OSU Students Show Sustained Superior Performance on the

Fundamentals of Engineering Exam

We track the pass rate on the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exam as one of our performance measures of the OSU ChE undergraduate program, and are very proud of our students’ performance

(Click here or on the graph for a larger picture)

OSU Chemical Engineering students have consistently shown a high pass-rate on the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam.  The FE exam is a comprehensive test of competence in engineering and science, and passing it is the first step toward registering as a professional engineer.  It is a uniform test, administered twice nationally, by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying.  Nationally, the pass rate for chemical engineering students has recently averaged about 85%.  Our 96% pass rate is one clear indication of excellence in both OSU ChE students and faculty.   The graph presents a 10-year history of a 3-year moving average of the pass rate for test takers currently enrolled in school.

Engineering education is a comprehensive undertaking of human resource development, and we have many objectives in our mission of preparing students to become professional partners in their enterprise and community.   Some non-technical objectives include writing effectiveness, team effectiveness, and understanding the social implications for engineering design.   While the FE Exam only tests competence in the traditional classroom math, science, and engineering subject matter; while it only evaluates one characteristic of our program, it reveals one aspect of the outstanding performance of our students.  These news pages reveal many other succeses and achievements.

The OSU ChE performance is significantly better than the national ChE performance. But, why should this be? We share the same texts, accreditation criteria, curriculum sequence, etc. that all US schools follow.