PE Li censure in some states with 16-hour SE exam only

[Antnyt23]

I was curious if anyone else ran into this problem in certain states for me being Washington and Oregon.

I sat for the FE in college and passed. Obtained my four years required experience and passed the 16-hour Structural (vertical and horizontal).

Most states accept this for a professional engineering license, however, some states with specific SE requirements will not even recognize me as a PE without going back and taking the Civil PE exam.

For me it somewhat blows my mind that someone who took the construction section of the civil PE is acceptable to seal 90% of buildings in their state but i can't get licensed unless i go back and take the civil PE.

Has anyone else run into this or have a better explanation as to why they would require the PE exam in lieu of accepting double the examinations which have a lower pass rate? And if they do require such things why are they not forcing all structural design to fall under the SE in lieu of just significant structures?

Curious to hear some thoughts, opinions, and experiences.

 

[AskTooMuch]

You also cant be PE in California just by passing the Civil PE exam too. You still need to take the special seismic and surveying. So while you are obviously qualified for civil pe and seismic, you still lack surveying requirement if we basing purely on exam qualification.

 

[KootK]

I went through the same thing with OR a while back. Check out this thread: Link

If you can get them to bend on this, you're a better woman than I. Somewhere in their statues it says that structural engineers also have to be civil engineers. The end.

HELP! I'd like your help with a thread that I was forced to move to the business issues section where it will surely be seen by next to nobody that matters to me:

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=456235

 

[CURVEB]

I was able to get my SE in OR without taking the Civil exam, from what I recall. First I was licensed there as a PE through reciprocity with another state, then I was able to get my SE license.

To get licensed in CA I had to go back and take the civil PE. While it was a pain, I'm actually really glad I did it. I found that a lot of the material I studied for the Civil PE has come into play in my work. The Civil exam seems to have a lot of questions related to retaining walls and geotechnical engineering, maybe more foundation questions. The SE exam seems much more focused on superstructure system.
The Civil PE also gave me a better appreciation for what "real" CE's do with regards to utilities and drainage, which has come in handy when coordinating foundations with their work. All that to say that after going through the process I am somewhat in agreement with the idea that SE's should also have passed the Civil PE, at least I would recommend considering it.

Who knows - I studied Architectural Engineering in college so perhaps taking the Civil PE is my way of making up for missing out on that material in my undergrad.

 

[Ron]

CurveB...Impressive!


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