How much will I spend to get my professional engineering license?

So let’s look at the “out-of-pocket” costs one might incur to obtain their professional engineering license.  This would include the costs required to apply for licensure (registration) and take all of the required exams.  We will not consider the cost to get your engineering degree,  lost “opportunity costs” (i.e. you could have been doing something else instead of preparing for the exam), or cost of taking time-off from your job, if needed.  It may also be the case that your employer pay for some or even all of these expenses.  And some of these things may already be in your possession (i.e. calculator, reference books, etc.) while other items may be considered optional (i.e. review course).  Also note your engineering discipline can affect the cost of reference and review materials needed (i.e. civil engineering may have more (expensive) reference books than electrical engineering).

What we will consider are costs in the following categories: 

1. Fees
2. Preparation Books & Courses
3. Calculator
4. Travel & Living

1.      FEES:  Your jurisdiction (i.e. state) will charge you some sort of fee for each test (Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) and Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE)).  In addition the testing service (i.e. ELSES, Castle Worldwide) will also charge a fee.   Here are some current, specific examples we recently (March 2009) found:

* Illinois:  Discount if both taken at same time ($332)
** Ohio:  Plus another $50 for “final registration” after passing the exam
*** Texas: Exemption from this fee is possible (http://www.tbpe.state.tx.us/pe.htm)

2.      PREPARATION BOOKS & COURSES:  How much you spend on review material will vary depending on your need.  If you have recently graduated, then preparing for the FE exam should be relatively easy, and you should have much of what you need already.  In this case a FE Exam prep book & sample exam for about $50 may be sufficient.  On the other hand, if it has been some time since you have graduated, then you may find that you will spend up to $250 in review materials.  In regard the PE exam, one might spend between $200 and $400 for review books and sample / practice exams.  Another $200 to $300 might be needed to acquire the reference books you will need to take with you to the exam.

Review courses are an optional component, however they definitely can contribute towards passing the exams.  Review courses are available in various formats: instructor lead classroom courses, on-line web-based, DVD, and self-paced multi-media.  And thus the cost varies widely, from a couple hundred dollars, to a couple thousand dollars.  Membership in a professional organization may result in a discount in review coursed provided by that organization.  Your college may also offer alumni discounts on review courses.  You will need to decide if you need a review course; and if so which type will most benefit you – it may be best to invest the time and money in an instructor lead course if that produces the best results.  So, for review courses one could spend from $250 to $2,500 to prepare for both the FE and PE exams.

3.      CALCULATOR:  So there are really only three calculators on the “approved list” – so you will need to get at least one of these.  A quick and unscientific search resulted in the following cost estimates:

• Casio (fx-115 models)     {$20 – $30}
• Hewlett-Packard (HP33s and HP 35s models)    {$40 – $60}
• Texas Instruments (TI-30X and TI-36X models)      {$20 – $30}

 4.      TRAVEL & LIVING:  Again another category that has a lot of variables.  There could be minimal out-of-pocket expenses if you live close to the exam site.  However if you have to travel a great distance you may choose to stay in a nearby hotel the night before.  Thus there could be noticeable expenses for gas, hotel, meals, and parking.  And so depending on how far you travel, and where you stay, travel & living expenses could range from $0 to $200 (or more).

CONCLUSION:  So with all the variables it is hard to provide a single answer to the question “How much will I spend to get my professional engineering license?“   If you pursue a “bare minimum” approach to passing the FE & PE exams - just the fees and basic review & reference materials - then you probably would be able to accomplish this for under $1,000.  If you want or need to purchase more review materials, reference books and refresher course(s) you could easily spend $2,000 or more.  Of course, costs could be reduced by borrowing books, or purchasing used items.  Also, some costs can be recovered after the exams are over by selling unwanted review materials.

Best wishes!

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 28th, 2009 at 10:12 pm and is filed under Requirements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.