<p>I notice when I search the ABET website for various accredited Master's programs in different engineering fields, only 1 or 2 schools are populated. For Example: If I search for all schools with an accredited Master's in Mechanical Engineering program, Naval PostGraduate School and Univ. of Louisville are the only ones that come up. Do the school's not really seek out accreditation by ABET for their post-bachelor's programs?</p>
<p>ABET really only matters for a BS degree. There is no real attempt to standardize graduate degrees because it would sort of defeat the purpose of going to graduate school to specialize.</p>
<p>I was going to say the same thing (but connection had a hiccup). Graduate programs are about specializing. On top of that, some M.Eng programs are “hodge-podge” set of courses that are interdisciplinary. Either way, there is no standardization.</p>
<p>No way ABET could come up with a standard for say Stanford’s M.S. in Computational & Mathematical Engineering degree…or better yet, the few M.S./M.Eng Engineering Physics programs.</p>
<p>I see. Thanks for the insight. I’m about to start a Masters program in the fall so I was wondering. </p>
<p>GlobalTraveler you said M.Eng is a “hodge podge” set of courses… does this mean that a M.Eng degree is inferior to an MS degree in your opinion? At NC State where I am going to do the master’s the only difference between the M. Eng and M.S. degrees is that the M.S. candidates will do a thesis while the M. Eng won’t. Would love to hear your take.</p>
<p>Bounce007,</p>
<p>Some schools have a M.Eng degree OPTION structured like a “hodge-podge” and NC State is one of them. If you check NCSU’s site, there is a “Master of Engineering” degree with no specialization.</p>
<p>One is not inferior to the other because the two degree types serve different purposes. M.Eng is more for working engineer who usually do not plan to get a PhD. M.S. with thesis is the traditional route for those who want to at least be more prepared for a PhD program because you get to do research for a thesis that you will also do in a PhD program.</p>
<p>You have to also know about your industry if you intend to do a M.Eng. If you are in an industry where most of your hiring managers won’t ask about your research/thesis, then M.Eng is all you need.</p>
<p>Now having said all of that, the “degree explosion” by universities have pretty much blurred the distinct differences between M.S. and M.Eng. Now you also have non-thesis M.S degrees, non-thesis M.S. with required projects/papers and M.Eng with required projects/papers.</p>
<p>Thanks Global! I really appreciate your responses. Thanks again to boneh3ad as well.</p>
<p>ABET does accredit graduate programs, just not many - not sure why. Nonetheless, graduate programs are usually accredited, just by one of the big six regional bodies instead of ABET - for some reason, it appears that schools are reluctant to stick with a single board (although the University of Louisville does, at least for EE). A graduate program with no accreditation whatsoever is still something that I would be wary of unless it already had a sterling reputation or operated in a field that is not normally accredited.</p>
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<p>Do you mean regional accreditation for the school, as opposed to major-specific accreditation? That is not an either-or situation, since it is common for schools to have both regional accreditation for the school and major-specific accreditation (e.g. ABET for engineering and engineering technology, NAAB for architecture, AACSB for business and accounting).</p>
<p>It is the case that ABET accreditation is primarily for bachelor’s degree programs.</p>
<p>From what I understand programs can only get an ABET accreditation for either BS or MS. Since most schools with have their accreditation for BS, they won’t have MS. The exceptions are generally schools that might not have a BS program in a field (for example, my school doesn’t have Materials Science for undergrad, so we could get it for MS).</p>
<p>University of Louisville has ABET accreditation for both bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in several engineering majors:</p>
<p>[Accredited</a> Programs details](<a href=“http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=34]Accredited”>http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=34)</p>
<p>ucb, I wonder if some of that has to do with how recently most of their BS programs were accredited. I think the process happens every 6 years or so, so maybe they’ll have to let their MS one lapse once it runs out?</p>