<p>could someone explain the ABET and engineering schools... and do MOST of the schools that are at least known to have decent engineering undergraduate system associated with the curriculum set with ABET?
thanks- :)</p>
<p>ABET is the accrediting board for engineering. Most engineering programs are accredited (only a very few are not) and you should look for this to ensure that the program is quality. ABET does not mandate an exact curriculum, but it does have rules on things that a curriculum must have. This does tend to force a lot of similarity in engineering programs.</p>
<p>ABET is a general mark of quality and standardization. </p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABET%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABET</a></p>
<p>However, you should note that some highly prominent engineering programs are not ABET accredited. For example, the BioEngineering programs at Berkeley, MIT and Stanford are unaccredited, as are the Materials Science programs at Stanford and Berkeley (although interestingly, the materials science programs at UCDavis, UCIrvine, UCLA, Cal Poly, and San Jose State are accredited). Stanford's Petroleum Engineering program is unaccredited. CalTech has only 4 accredited programs (Chemical, Electrical, EAS, and Mechanical) and plenty of unaccredited ones. Yet I think noone would dispute that these are strong programs, despite their lack of accreditation.</p>
<p>Hence, I would consider accreditation to be only a minor factor when determining the quality of a program. Accreditation only seems to matter for a few rare engineering jobs with the government. When even schools like MIT and Stanford don't bother to accredit all of their engineering programs, that just calls into question the value of the entire accreditation process. I can agree that accreditation may be useful in assessing low-level schools, but not when you're assessing the top schools.</p>
<p>In additon, ABET comes into play when shooting for PE [professional engineering] status. You can get the PE 4 years earlier having graduated from an ABET school - this could mean a big difference in salary and responsibiliy in fields where PE status is virtually a necessity, for example civE.</p>
<p>so..as an example, would it be worth going to school that's known for its engineering program but isn't accredited with ABET or a decent school that is with ABET (which would be a better choice, considering the outside world,ie. jobs, more schools etc)?</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry too much about ABET unless you are going into Civil engineering - typically that is the only field where getting a PE license is critical and you cannot take the test for this unless you have a degree from an ABET accredited school. But what sakky brought up are the exceptions, most every good engineering program is ABET accredited.</p>
<p>Well, in civil or one of the other fields where you're required to obtain a PE license to practice engineering (eg, you're designing things that could kill a whole swath of people if you mess up your calcs), it would behoove you to get both a bachelors degree and a masters degree. Make sure you go to a good engineering school for your undergrad, and then, if your undergrad degree wasn't accredited, make sure you get into a good accredited school for your grad degree.</p>
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so..as an example, would it be worth going to school that's known for its engineering program but isn't accredited with ABET or a decent school that is with ABET (which would be a better choice, considering the outside world,ie. jobs, more schools etc)?
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<p>I personally would be very reluctant to turn down admission to an unaccredited program at a place like MIT, Stanford, Caltech, or Berkeley to enter an accredited program at a no-name school. For example, given the choice between getting an unaccredited Materials Science degree at Stanford and an accredited Materials Science degree at San Jose State, I think very few people would take the latter. I think the Stanford brand-name makes up for the lack of accreditation.</p>