Purpose
This form is intended to help you develop a good working draft of your application describing criteria for professional planning experience.  Use this form to save a copy of your writing.  Once the application window opens, cut and paste into the online form. 

Verification Process
All applicants are required to provide:
1. A letter from each employer verifying your job responsibilities as a professional planner
2. Written confirmation that you received your degree from the appropriate entity of your college or university. 

*All verifications should be uploaded directly into the application prior to submission. AICP’s requirements for acceptable employment and education verifications can be found online in the Exam Candidate Bulletin.

Professional Planning Experience
Individuals applying to take the AICP exam must demonstrate that they have engaged in professional planning experience that qualifies them for certification. Applicants do this by demonstrating that their qualifications satisfy the established criteria that together define professional planning experience.

Professional planning experience — whether acquired through practice, teaching, or research — must address all of the criteria.  The following criteria define professional planning experience in the work of an individual applicant:
1.	Involve a professional level of responsibility and resourcefulness while applying a planning process appropriate to the project or situation
2.	Employ an appropriately comprehensive point of view
3.	Influence public decision making in the public interest

While the criteria are more likely to be met in an agency (private or government), institute, or firm engaged in comprehensive planning, instruction, or research, this is not a prerequisite. 

General Information
•	Applicants must address each AICP professional planning criterion from experience earned throughout their career. 
•	Applicants must provide unique responses with specific examples that demonstrate how their planning experience satisfies each of the professional planning criteria.  Identical responses for different criteria will not be accepted. 
•	Each response must be between 250 and 500 words.
•	Applicants offering experience in narrowly focused places of work should take particular care in showing how that experience satisfies each of the criteria.
•	Applicants should specify their role and provide an example of work performed in each project or plan mentioned.

Applicants who are uncertain about their eligibility for certification based on employment experience should visit the AICP Certification Exam FAQ.

1. INVOLVE A PROFESSIONAL LEVEL OF RESPONSIBILITY AND RESOURCEFULLNESS WHILE APPLYING A PLANNING PROCESS APPROPRIATE TO THE PROJECT OR SITUATION (250 Word Minimum/500 Word Maximum)	
Professional urban, rural, and regional planning applies the classic process appropriate to the situation. The process involves a number of steps, including problem/opportunity definition, goal setting, generating alternates, selection of an alternative, implementation, and evaluation. A professional planning process should be oriented toward the future, examine unintended consequences as well as intended ones, and identify implementation options that include identification of resources and resource constraints. A clear process should be evident in the quality of research, analysis, and teaching (if applicable); process should also guide the format of the planning policy or program.
Professional urban, rural, and regional planners also involve a professional level of responsibility and resourcefulness, demonstrating initiative, judgment, substantial involvement, and personal accountability when defining and preparing significant substantive elements of planning activities.
Discuss both how you applied a planning process appropriate to the situation through one of the three sections of professional planning content listed below AND how you were a responsible and resourceful professional when applying that process. You should focus your response on the single portion of Criterion 1 that is most applicable to your work experience at the position in question.
Criterion 1 DOs and DON’Ts
DO focus your response on the section of Criterion 1 most applicable to your work experience (1.1, 1.2, or 1.3). DON’T provide answers for all three sections of Criterion 1.

DO use a specific project example to illustrate your application of a planning process by describing the steps of that process, making your role and responsibilities clear. DON’T simply list different types of planning processes that you have applied; instead, illustrate how you have applied a planning process by describing the steps of that process in your response.

DO use a project example that demonstrates your involvement in significant substantive elements of planning activities; see the lists of plan making and implementation processes and functional areas of practice. DON'T use examples that involve pre-professional or administrative experience.

DO focus your response on the project steps for which you were responsible, clearly describe your involvement in the process, and make the connection between the steps you describe and how they demonstrate that you were a responsible and resourceful professional. DON’T simply describe a project without making the connection to how it demonstrates that you were a responsible and resourceful professional.

DO write about yourself in the first person and discuss only projects tied to positions for which you have provided verification on your application. DON’T write your response in the third person or provide an example from a position not listed on your application.	
1.1 Plan Making and Implementation 
Plan Making and Implementation was designed for applicants in professional practice who develop, implement, and enforce plans on a regular basis. AICP maintains that the list below exemplifies typical experiences of planners eligible for certification. The list is not intended to be exhaustive and applicants are not required to address every activity listed in this section. Applicants should focus their response on the strongest examples which demonstrate how their employment meets the criterion of applying an appropriate planning process in practice.	
•	Visioning and goal setting
•	Demographics and economics
•	Land use and development regulations
•	Application of legal principles
•	Growth management techniques
•      Budgets and financing options	•	Development plan and project review
•	Program evaluation
•	Communications techniques
•	Intergovernmental relationships
•	Stakeholder relationships
•      Project and program management

1.2 Functional Areas of Practice 
Functional Areas of Practice was designed for applicants who practice in specialized fields within the profession who may not create, implement, and enforce plans on a regular basis. AICP maintains that the list below exemplifies typical functional areas of practice of planners eligible for certification. The list is not intended to be exhaustive. Applicants should focus their response on the functional areas of practice that best demonstrate how their employment meets the criterion of applying an appropriate planning process in practice.
	
