What degree to pursue?

Will the VA benefits cover a Land Surveying degree? If not and you want to pick up the PE later the choice is easy. Get it done and knock out the FE exam right after.

You can get an ABET Accredited BS in Geomatics Engineering at CSU Fresno.

NJIT offers a Surveying program, but its campus is located in what might as well be New York.

Part of the criteria for my degree is I must physically attend at least one class per semester. (The rest can be online or whatever).

I am in South Jersey, and as far as I can tell, none of the local schools offer a Land Surveying degree.

Local Schools of the top of my head are

Stockton University (the were just accredited that tile was Stockton College for many years)

and

Rowan University.

There are a number of small schools in the area, and

Rutgers University's main campus is three hours away (still closer than NJIT) but they have annexs all over the state including my local community college.

I will speak to my program planner, I get 48 months of coverage so maybe able to swing both degrees by loading up on summer semesters. I did fall/spring semesters already a few years ago but not sure if that equals 12 months or 8).

>What degree to pursue?

Whatever degree you want 😀

Worst decision of my life was not pursuing this degree because my father (the engineer) thought it wasn't practical.

But I'm not normal 😉

If you ever intend to be in upper management or own your own business, then a business degree is essential. Finance, accounting, law, communication, etc. Very important subjects to know.

Distance learning?

One of the schools, I think it was rutgers offers a 5 year dual degree with Engineering and an MBA.

Not sure how they qualify a masters degree in one year, but the point was, I have seen that, but it is not for me.

Starting my own company is probably in my cards as I tend not to get along with people that wont get their hands dirty. (In the actual sense not in the Banking/Insurance/Stock trading sense of dirty).

Get both if you can. The surveying degree and license are more valuable around here since there are so few people pursuing the degree. If you have to pick one, go with surveying. As you see there a many choices of how to do your civil engineering studies, but NJIT is the only game in town for survey. Rutgers is way more fun, but both provide a quality education. Trust me....I've done both.

Thanks.

I guess I will have to look at commuting to Philadelphia area then. NJIT gets some great reviews for Engineering and I would like to attend that but the drive would kill me. I could cut the transit time on the GSP, but would have to consider the cost of all the speeding tickets I will end up getting.:-O

I have till next spring to figure out what my next school is going to be.

Oh, that Proust!

Cheers,
Henry

This is just my personal observation from limited time but...

NJ and Washington are the two states with the most speed enforcement on the highways with Oregon a close 3rd. NJ has a trooper every 50'.

I wouldn't say having a business degree is essential for running a surveying business, but certainly take the business classes and other classes that can be helpful. There is a wealth of information at colleges that you'll have access to like never before, and probably never again.

At UF, they made you take quite a few higher level non-surveying classes -- like accounting, business law, local flora (ID'ing plants), a programming language, technical writing, & cost estimating, to name the ones I recall -- to get a surveying degree. I think some of those classes were dropped in recent years, though. I'm glad I took them.

Think NJ (Rowan College) And PA For FS Exam

Rowan College at Gloucester College has 9 surveying credits which is a good start to go along with a Civil engineering degree.

http://www.rcgc.edu/STEM/Pages/default.aspx

After the intro Courses think Penn State World Campus for seven online Surveying courses.

http://wb.psu.edu/Academics/Degrees/surveyingcertificate.htm

Then think about the Fundamentals of Surveying exam.

Pennsylvania allows a BS CE with at least 10 surveying credits to apply for the FS.

You do not have to graduate to take the exam, junior standing is sufficient. The LSIT does not become effective until the degree date.

If you change your mind and do not immediately go for the BS CE, completing an Associates Degree in Surveying is also a route to taking the FS.

Also NJIT has some hybrid courses, where the lectures are online and labs are every other Saturday, cutting down on the required driving.

Paul in PA

Think NJ (Rowan College) And PA For FS Exam

Wow,

Thanks a lot Paul those are some great ideas.

I am not in PA currently, as far as I understand it, the NJ exam requirements are a little different.
Thanks a bunch for the ideas. You just added another factor into my algorithm! Multiple schools, and it clarified an earlier post about telecommuting. I want as much classroom time as my schedule can manage though so a closer school is better.

B-) Good stuff

EDIT: It makes sense that NJIT would have hybrid courses. I am sure they are more cutting edge with tech as far as engineering and surveying.

What You Want Is A PA Connection

Since you are in NJ there is a high probability that you have done some survey work in PA. Also someone familiar with your work at the NJ firm may have a PA license. Which is also why I mentioned the online Penn State courses.

I am a BS CE, an NJ & PA PE and P PLS. I spent a lot more time working in NJ than PA. I have 6 surveying credits from Lehigh University in PA, 6 County College of Morris in NJ and 30 from NJIT. When I wanted to expand on my 6 initial credits I drove up to Penn State Wilkes-Barre and sat down with Professor Ghilani. During that discussion he mentioned that they had some transfer students from County College of Morris. At the time I was doing some part time work for an NJ surveyor about half way between my home in PA and County College of Morris campus. After taking one course I convinced that NJ surveyor to sign up for their next available course instead of getting just continuing ed credit. We road together to class that semester. Later I was working for a firm in Woodbridge NJ and signed up for a survey course at Middlesex County College. Fits day of class I found it was too elementary and would have been a repeat. I used that tuition payment to take a course in legal research. I also took business law courses at my local community college in PA where I had taken AutoCAD years before. Next I took a real estate law course at Warren County Community College in NJ before combining all that credit as an associates equivalent and enrolling in NJIT. Despite my living in PA NJIT was a much easier commute than driving to Wilkes-Barre. One advantage was the Wilkes-Barre had traditional daytime class schedules and NJIT had more convenient evening classes. After getting my PLS I referenced several NJ co-workers to sit for the PA exams. while the majority of their work was in NJ they had enough crossover experience.

Send me an email and we can discuss other opportunities.

Paul in PA