To become an agricultural engineer, most people will obtain at least a bachelor's degree from an accredited agricultural engineering program. Becoming certified as a professional engineer, however, requires additional testing and experience. The exact path a person takes to become an agricultural engineer depends on what type of agricultural engineering he or she wishes to pursue.
The Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) accredits engineering programs at colleges and universities in the United States. Someone who wants to become an agricultural engineer should apply to accredited programs in biological and agricultural engineering, as degrees from unaccredited programs are generally not well thought of in the engineering community. To attain entrance in a school's college of engineering, a high school student should take as many math and science classes as possible — most engineering schools require at least three years of each.
University options for a student pursuing a degree in agricultural engineering are somewhat limited, as relatively few colleges of engineering offer degrees in agricultural engineering. In the U.S., generally only one or two public universities in each state offer agricultural engineering degrees. Only one private U.S. university, Cornell University, has an agricultural engineering program.
Once a student has chosen a university and been accepted, they must successfully complete the course of study required for their degree. All engineering students must take basic courses in math, science, and engineering — including such classes as calculus, chemistry, and thermodynamics. The more advanced courses students take depend on their areas of interest. Within agricultural engineering, common specializations include environmental engineering, bioenergy, machinery, or food and bioprocess engineering.
A person who successfully obtains a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering is qualified to work as an agricultural engineer. In most engineering disciplines, however, working toward professional licensure gives a person greater credibility. The first step to licensure is taking the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam in the last year of undergraduate study. A person must then work between 2 and 5 years, depending on his location, and then pass the Professional Engineer (PE) exam in order to become licensed. The FE exam is common to all engineering disciplines, while there is a PE exam specifically for agricultural engineering.
The licensure process gives someone without an agricultural engineering degree the ability to become an agricultural engineer as well. A civil or environmental engineer, for example, could work in the field of agricultural engineering and take the agricultural PE exam to become a licensed engineer. In some cases, even someone without an engineering degree can become an agricultural engineer — generally they must have a degree in a related science and have worked for a certain amount of time in the field of agricultural engineering, then pass the PE exam.
