<p>I am so confused. I have been trying to find out how important abet is for computer science. Does anyone know? Would it make sense to attend a less prestigious college that is abet for computer science than one that is more prestigious but not abet for CS? Is is possible that it was not as important before, but times are changing and being abet in computer science will become more important?</p>
<p>Pure guess – since any number of students study CS in non-engineering schools (where ABET would be impossible), it’s less necessary than for some engineering fields.</p>
<p>ABET accreditation in CS is a positive factor, but lack of ABET accreditation is not automatically a negative factor. For example, neither Amherst College nor University of Massachusetts - Amherst has ABET accreditation for CS, but a quick check of their course listings indicates that University of Massachusetts - Amherst is much stronger in the subject, while Amherst College’s offerings in CS are quite limited so that CS majors there may have to use the consortium cross registration to take CS courses at University of Massachusetts - Amherst to round out their majors.</p>
<p>For a school without ABET accreditation in CS, you may want to check the CS course listings at the school for typical upper division CS courses like:</p>
<p>Algorithms and complexity
Theory of computation, languages, and automata
Operating systems
Compilers
Computer networks
Software engineering
Databases
Security and cryptography
Computer graphics
Artificial intelligence
Digital systems
Computer architecture</p>
<p>Employers and graduate schools in CS are unlikely to look at whether your undergraduate degree is ABET accredited in CS. For example, graduates from the non-ABET accredited CS degree programs at Stanford and Berkeley (CS major in the College of Letters and Science) do not find that to be a problem. But a graduate from a weak or limited CS degree program may have trouble, unless s/he is good at self-educating any gaps in the formal education (self-education is relatively common, and expected to some degree to keep up with new innovations, in CS, but is easier to do with a strong base from college).</p>
<p>I am very pessimistic on the value of disciplinary accreditations in fields that do not involve professional licensure. I don’t even know who would accredit CS as a discipline - it’s a branch of mathematics. Maybe ACM or IEEE have gotten into the racket. Disciplinary accreditations are a drain on institutional resources, time, and attention with very little to no value returned. Any value you could attribute to things like quality improvement are already covered by regional accreditation.</p>
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<p>Regional accreditation of the school does not necessarily mean that each major is good. There are lots of weak or limited CS degree programs at regionally accredited schools.</p>
<p>What makes you think that disciplinary accreditation has anything to do with the major being good?</p>
<p>Disciplinary accreditation ensures that the major meets a minimum standard. Of course, how high the standard is differs between different disciplines.</p>
<p>In the case of CS, the standard is high enough that an ABET accredited CS degree program should have a reasonably complete list of course offerings so that a student can learn the topics in CS that are normally expected of bachelor’s degree CS major graduates.</p>
<p>Non-ABET-accredited CS degree programs may be good (e.g. Stanford, Berkeley L&S CS, UMass Amherst), limited (e.g. Amherst), nor really CS (e.g. Marymount’s is more like an IT or MIS degree program), or unusually specialized (e.g. Georgetown’s CS course list appears to be specialized for CS as it relates to government and politics, but does not include some more typical core CS offerings).</p>
<p>In other words, ABET accreditation in CS is a positive, while lack of such merely means that one should do more investigation of how “complete” the department and major are.</p>
<p>What makes you think that disciplinary accreditation is completely useless or that regional accreditation of the school indicates quality of the specific major?</p>