Cal Poly Humboldt has announced that they will offer Mechanical Engineering major for the first time in Fall 2023. I have been told that it is important to choose a school that has ABET accredited ME major. Since it is new at this school, it is not showing as ABET accredited. My question is: is it a bad idea to do ME when it is a brand new major without accreditation? Thank you in advance for your input!
ABET does not grant accreditation for new programs until after the first students have graduated, although if the program is granted accreditation, it is retroactive to the beginning of the program.
You may want to ask the school what its timeline for seeking ABET accreditation is.
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That’s great news! Someone has to be the first to go through a new program. I would look at the proposed curriculum and see how it lines up with the ABET accreditation.
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Personally and I’m risk averse - I wouldn’t take the chance.
As you apply for internships most will require you come from a college with abet accreditation and you will not have it.
Lots of accredited schools out there. If it were me, I’d find one of them.
Good luck.
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It could be exciting to get in on the ground floor of this new program, although there are bound to be some bugs to be worked out. Since the other two Cal Poly campuses already have ABET accredited MechE programs, I would be reasonably confident that Humboldt has a solid roadmap to follow in getting its program up to speed. I wouldn’t hesitate to have this school on my list, but I wouldn’t get my heart set on it until after doing a lot of due diligence post-acceptance. When push comes to shove, I might end up leaning toward more established options. It would depend what other choices were available, and how satisfactorily Humboldt provided answers to the questions and concerns of students admitted to the new program.
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My question is how will they get an engineering internship ? My son said at least 90% require ABET. Maybe supply chain or something engineers also do. Just seems an unnecessary risk. But it is up to the student. But I would not dismiss it.
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I would also be concerned about engineering internships and work experiences. A new program isn’t going to have the partnerships and connections with industry that can make finding summer work a bit easier on students.
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Colorado School of Mines wasn’t ABET accredited when my son was looking (2014). A friend of his went there a year later, still not accredited, and had no problem finding internships and ultimately a job. They eventually got their accreditation and it was retroactive back to 2012, the year they applied. I suspect that Humboldt will be similar given their affiliation with Pomona and SLO.
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This disagrees…edit for mechanical yes 2012. U r correct.
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I’d also say they already had the employers there. As a top rated school.
Mainly if I were op I wouldn’t chance it. They can look up internships and see.
And they can call the school and ask how they plan to help these early students - see if the school has a plan if they really want to go.
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I think prior to that, they just offered general. As you can see, multiple disciplines were accredited in 2012.
The biggest difference is that Humboldt State isn’t accredited in general and doesn’t have Mines track record. Their only current ABET accredited program is Environmental Resource.
Thank you all for the insights. If my son gets into a school with ABET, that will be a first choice. I was looking at Humboldt as a back up for him because his GPA may not get him into other California schools for ME major (3.4 Unweighted, 3.6 Weighted capped).
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Here are the Cal states that are not impacted for ME and are ABET accredited which might make better backups to Humboldt.
San Francisco State
Northridge
Sacramento State
Chico
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Stanford has dropped its accreditation in several majors. I don’t think their students have any trouble with internships.
I’d be more concerned about civil engineering because civils have to take the FE/PE tests and need the certification.
UC-Irvine law school wasn’t accredited for the first 5 years (the norm for the ABA to grant accreditation) and it wasn’t a problem for its students. In fact they lined up to get in, especially since the first class got to go for free. Some states may have limited their ability to sit for the bar (or required different paperwork) but California didn’t.
I don’t think it’s fair to compare a long accredited powerhouse that elected to drop the process to one that’s never been through it. 
I think Chico would be my pick, but Humboldt will be a solid program some day.
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Thanks! Yes, we have CSUN as our safety. We are local to CSUF, but not sure if the extra .3 GPA bump there would be enough to get my son in to the impacted ME major. The only reason I contemplated Humboldt is because I heard about the polytechnic transition. That made me wonder, which back up is better:
- CSUN with Abet accreditation for ME
Or - Cal Poly Humboldt without accreditation but with the polytechnic format
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ABET accreditation provides assurance that a college or university program meets the quality standards of the profession for which that program prepares graduates. There may be some differences in the ME electives and how the overall program is structured.
I would compare CSUN’s program to Cal Poly Pomona’s just to see if there are major differences but ABET accreditation should “even the playing field”. I supplied the curriculum links for CPP (Polytechnic) vs. CSUN since both are on a semester system for better comparison.
https://catalog.csun.edu/academics/me/programs/bs-mechanical-engineering/
Not sure “Polytechnic” in itself is an advantage for Humboldt vs. the other CSU’s.
CSUN with ABET
Go to indeed and type in mechanical engineering internships - and look at the descriptions. Or go to companies that might interest him - for example if defense, Lockheed, Sierra Pacific, Raytheon. Or consumer goods - Coca Cola, Pepsi, etc. and read the job description/requirements.
@eyemgh -Mines had most the Petroleum, Mining types accredited from the 50s. What type of internship did your person get? As you know, all those industries will get meches.
Not sure the OPs budget - but certainly there are other ABET schools OOS they would get accepted to with their #s.
Good luck to OP.
I know this not directed toward the discussion but the CSUF 0.3 GPA bump was for Fall 2022 local applicants. Are they still giving the GPA bump for 2023 applicants since I do not see any information on their website?
ME, before they were ABET accredited.