I am going to major in General Engineering with an emphasis Electrical. However, I wonder is it good for me to take a specialized Electrical Engineering or a general like that? Will General Engineering limit my opportunities to find good jobs?.
Thank you
A degree in ‘General Engineering’ is typically offered by the few liberal arts college who operate engineering departments, as opposed to universities that have a college or school of engineering on campus. So I take it that you intend to apply to an LAC.
UIUC offers a General Engineering degree.
@LakeWashington That is why I am quite nervous about my decision. I think Engineering in LAC prevents me fromm getting good jobs. What is your opinion?.
Why don’t you go to a school that offers regular engineering tracks?
if the program is not ABET acredited for EE then you’re not an EE.
Stanford’s electrical engineering is NOT ABET accredited. I highly doubt Stanford EE’s are worried about job placement. ABET accreditation is NOT required…
Certainly if you are going to a school for which engineering is not as well know, ABET accreditation helps… but it is NOT necessary for well known programs.
Hmmm. I’m not certain that in the main, electrical engineers would agree about H&B’s comment on ABET accreditation. Maybe so, maybe no.
Bao, people here on CC have reported that engineering graduates from places like Harvey Mudd, Smith, Swarthmore and Trinity College are satisfied with their career choices. As an LAC engineering graduate, your success will depend on how much you hustle. You will need to maintain an acceptable GPA and get internship and Co-op experiene so that you will stand out from competing job applicants from engineering universities, including the powerhouse public programs like Illinois, Georgia Tech, Minnesota, Michigan, Virginia Tech etc.
Well, then what about the fact that Stanford’s Electrical Engineering program is NOT ABET accredited.
Should students avoid Stanford EE because of that??
Will the lack of ABET accreditation for Stanford EE hurt these graduates?
@mikemac How can we know whether the program is ABET credited or not? Sr for my lack of information 
I’m an international.
@LakeWashington Thank you for your useful information.
You can search ABET accreditation here: http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx
@harvardandberkeley
You are cherry picking one exception to the rule and generalizing it. Stanford is already well-known in engineering. As such, there aren’t likely to be any questions about its quality and its lack of ABET accreditation will be little to no hindrance. On the other hand, at a small LAC that isn’t well-known for engineering already, a lack of accreditation will be much more important since a given recruiter isn’t likely familiar with their program and doesn’t have that ABET status to ensure that this unknown program passes te minimum standards for electrical engineering.
Non ABET will also be an issue if you ever want to take the PE exam. It won’t prevent you, but you will need more years of work experience. In most jobs, this will never be an issue. But there are some areas which will require it.
@boneh3ad,
If you read my entire comment, I said:
“Certainly if you are going to a school for which engineering is not as well know, ABET accreditation helps… but it is NOT necessary for well known programs.”
@harvardandberkeley But you’ve also been harping on whether the lack of accreditation for Stanford hurts those graduates. The OP very obviously is not going to Stanford, so I don’t see how that line of debate is helpful here. In the vast majority of cases, ABET accreditation actually is important in terms of figuring out what standards a program meets. Throwing out a single counter-example is just not all that useful here.