<p>I'm just wondering if you have to take PE in the same field as you take your FE exam. My undergrad is in MechE and I'll be going to grad school for EE next year. I haven't taken the FE yet but I'd be able to take it sooner if I took it in MechE and then took the PE in EE.</p>
<p>The short answer is no, they don’t have to be the same, they just have to be in the field with which you most closely identify.</p>
<p>The thing is, you probably shouldn’t take the Mechanical version of the FE anyway, despite being a mechanical engineer. Take the general version. That is what probably 90% of mechanical engineers do, and what the majority of schools encourage. The only reason you shouldn’t do that is if you have been in the field for a few years already and have largely forgotten stuff like chemistry, but even then the general version is allegedly easier than the subject-specific versions.</p>
<p>You will want to check with your state. Some states license by discipline (e.g. a “Professional Engineer in Mechanical Engineering”, and some states license as a generic “Professional Engineer”.</p>
<p>When I took the exams, my state licensed by discipline, but that discipline was defined by the P&P exam, not the FE exam. So you could take the Civil Engineering FE exam, then the Mechanical Engineering P&P and would be licensed to practice Mechanical Engineering. I have a feeling that this is generally how it works in states that license by discipline, but I am not 100% certain it works like that everywhere.</p>
<p>If your state doesn’t license by discipline, then it doesn’t matter. In the afternoon section of the FE, they hand out an exam with every discipline’s exam + the general exam. You can look over all the sections then pick which one to take (I had enough time to complete two entire afternoon exams).</p>
<p>Yeah the afternoon exam took a lot less time than what was allotted for me too. A few of the problems in areas like circuits gave me trouble, but being an ME/Aero, that doesn’t bother me too much since I just breezed through the rest of it. It is not that bad of a test. the worst part of it is that it takes up and entire Saturday… one that I would have rather spent watching baseball.</p>
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As far as I know, no state board cares which FE exam module you take, as long as you pass. In fact, in most states, the board doesn’t really care which PE exam you take either: all successful examinees get the same generic “Professional Engineer” title, regardless of discipline. </p>
<p>Some states do license PEs by discipline. In this case, you would need to take the appropriate PE exam for your discipine. However, this only applies to the PE exam. As far as I know, it doesn’t matter which FE exam you take, even in discipline-specific states.</p>
<p>State laws are subject to wide variation and change constantly, so you should check the current rules of your state specifically.</p>
<p>After having half-filled out the applications for about a dozen states (we have no idea where we’re going to end up after August, so I finally decided to just take the exam in California this April), I’m pretty certain that which FE exam portion you take in the afternoon isn’t even officially recorded anywhere. All they care about is whether you passed it or not.</p>
<p>Texas uses the generic “Professional Engineer” designation, but does record your “primary proficiency”. It is up to the engineer as to which sorts of plans they feel competent to sign and seal.</p>
<p>Not so in California, where you have to be a civil to stamp civil things, and for structural things over about 3 stories tall, you have to take a second round of examinations after another wad of qualifying experience in order to call yourself an “SE” and stamp things like that.</p>
<p>So yep, it varies from state to state.</p>
<p>That must be why I see hardly any buildings over three stories out here in CA.</p>
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Note also that a Civil PE in California faces additional experience and examination requirements to become a “GE” and stamp geotechnical reports, or to become a “Traffic PE” for traffic studies. So where other states just license civils, California has licensing programs in civil, structural, geotechnical, and traffic. </p>
<p>Of course, you could make a good case that California has more structural, geotechnical, and traffic concerns than most other US states.</p>
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<p>That, and with all the shear capacity required for seismic resistance, they’re just a bear to build. Massively expensive.</p>
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<p>True dat… My jaw dropped when I first googled “liquefaction” as an undergrad. (My jaw also dropped the first time I saw how the 405 merges with the 5 just south of the Santa Clarita Valley…)</p>