Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) has the top two-year program in the United States for surveying, based on a recent award from the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES).

The annual Surveying Education Award from NCEES “recognizes surveying programs that best reflect the organization’s mission to advance licensure for surveyors in order to safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of the public.” Each year, the award honors the top surveying programs in four-year and two-year categories. This year’s grand prize winner in the four-year category was Penn State University, while NMC took the grand prize in the two-year program category. Grand prize winners in each category receive a $25,000 grand prize.

According to NCEES, this year’s award jury praised NMC’s two-year surveying program “for being industry driven and providing a variety of professional pathways to students. Jurors considered criteria such as student outcomes and involvement, outreach and recruitment, and the promotion of licensure.”

NMC has only been offering an associate’s degree in surveying since 2019. The program utilizes overlap with other NMC offerings to give students experience not just in land surveying, but also aerial and underwater surveying.

“It is a pretty significant award in the industry,” said Ryan Deering, a recruiter for the NMC surveying program. “We are one of the few schools that actually incorporate the aspects of land, sea and air.”