<p>So I came into MIT pretty confident I was going to do Course 20, but a lot of people I've talked to have brought up the point that I might want to consider 10B instead because 20 isn't accredited.
Does anyone have any insight as to why 20 isn't accredited, if it will be soon, and if not how that would affect graduates in the long run?</p>
<p>AFAIK, it’s not accredited because it’s too new. I think the last ABET accreditation round was in 2006, and the course 20 program either didn’t start until the following year or had just started that year.</p>
<p>It looks like there are very few ABET-accredited biological engineering programs (search engine [here](<a href=“http://www.abet.org/AccredProgramSearch/AccreditationSearch.aspx]here[/url]”>http://www.abet.org/AccredProgramSearch/AccreditationSearch.aspx)</a>). Not sure if that’s meaningful.</p>
<p>I thought it got accredited. That search shows MIT when I pull up “biological engineering”. Have I gone mad??</p>
<p>I’d thought so too, but the biological engineering criteria there is referring to 10B, which is accredited in both biological engineering and chemical engineering. Unfortunately 20 and 10B are rather different…</p>
<p>I think course 20 has been accredited for graduate school, but not yet for undergrad – since we came later.</p>
<p>It sounds like course-x people are just trying to trick you in to go to their department :P.</p>
<p>There are pros and cons of both of these departments. I think 10B would be more practical for industry, and 20 - better for research.</p>
<p>Also course 10 is probably slightly harder, although both courses are considered rather tough. I know quite a few people who decided to do something else after the first semester or two. So take a look if you are excited enough about the subject to go through a little bit of drama every now and then.</p>
<p>^ I haven’t heard of 20 being tough. It used to be very hard (read: impossible) to catch up on classes if you fell behind in one, though that has changed in recent years.</p>
<p>I dont know how they are doing now. I do know many people who switched out promptly because of workload. Same for course X.</p>
<p>
?! People complain about Course 20 classes all the time…</p>
<p>^ Seconded! Seriously the difficulty of course 20 is something that I took into consideration before I stuck with 7, and I think I made the right choice.</p>
<p>^ I’ve heard of it being tougher than 7. I just haven’t ever heard it ranked at the toughest with 10. It’s believable, it’s just not something I’ve heard first-hand :)</p>
<p>Because Course 20 isn’t accredited, does that make graduate school admissions in BioEngineering more difficult? </p>
<p>For example, graduate admissions at Stanford requires an accredited undergraduate degree…</p>
<p>It would surprise me quite a bit if a student from MIT in course 20 with a competitive application (good letters, strong GPA, good research experience) were rejected from graduate schools because the program had not yet jumped through that particular hoop.</p>
<p>If it’s something that’s a concern, be sure to ask your letter-writers to address the program’s plans for accreditation in their reference letters. Definitely talk about the issue with professors in the department – they will know best what the situation is.</p>
<p>I talked to some seniors, and they said the ABET accreditation isn’t a grad school issue :)</p>
<p>Does anyone know when will the next ABET accreditation round be for MIT?</p>