Increased Costs for the Professional Engineering Exams 2012 (California)

The engineering exams have had a recent price-overhaul (especially in California) to cope with all of the budget issues that have spawned due to the mehconomy.

Be prepared to pay. Overall, the exam prices have gone up, a lot!  Check out the Fee Matrix.

Beginning with the April 2013 exam the total cost for a first-time taker to apply and take the Civil Engineering exams is $807.6!  Engineer’s that took the exams in 2010 and 2011 paid less than half that. Not all of the exams are this expensive, but all of them have had increases.

Why This Happened

According to this thread at Engineerboards.com, this is the actual cost of administering the exams.  Apparently the state of California was subsidizing them previously (Why on earth were they doing that?).

I like that they are no longer subsizing the exams (and I think most people applying for the test can afford it), but I completely disagree with the abrupt change and the lack of information about it beforehand.  I think they should have been more open about the actual costs of the exam and had a public plan in place to keep up with the costs instead of the drastic changes.

Anyway. It sort of is what it is.  Hopefully people pass the first time now