<p>Does graduating from a school with an ABET accreditation in your major (comp sci in my case) affect/increase the chances of getting into a good grad program? Or is it just for jobs?</p>
<p>I'm a bit on the fence with ABET, since some (if not, a good majority) good comp Sci schools aren't ABET accredited (I.e: CMU, UCSD), but are exceptional schools.</p>
<p>I think if you come from a less well known school it could be a bit of a “seal of approval” so they know your program at least meets certain standards. Places that are already known for their quality don’t need to go through the process since ABET approval really is a LOT of paperwork.</p>
<p>There really is very little incremental paperwork involved for a college program in preparing for ABET accreditation, as long as the program has a well established and documented continuous quality improvement process in place. Even the best program in the world is destined for mediocrity if it is not focused on ongoing quality improvement.</p>
<p>I know as a TA I was required to photocopy three sets of homework for every assignment, one of high level of understand, one of average, and one of low (can’t use autofeed scanners/copiers since students use pencil, and that smears on the drums, so I had to do page by page for 10 page front & back assginments weekly). I also had to scrub names off of documents. I needed to also provide solutions plus a copy for each of the solutions for every set. Professors needed to fill out a rubric for every lecture and describe how it fit X, Y, and Z educational outcomes. I remember there being a number of other things, but it was a pretty big hassle.</p>
<p>That said, I’m glad my undergrad program was ABET accredited even though it’s not in a field that generally requires it since I am in the process of pursuing a PE.</p>