To protect public health & safety, property, and natural resources, geology has been a licensed profession in NYS since 2016. Licensure requires specific coursework, a bachelor’s degree, passing the “Fundamentals of Geology” (FG) exam, five years of experience, and then passing the “Practice of Geology” exam.
NYSED recognizes the SUNY Potsdam Geology B.S. degree as “licensure qualifying” which pre-qualifies our majors to take the FG exam in their last semester (others must wait until after graduation and transcript review). Our graduates have an ~80% pass rate, which is ~15% higher than state and national rates. To further enhance our graduates’ success, we held an informal FG review course in spring 2025 and were the first college in NYS to encourage, assist, and subsidize graduating seniors who wanted to take the FG. 2025 results are expected in May, and we will continue with formal exam preparation starting in 2026.
