1.2 Eligibility, Application, Fees & the Selection Pipeline
Key Takeaways
- Candidates must be United States citizens and at least 20 years old, and may not turn 44 before the cycle cutoff date; the maximum age is extended one year for each year of full-time active military duty, up to seven years.
- A high school or equivalency diploma is required to test, and 60 college credits are required for appointment, with 30 of those 60 waivable for qualifying military service or New York MPTC Basic Course certification.
- A $20 application fee is paid to the State Police at filing and a separate $44.00 testing fee is collected by Pearson VUE at scheduling; you cannot schedule until the State Police authorize you.
- The Physical Ability Test is pass/fail on three subtests — sit-ups, push-ups, and the 1.5-mile run — against Cooper Institute 50th-percentile norms that differ by age and gender.
- A felony conviction is an automatic disqualification, and vision must be correctable to 20/30 in each eye at the time of appointment.
1.2 Eligibility, Application, Fees & the Selection Pipeline
Eligibility rules for the New York State Trooper Examination changed materially in 2025, and a great deal of the preparation material circulating online is now stale. This section states the current requirements as published by the New York State Police and by the application system itself, and flags exactly where the outdated figures still in circulation are wrong.
1. Who May Take the Examination
Age
- Minimum: you must be at least 20 years old as of the cycle's cutoff date.
- Maximum: you must not turn 44 years old before that cutoff date.
- Military extension: the maximum age is extended one year for each year of full-time active military duty, up to a maximum of seven years.
The underlying authority for the military deduction is New York Military Law § 243(10-a), which permits up to seven years of military duty or terminal leave to be deducted from a candidate's age for eligibility purposes. In 2025 the Legislature raised the maximum police-officer examination age statewide from the low thirties to 43, and the State Police adopted the new ceiling.
Stale-figure warning. Preparation sites, older agency social-media posts, and third-party "requirements" pages still print a maximum age of 34 or 35 with a six-year military extension. Both numbers are obsolete. The current State Police qualifications page states candidates "must be 20-43 years old" and "must be appointed before their 44th birthday," with the extension capped at seven years, not six.
Citizenship and character
- You must be a United States citizen by the cycle cutoff date. A "no" answer is an automatic disqualification.
- A felony conviction is an automatic disqualification.
- Tattoos and body art are reviewed against the published New York State Police Tattoo Policy during candidate processing; non-compliant tattoos can cause a conditional offer to be revoked.
Education
- A high school diploma or equivalency diploma is the baseline requirement to test.
- 60 college credits from an accredited institution are required for appointment to the Academy.
- 30 of the 60 credits may be waived. The published waiver routes are completion of Initial Entry Training with an honorable discharge (or the expectation of one), and certification in the New York State Municipal Police Training Council (MPTC) Basic Course for Police Officers. Official transcripts are submitted electronically.
Stale-figure warning. A common error is to state the veteran waiver as "30 credits instead of 60 for anyone with two or more years of active duty." The published condition is completion of Initial Entry Training plus an honorable discharge — not a two-year service floor.
Vision
At the time of appointment, each eye must be correctable to 20/30.
2. Applying, Authorization, and the $44.00 Fee
The order of operations trips people up, so follow it exactly:
- Apply to the State Police first, through the online application at the Division's public application system. Pearson VUE cannot schedule you before this.
- Wait for authorization. The State Police review eligibility and authorize Pearson VUE. You then receive an authorization to test email from Pearson VUE with scheduling instructions — the application system indicates this link arrives within one to two business days of completing your NYSP application. It goes to the address on your application, so make sure that address is correct and monitored.
- Create your Pearson VUE web account using your LEGAL name exactly as it appears on your government-issued photo ID, and exactly as submitted on the NYSP application, including suffixes such as "Jr." or "III." A mismatch will cost you your seat at the door.
- Schedule your seat. A $44.00 testing fee is collected by Pearson VUE when you select the date, time and location. This is separate from the $20 application fee paid to the State Police when you file. The Pearson VUE fee may be refundable if you cancel within 72 hours of your scheduled appointment.
