Seeking licensure advice
I’m hoping this community can help me figure out a best course of action for my current situation. Background info: I’m an LSI (aka SIT) in Colorado with 7+ years of experience. I have a bachelors in geology, which was my previous career for 10 years before becoming a surveyor. I don’t have any surveying specific coursework from my degree other than probably calc I and physics I.
Colorado changed their education requirements effective last year to requiring a 4 year surveying degree, or eng. with surveying coursework. I was aware that changes were effective but I thought they got rid of their “10 year experience and no college” path only. When I looked a couple weeks ago, the website still makes me believe this. The state also now requires that a qualified applicant for licensure take the NCEES Principles and Practicals exam BEFORE applying to the state, instead of requiring that all test takers be pre-approved. When I applied for the FS exam in 2019 and submitted my education and experience via application, I made the assumption that my experience and education were “good to go”. I received approval to take the FS with no detail other than I met the requirements. Turns out that I ONLY met the 4 years of experience required to take the FS, and none of my college education was considered good enough for credit toward licensure.
Fast forward to this past year, I sign up, pay, and study for the PS exam thinking my 4 year bachelor’s degree is on the books along with my passed FS exam. I pass the PS exam and beaming with pride. Pay moneys to the NCEES and the state to have my record looked over, and voila, denied because I don’t have a surveying degree. This is when I find out I don’t have any education counting towards licensure.
I’m heart broken, frustrated, and depressed that my hard work was, in my eyes, for nothing. I really don’t want to go back to college, and I don’t really have the time and financial means to do so. Not only that, but Colorado has one survey program in the whole state located 4 hours from denver with no online teaching. So if I must go back to college, I’ll be paying out of state tuition. Surveying is my second career and I absolutely love it. If the NCEES exams are meant to test what an applicant knows, why must I have to go through the rigors of college once again, just because. The most valuable things I ever learned in my careers, I learned on the job, not in the classroom.
I’m seeking a more viable path than spending time and money on college, again.
Thanks for reading if you made it.
Log in to reply.