<p>How important is ABET accrediation to computer science in regard to the opportunities available in the job market after graduation? A lot of the information I've been able to find is older (2005-2006), and essentially the only thing I gathered from that is that ABET accreditation was "gaining momentum" in terms of it being a requisite for some companies during their hiring process. I know that many upper tier CS programs (MIT, Carnegie Mellon) are not accredited, but my stats weren't quite good enough to consider those schools in my hunt due to poor performances in Freshman/Sophomore year.</p>
<p>So I guess I would like to know, would I be doing myself a diservice to go to a school that offers a CS program that is not ABET accredited? (For example, Boston University)</p>
<p>UC Berkeley has an ABET-accredited Electrical Engineering and Computer Science major in its College of Engineering (EECS), and a non-ABET-accredited Computer Science major in its College of Letters and Science (L&S CS).</p>
<p>Many EECS majors take mostly CS courses, which are the same ones available to L&S CS majors.</p>
<p>The [UC</a> Berkeley career center](<a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm]UC”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/Major.stm) does not seem to indicate a huge difference in the first job opportunities of EECS and L&S CS graduates, although the data is confounded by the fact that some EECS majors do emphasize EE (although it appears that those emphasizing EE tend to favor graduate school, while those getting jobs are mainly on the CS side, though many in both majors go to graduate school in CS).</p>
<p>However, when comparing schools, there are significant other factors besides ABET accreditation. MIT and CMU may be more well known, so non-local employers may visit their career centers first compared to less well known schools in the area.</p>
<p>ABET accreditation is not that important for computer science programs; whereas it is of up-most importance when evaluating engineering programs.</p>
<p>I don’t think ABET accreditation is that important for CS programs because many CS programs are not part of a school’s engineering college. On top of that, a math major can tailor their major to that of a CS major.</p>
<p>Boston U has a very good CompSci program. Fact is, no one cares about ABET accreditization. ABET is a joke:</p>
<ul>
<li>CMU, Ivy schools, etc are NOT ABET accredited.<br></li>
<li>I can’t believe that MIT has allowed itself to be demeaned by an ABET accreditization in CS. … and ABET will “review” MIT in 2013??? Har Har!!</li>
</ul>
<p>My school’s (UC San Diego’s) CSE department isn’t ABET accredited. I didn’t even know this until I looked it up right now. The other guys are right. No one in the industry cares. It’s never come up during interviews and I’ve never heard anyone discussing ABET accreditation… EVER.</p>
<p>It’s probably only useful for students who attend small, obscure schools.</p>