Test sites are extensive: 250 locations across the United States, more than 50 within New York State, plus 112 military testing locations worldwide for service members. The State Police moved from paper-and-pencil administration to computer-based testing with the 2022 examination.
If you must change or miss your appointment
Reschedule or cancel through your Pearson VUE web account. Candidates who are late or absent may call Pearson VUE within fourteen days to request an excused absence for a limited list of reasons: candidate or immediate-family illness, a death in the immediate family, a disabling traffic accident, court appearance or jury duty, military duty, or a weather emergency. A case number is assigned and supporting documentation is emailed in. Candidates who simply fail to appear without following the change/cancel policy forfeit the exam fee and are not admitted.
3. What Happens After the Examination
| Stage | What it is |
|---|---|
| Eligibility list | Candidates are ranked in order of examination score plus any applicable veteran's credit. As positions are authorized, candidates are notified in rank order to appear for processing. |
| Physical Ability Test (PAT) | Held on a Saturday or Sunday, roughly six months before an Academy class begins. |
| Candidate processing | Conducted immediately after passing the PAT: background questionnaire, tattoo and body-art review, and review of military documentation where applicable. |
| Background investigation | Verification of the application and character, with access to educational, financial, employment and criminal records, interviews with family and associates, and a polygraph examination. |
| Medical examination | About six weeks before appointment, at the Academy in Albany, by a NYSP Division Physician. Candidates authorize access to mental health records. |
| Basic School | Residential paramilitary training at the New York State Police Academy in Albany. Recent sessions have run approximately 29 to 30 weeks; the length is set per session, so confirm the figure for your class rather than relying on the older 26-week number. |
Keep your contact information current with the Division for as long as you remain on the list. Candidates are notified "when your rank is reached," and an unreachable candidate is simply passed over.
4. The Physical Ability Test Standards
The PAT is three subtests, each scored pass/fail independently: sit-ups (one minute), push-ups, and a 1.5-mile run. Minimum entry-level norms are set at the 50th percentile of the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research standards, and they vary by age and gender — there is no single universal standard.
Minimum hiring norms (50th percentile)
| Event | Female 20–29 | Female 30–39 | Female 40–49 | Male 20–29 | Male 30–39 | Male 40–49 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sit-ups (1 min) | 35 | 27 | 22 | 40 | 36 | 31 |
| Push-ups | 18 | 14 | 11 | 33 | 27 | 21 |
| 1.5-mile run | 14:07 | 14:34 | 15:24 | 11:58 | 12:25 | 13:11 |
To graduate from the Academy a recruit must reach the 70th percentile in all three events — for example 41 sit-ups, 24 push-ups and a 12:53 run for a woman aged 20–29, or 45 sit-ups, 41 push-ups and a 10:59 run for a man in the same band. Plan your conditioning against the graduation numbers, not the entry numbers.
5. Veterans' Credit
New York Civil Service Law § 85 grants additional credit to eligible veterans on open-competitive examinations for original appointment: five points for qualifying non-disabled veterans and ten points for qualifying veterans with a service-connected disability rated at 10% or more and receiving VA compensation. Credit is added to a passing examination score — it cannot create one — and it may generally be used only once, for a single permanent appointment. The State Police also note that active-duty and former service members may be eligible for extra credits added to a passing written-exam score, for the 30-credit college waiver, and for deferral of processing when active-duty service prevents attendance. Documentation requirements are strict, so submit your DD-214 or current orders through the channels the Division specifies.
A candidate served five years of full-time active duty, was honorably discharged after completing Initial Entry Training, and will be 46 years old on this cycle's cutoff date. He holds 34 college credits. Which assessment of his eligibility is correct?
A candidate submits her NYSP application on Monday and immediately tries to book a seat on the Pearson VUE website that evening. She cannot find any available appointments. What is the most likely explanation?
At the Physical Ability Test, a 26-year-old male candidate performs 44 sit-ups and 38 push-ups, then finishes the 1.5-mile run in 12:20. Applying the published minimum hiring norms, what is the outcome?