<p>Hello, I'm a foreign student wishing to pursue a Bachelor's Degree in Chemical Engineering in the US.
I was told (by the internet) that I should look at / apply to only ABET accredited colleges, so I was doing some research, and saw that because of my "international" status, I'd be facing potential annual expenses of about 50k+ USD at these "accredited" colleges, which is very, very, far out of my budget.</p>
<p>So, my question is, how important is ABET accreditation for Chemical Engineering, really? </p>
<p>To my understanding, it's only actually useful for a few engineering disciplines, CivEngg being the best example, and that too only if you wish to obtain a PE license. Is this correct?</p>
<p>If you’re going to be studying in the US, ABET is incredibly important as virtually every halfway decent Chem E program has it (although some schools, notably Harvey Mudd offer a general ABET engineering degree with specialties across a variety of programs). The absence of such accreditation in the US should give you serious pause about the program.</p>
<p>So, in your opinion, it’s untrue that ABET accd. is only really useful to people studying Civil Engineering, or working in any other field that directly affects public safety?</p>
<p>Also, you’re looking at the list price, but you may be able to get merit scholarships at some schools and (less likely) financial aid at some other schools.</p>
<p>Have you looked at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology? Estimated cost including tuition, fees, books, room and board is around $20,000.</p>
<p>Okay, this is possibly going to sound extremely “-_- Really?”-worthy, but, I was hoping to go to a college in West USA because my girlfriend got into a college in Oregon, and I want to be close to her.</p>
<p>Do you (or anyone) know of any good (accredited) but cheap (relatively) colleges neighboring Oregon, at least?
Nevada, Washington, Idaho?
Maybe even Utah, Wyoming, Montana?</p>
<p>Most of those you named are the most affordable in the area (leaving off Washington in Seattle – Washington State in Pullman is more reasonable), but note that it’s Montana State in Bozeman with the ABET Chem E program (not U Montana in Missoula - people get these confused). I think the cheapest on your list is Wyoming, which is actually very far from Oregon. Keep in mind that the U.S. is huge, and you may find it cheaper/faster to live in any major city with a large airport and fly to visit your friend in Oregon, rather than try to drive there from any of these neighboring states, assuming you plan on having a car and driving (very few public transportation options). That region of the country is beautiful though if you love mountains and nature. </p>
<p>Maybe you don’t realize how big the US is, but if you go to college in any place other than a school in Oregon that is CLOSE to that school, you will rarely ever see your GF. </p>
<p>It just takes too long to travel…too long to even visit for a weekend. Even one state away takes too long to travel unless you have money to fly, but even flying “eats up” much of your time for a weekend visit.</p>
<p>Are your parents willing to pay for a US school just so you can be near your GF? If so, how much will they pay?</p>
<p>and, YES, the school should be ABET accredited for eng’g. </p>
<p>Will you have a car if you’re coming from another country? And then pay for car insurance while you’re here???
Do you realize how expensive car insurance would be for a single policy of a male driver under age 21???</p>
<p>I can tell you that anything longer than 2-4 hours will be to much for a weekend visit. Plus, how are you going to pay for all that gas all the time? </p>
<p>My kids were 2 1/2 hours away when they were in undergrad. They didn’t come home often because 5 hours out of their weekend driving is too much. </p>
<p>Flying could be cheaper if the drive is too far. </p>
<p>I don’t think you realize how much homework and studying you’re going to have to be doing as a ChemE major. My younger son was a ChemE major. He RARELY saw his girlfriend even tho her college was only 1 hour away.</p>
<p>BTW…you also have to buy health insurance which will be about $2000</p>
<p>No engineering student, especially a ChE student, can afford to spend 14 hours driving during the regular school sessions. December break and Spring break… maybe… But not on a typical week during the semester. So just get that idea out of your head now.</p>
<p>And like others said, look at yahoo maps or google maps to get an idea of what driving is like in the western United States. Think about it…the nearest major metropolis to Seattle heading east is CHICAGO. Boise and Omaha are nice cities, but they don’t count as major metropolises.</p>
<p>If you’re not going to get one of the Freshman scholarships, you may want to think about going to a local CC for your core classes (Calc, Physics, Chem, etc.) and then transferring to a University for your degree. It may even save you enough money that you can start looking at slightly more expensive Universities. A lot of engineers go this route :)</p>
<p>As others have said, you really need to choose an ABET accredited engineering program. The only “exception” is computer sciences (Not Computer Engineering), which may or may not be taught within the college of engineering. </p>
<p>Get acquainted with Skype or Google hangouts and find the school which gives you the best merit aid. This probably means a private university and you can check out the [url=“<a href=“http://theaitu.org%22%5DAITU%5B/url”>http://theaitu.org”]AITU[/url</a>] schools for this. They are all engineering schools with strong programs in most disciplines.</p>