SUNY ESF
Guidance in Preparing for FE Exam - Computer Based Testing
In our ERE Department we prepare students to obtain professional engineering licensure and enter professional practice. Our curriculum provides the core engineering and applied science courses needed to obtain licensure, including a course on the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, the first of two exams needed for licensure. This website provides guidance on how to register for the FE exam, which became computer based in 2014. Other resources are available to help students study to pass the FE exam, including the NCEES approved FE Supplied Reference Handbook.
To sit for the computer based FE exam, you must register and pay for the FE exam directly with NCEES. Computer based testing for the FE exam and the specifications for FE exam content are posted by NCEES online.
NYS professional engineering licensure details are provided by the New York State Education Department (NYSED).
An overview of the process:
- Exam Eligibility. Students who are within twenty (20) semester hours of graduation, or have graduated, automatically qualify for direct admission to the NCEES FE examination (FE). This is in accordance with NYS law, as ERE students are in a baccalaureate program registered by the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of the ABET (ABET) and the New York State Education Department (NYSED)
- Exam Registration. Students register, schedule and pay for their FE exam directly with NCEES. This may be accomplished through the NCEES website at www.ncees.org The NCEES registration for the computer based FE exam is open year round, starting November 4, 2013. Registration includes a fee to NCEES.
- NYS Licensure Registration. Students submit a notarized Form 1, with the $70 fee, to NYSED in Albany, NY. Students submit Form 2, with Section I completed, to ERE's secretary Teri Frese, 402 Baker Labs. We append Form 2 information to single institutional Form 20 F, and this form is certified and sent to NYSED when the students have graduated. Students interested in licensure in states other than NY need to contact those states for guidance on required forms.
- Exam Dates. The computer based FE exam is offered in four testing windows throughout the year. The four windows will be two months in duration with one month off between each window, starting January 2014.
- Exam Locations. The computer based FE exam administration locations are at NCEES approved Pearson VUE Testing Centers. For more detailed information on the new computer based FE exam, including exam length, specifications, reference material, approved calculators, and location of test centers, please visit the NCEES website.
- Exam Completion. Students and NYSED will receive notification of their FE exam result directly through the NCEES website.
- Intern Engineer Certificates. ERE students who pass the FE exam and graduate from our EAC/ABET licensure qualifying program, Environmental Resources Engineering, are eligible to apply to NYSED for the release of their Intern Engineer Certificate.
Notes: If you have passed the FE exam but not graduated, NYSED may send you correspondence indicating your application is incomplete. In such cases, when the certified Form 20 F is sent to NYSED by ESF the application is complete. Form 20 F is submitted as a single, certified, institutional document to NYSED to streamline the education verification process. Form 20 F is the Certification of Completion of a Professionally Registered (Licensure Qualifying) Program in Engineering. Students who do not coordinate to be included in Form 20 F can, upon graduation, work with the ESF Registrar to certify and submit a student-specific Form 2 to NYSED.