Tri-State University engineering seniors outstripped their national counterparts in scoring on the fundamentals of engineering (FE) exam administered by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES).

Official written reports reached the TSU schools of engineering June 20, said Ken Meeks, chair of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. The NCEES test represents the first licensing step on the pathway to professional engineer status.

TSU civil engineering seniors fared best with 95 percent passing, topping the national average of 76 by 19 percent, Meeks said. That also represented an all-time high for TSU’s civil engineering students. Seventy-one percent of TSU mechanical engineering seniors also passed the FE, as did 80 percent of the electrical engineering seniors. TSU chemical engineering degree candidates passed at a rate of 64 percent.

The national figure pulls pass-and-fail data from schools of chemical, civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering for a passing rate of 77 percent for all the disciplines. TSU engineering seniors surpassed that at 79 percent passing.

Engineering majors must pass the national FE exam during the senior year to become engineers in training (EITs), the first level of professionalism. After about four years of experience with an engineering firm, they can apply to take the professional engineer (PE) exam. Passing the exam allows engineers to use the PE designation after their names.

Meeks expressed pride in his CE students. “Our kids have to take the FE as a graduation requirement, and not all CE schools make them,” he said. “That means only their top kids take it as a step toward licensing. Our students at all levels take it and it means a broader range of students are capable of passing the exam. This makes our accomplishment at TSU this year all the more remarkable, and is a good indication of the very high quality of our civil engineering education.”

Visit the NCEES Web site at www.ncees.org/ for more information about the organization and the FE exam.