•	Community development
•	Comprehensive or long-range planning
•	Economic development and revitalization
•	Educational, institutional, or military facilities planning
•	Energy policy
•	Food systems planning
•	Hazard mitigation and disaster planning
•	Historic preservation
•	Housing
	•	Infrastructure
•	Labor force and employment
•	Land use and transportation
•	Natural resources, and the environment
•	Parks, open space, and recreation
•	Planning law
•	Policy planning
•	Public services
•	Social and health services
•	Urban design
	
1.3 Research, Analysis, and Teaching 	
Research, Analysis, and Teaching was designed for applicants in academia or research institutions who are not practicing planners, but who conduct and publish planning research or teach planning related courses. Section 1.3.1 can also apply to applicants with significant experience in research and data analysis as well. Applicants should focus their response on the strongest examples that demonstrate how their employment meets the criterion of applying an appropriate planning process in research, analysis, and teaching.

1.3.1 Research and Analysis
Quantitative and qualitative research methods; Collecting, organizing, analyzing, and reporting data; Economic analysis and forecasting; Environmental analysis; Spatial analysis and geographic information systems (GIS); Policy analysis and decision making; Design and implementation of research initiatives; Design and implementation of surveys; Professional literature search of best practices.
The response should include the prime purpose of the research, the stage of the research, the organizational context of the research, and how the research affects the implementation of urban and regional planning policy.
NOTE: Relevant independent research undertaken towards a master's or doctorate degree is eligible, provided the following: the master's or doctorate degree is in a department of urban and regional planning, and the research cannot be part of course work that is counted toward a degree or a requirement for a degree (AICP requires that education and experience remain separate entities).
1.3.2 Teaching
Experience should focus on the activities described in the sections of professional planning content above (Plan Making and Implementation; Functional Areas of Practice; and Research and Analysis). Courses should focus on urban, rural, and regional planning or apply to interest groups or community groups in the context of policy engagement. Teaching activities may include course development (lesson plans), instruction, research, or writing scholarly papers.	

2. EMPLOY AN APPROPRIATELY COMPREHENSIVE POINT OF VIEW 
     (250 Word Minimum/500 Word Maximum)	
Professional urban, rural, and regional planners employ a comprehensive point of view when implementing professional planning tasks. A comprehensive point of view means looking at multiple consequences of a planning-based decision as it affects various aspects of a community's quality of life (e.g., physical, social, environmental, and economic).
To meet the requirements of the criterion, applicants must demonstrate through their response how they have applied a comprehensive point of view in their planning practice, as defined above. Applicants should discuss how they considered multiple issues or consequences of their planning work and the potential impacts of proposed decisions or projects, demonstrating that they understand the big-picture implications of their planning work on the communities they serve.

Examples of issues or areas to be discusses may include:
•	Environmental issues or considerations
•	Economic impacts
•	Social or equity issues or concerns
•	Connections across various spatial context (e.g. from regional to local, from urban to suburban)
•	Intergovernmental cooperation between neighboring jurisdictions and broader geographic areas
•	Consistency across multiple policies, actions, or systems
•	Stakeholder concerns

Criterion 2 DOs and DON’Ts
DO demonstrate consideration of the multiple consequences that a decision may have on a variety of aspects of a community’s quality of life (environmental, economic, social, physical, etc.), as defined by the criterion.
DO make the connection to your own use of a comprehensive point of view (i.e., consideration of the consequences of planning decisions) in the example you provide. DON’T simply describe a project (such as a comprehensive plan), discuss larger spatial contexts, or describe working with stakeholders without addressing how you considered multiple impact of your planning work on the community’s quality of life. 
DO use a specific project example that clearly identifies a project, policy, action of other planning-based decision to demonstrate how you personally have used a comprehensive point of view in your work, especially if your work was done as part of a team. DON’T talk generally or aspirationally about the importance of using a comprehensive point of view. 
DO write about yourself in the first person and discuss only projects tied to positions for which you provided verification on your application. DON’T write your response in the third person or provide an example from a position not listed on your application.

3. INFLUENCE PUBLIC DECISION MAKING IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST 
     (250 Word Minimum/500 Word Maximum)	
The primary obligation of professional urban, rural, and regional planners is to serve the public interest. To fulfill this obligation, planners act as leaders during the planning process, working with elected and appointed officials toward the goal of creating communities of lasting value. Planners' input, direction, and guidance influences those with decision-making authority to make decisions that are in the best interests of the public.
Discuss how you have influenced public decision making in the public interest while at the position in question.
NOTE: For those planners in academia and not practice, focus your response on how your work (studios, lecture materials, publications) promotes decision making in the public interest.
Criterion 3 DOs and DON’Ts
DO clearly indicate the decision-making authority with whom you are working (e.g. boards, elected officials, and others with decision-making authority) and how you have influenced them through your work. DON’T simply discuss working with the public without making the connection to your influence on the decision making of elected or appointed officials.	

1. INVOLVE A PROFESSIONAL LEVEL OF RESPONSIBILITY AND RESOURCEFULLNESS WHILE APPLYING A PLANNING PROCESS APPROPRIATE TO THE PROJECT OR SITUATION (250 Word Minimum/500 Word Maximum)	
	
2. EMPLOY AN APPROPRIATELY COMPREHENSIVE POINT OF VIEW 
     (250 Word Minimum/500 Word Maximum)	
	
3. INFLUENCE PUBLIC DECISION MAKING IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST 
     (250 Word Minimum/500 Word Maximum)