is unteachable?"
--Winston S. Churchill

 

[CWB1]

I suspect the biggest difficulty you're likely to encounter is finding PEs to sign off on your experience and ability. If you had a degree and could point to success in past junior engineering positions then many would risk signing off on someone they've only known/worked with a year or three. If your past work has been primarily drafting or trades-based then I suspect most wouldn't.

 

[bridgebuster]

I worked with two people who got a NY PE without. A degree.That was about 40 years ago. One was a civil engineer; the other electrical.

 

[JStephen]

When I first got my PE, my state didn't require the testing (they now do). But that meant when I went to get a license in a second state, I had to take tests over what was basically schoolwork that I had done 10 years prior. And that's a problem, much easier to do it while it's fresh on your mind! So don't discount the difficulty of the tests due to that effect alone.
CWB1 mentions the references. In getting licensed in multiple states, I found there were some variations in what they looked for in references. Some were set up more like personal references to verify your integrity, others more like professional references regarding your ability to do your work. More to the point, people who have known you a long time but you haven't actually worked with may qualify for the first category. People you have worked for or with but don't really know that well may qualify for the second category. Read the state rules and reference forms very carefully to confirm what is required. It's not unreasonable to get more people involved in your work or to make an effort to meet them in person as needed to generate the references.

 

[msquared48]

Used to be licensed in NY years ago - dropped it in 08. I believe it is the NY Board of Education you want to contact if memory serves me correctly. NY is just “different” if you know what I mean.

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA, HI)

 

[JohnRBaker]

Years ago (the 1970's), back in Michigan, when I got my license, one of the designers where I worked, who was from Germany but who had never finished college, took the test several times before finally giving up. He was a pretty good engineer, very competent and accurate with his work, but he had a language issue. While his English was more than adequate, despite having lived in the US since the late 1940's (he immigrated here from Germany with his wife after the war, where he had been a junior officer in the Wehrmacht), he still considered German as his primary language. I say this because, often during our lunch break, he would call home and talk to his wife and the conversations were always in German. One day, I asked him if they spoke German in his house and he replied, "When I'm at home, I only speak German. However, my wife and kids speak English, but I'm OK with that."

I always suspected that in his mind, he was still doing all his work in German and when it came to take the tests, this put him at a severe disadvantage.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[jfpe]

bragase,
You don't need to call anyone; the categories from NYS are clear. Just write up your experience and submit the application.

I've been a PE in New York for just over 10 years. My bachelors degree was in "Science Related to Engineering" from a non-ABET accredited college, so I had to accumulate almost as many years of experience as someone without a degree. As long as you've had enough experience doing technical work, getting approved should not be a problem. I'm currently writing up my experience again for my NCEES record.


-JFPE

 

[bridgebuster]

On Thursday the `12th, it will be 36 years for me, but who's counting.