Pennsylvania Licensure Requirements

Associate's or Bachelor's Degree

1 Examination

No Experience Required

No Continuing Education Requirement

$50.00 Initial Fee

$0.00 Renewal Fee

A candidate for licensure as a professional land surveyor who has been granted a certificate as a surveyor-in-training after successfully passing the prescribed written examination in fundamental land surveying subjects.

Degree Requirement: 

Associate's or Bachelor's Degree - An applicant for the surveyor-in-training certificate shall show satisfactory evidence of: 

  1. graduation from an approved civil engineering curriculum of at least four years, including no less than ten credit hours instruction in surveying. A student who has completed 2 years of a 4-year surveying curriculum may sit for the fundamentals of surveying examination but will not be eligible for certification as a surveyor-in-training until applicant provides proof of graduation. 
  2. six or more years of progressive experience in surveying and knowledge, skill and education deemed equivalent, in accordance with board regulation, to graduation from an approved curriculum in land surveying or civil engineering; or
  3. an associate's degree in an approved surveying technology curriculum.

Examination Requirement: 

1 Examination - A candidate for certification as a surveyor-in-training shall achieve a passing score on the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying fundamentals of surveying examination.

Experience: No Experience Requirement

If the applicant is not a graduate from an undergraduate civil engineering curriculum in the United States accredited by the  Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) including a minimum of 10 credit hours of instruction in surveying or graduation from an undergraduate 4-year surveying curriculum in the United States accredited by ABET or did not graduate from an associate's degree program in a surveying technology curriculum accredited by ABET applicant can submit proof of six years of progressive experience in surveying, and knowledge, skill and education equivalent to that attained through graduation from an approved land surveying or civil engineering curriculum. The experience must reflect diversification of field and office work, with no less than 25% of the experience in either area and be of a grade and character sufficient to enable the candidate to independently learn through practice the surveying skills and principles of mathematics attained through formal education.

Continuing Education: 

No continuing education requirement for licensure.

Initial Licensing Fee: 

$50.00

Licensure Renewal Fee: 

$0.00 - The license cannot be renewed.