The answer to your question is that it depends. I see good engineers that doesn’t have a four year ABET accredited degree but masters of engineering degree. By the way most Master of engineering degrees are not ABET accredited. Even though ABET accreditation show that a program meet a high standard it would never and I mean never be looked at as higher than as a masters or PhD. No matter how good the accreditation.
So in my opinion I don’t have any reason why an employer shouldn’t consider people with degrees like
Bachelors of Science in Mathematics (NOT ABET accredited) plus a Masters of Engineering degree (NOT ABET accredited).
Bachelors of Science in Biology (NOT ABET accredited) plus a Masters of Engineering degree (NOT ABET accredited).
Bachelors of Science in Architecture (NOT ABET accredited) plus a Masters of Engineering degree(NOT ABET accredited).
You can say to your employer that I have a Masters degree and engineering graduates don’t.
Second some state boards would like you get your PE license with an unaccredited engineering, engineering technology, science and math degree plus a master of engineering degree that is accredited in the undergraduate level. Trust I have done exhaustive research on this.
@CU123 I do agree with you and glad to hear that some top universities are moving away from ABET accreditation. Some universities are well know to use their ABET programs to abuse the students. So I am against that. When I did my research I do find that some ABET accredited programs are easier than others. For example, in Mechanical Engineering they require that you take math up to linear algebra but other ABET accredited programs let you take math up to differential equation and not require linear algebra.
To answer your question you can acquire more education to become an engineer and you don’t have to do it through the traditional way like going through a four year EAC ABET accredited program all over again. You can just go to graduate school and get your Masters in Engineering and combine it with an ET degree. It seem like the engineers in the United States doesn’t want to give ET graduate opportunities to become engineers because they want to deprive them and bar them from taking the PE exam.Survey have been conducted on this.So be cautious of that.
Second, some ET degree have the same career paths as engineering management degrees. Engineering managements are “engineers”. Engineering management could start out in management and ET degrees also could start out in management. So same career path for both ET and Engineering Management in some situations.
My suggestion to you is get your B.A. degree with a major in General Engineering and then get your Masters degree in Engineering if you want to become a PE. With your B.A. degree + Masters degree in Engineering you can request to get your degree evaluated. Make sure the combination meets the NCEES Engineering Education Standard listed on the NCEES website. https://ncees.org/engineering/ncees-engineering-education-standard/
Hope that helps.
Higher cost and more hassle than just getting an ABET-accredited bachelor’s degree, if the goal is to work in engineering where ABET accreditation is expected (e.g. where one works toward a PE license).
As mentioned above, the non-ABET-accredited BA degree at Dartmouth may be more for those whose main interest is Wall Street or consulting, but would like some engineering knowledge, rather than those who want to work in engineering.
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