Steps and Requirements for EIT Certification

Dec 19, 2022

min read

What exactly is an EIT license and certification?

The engineer-in-training (EIT) certification and license is a professional title granted by state governments to individuals who have passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, also known as the EIT exam. An EIT certification does not provide any unique legal rights; it only informs employers and peers that you have passed the FE exam and are halfway to become a fully licensed professional engineer (PE), which is the final goal.

Engineer-in-training (EIT) certification is a necessary intermediate step toward becoming a licensed professional engineer (PE).

Why should you get your EIT certification now?

You must pass the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) test to obtain your engineering certification (EIT). In summary, the FE test is a 5.5-hour multiple-choice exam that covers the vast majority of courses found in a four-year engineering school. For first-time takers, the test has a 70% pass rate.

To put it another way, you must pass the FE test in order to obtain your EIT certification. The FE test is extensive and challenging. And the exam becomes substantially more difficult the longer you've been out of college, as you quickly forget everything you learned in school.

It is highly recommended you take care of the FE exam now rather than later. You should get your EIT certification now, so you can become a professional engineer (PE) a few years down the road or at least have the option to. Prolonging when to take the FE exam will only make things more difficult later down the road as the longer you wait, the more difficult it becomes to pass the 5.5-hour long engineering exam.

The point of getting your EIT certification now, as opposed to later, is that by taking the FE exam now you will be more likely to pass the FE exam than if you took it later in your career. You will be taking advantage that what you learned in college still hasn't been completely forgotten yet. You never know where your career might take you and you don’t want to end up in a position where it’s been 10+ years since the last time you opened an engineering textbook but now you need to study for a 5.5-hour long engineering exam.

Steps and requirements to get your engineering certification:

Below are the general steps to become an engineer-in-training.

Be a college senior or a graduate of a 4-year ABET-accredited engineering program.

Submit an application prior to authorizing you to take the FE exam. If the NCEES website tells you your country “does not require examinees to submit an application or an additional fee prior to registering with NCEES and scheduling an exam”, that means you can sign up to take the FE exam without submitting any paperwork to your government. If your country does require a separate application prior to taking the FE exam, follow the instructions given on that NCEES page for your country.

Register with NCEES to take the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam.

Schedule the FE exam through the NCEES-Pearson website. The FE exam is offered Monday-Friday and some Saturdays, every week, all year long at Pearson test center locations throughout the country.