In the Surveying and Geomatics forum, rpage brings up the specific degree surveyors may have.?ÿ This topic brings to mind something I have been considering lately.
Example:
Kentucky has a 4 year degree requirement.?ÿ Based on which degree you get, there are a certain number of required credits in a surveying 'core curriculum' and a certain number of experience years.?ÿ I am not overly thrilled with the exact manner in which this is done, because I think it short changes the importance of the surveying credit hours.
Given that requirement, there are a few in state schools which offer programs within other degrees to cover the specified credit hours.?ÿ There is no specifically "surveying" degree that I could find.?ÿ The hours can be gained by filling in electives or having a minor in surveying, but there is no 4 year surveying degree in Kentucky (that I am aware of).?ÿ Recently, the community college system just across the northern border (Ohio) developed and now offers a 4 year program in surveying.
Of the states that do have a degree requirement in some form, how is that degree requirement handled??ÿ Does your state institutions of education offer some way for people to gain the required education or would someone need to go out of state??ÿ Is there only one institution to get the required degree from in-state?
In Louisiana you can get a four year Geomatics degree from Nicholls State, or you can get any four year degree and then get the board approved 30 hours of surveying credits. The 30 hours used to all be offered at LSU before Nicholls came along, not sure if that's still the case. The list of approved schools and classes is posted on the LAPELS web site. One of our engineers got all of his surveying credits online at Wyoming and Florida.
Mass. NH & Maine have varied paths to licensing with more education requiring less experience. There are a small number of surveying education programs throughout these states ranging from the 4 year degree in Maine, through a 2 year Associates in civil tech with surveying focus at UNH, to a certificate program at Wentworth in Mass. There is a New England Regional Tuition Waiver program in place for students to attend a 4 year program out of state for near in-state tuition, if the degree is not offered in-state.
Indiana has a 4 year degree requirement, including a number of survey related classes. To my knowledge there is no 4 year survey program in this state. But I did find Cincinnati state offers online classes (I assume that is the college you were talking about?)
No need to have a program in your state these days. There are many schools offering online credits and even degrees.
The majority of states have some method of meeting that state's minimum requirements, even if it is only a 1 year certificate program. There are in addition a good number of cross state tuition agreements. For instance New York has 4 colleges offering a 2 year surveying degree program. All are in upstate areas. NJIT (New Jersey Institute of Technology) in Newark (across the Hudson from New York City) has a 4 year surveying degree program to meet the NJ requirements. To increase attendance NJIT offers NJ instate tuition rates to all students in the New York metropolitan area.?ÿI live in PA near I-78 which makes it an easy to commute to Newark/NYC and I qualified for that instate rate. In fact Newark is much closer than the nearest PA survey school, Penn State Wilkes-Barre. The better feature was that NJIT had evening and Saturday classes, and Wilkes-Barre did not.
Because surveying is not a mainstream college subject most programs get innovative to improve their opportunities to attract students. When I attended, NJIT had three different types of students in each class, and pretty evenly divided. Full time college students, engineers getting a second degree and survey crew members investing a least 8 years of their time to get a 4 year degree.
Trundle, Purdue has an Engineering with Surveying minor program. Vincennes Univ. has a?ÿ1 year Certificate of Graduation, a 2 year Associate's of Science Career/Technical Degree, and a 4 year Surveying Management Technology Bachelor??s Degree, so one can get a start in state.
Paul in PA