How Important is ABET Accreditation?

<p>Cal's bioengineering program is not ABET accredited... UCSD's is. Should that be a deciding factor?</p>

<p>I would also like to know this</p>

<p>But at this point it seems like i'm going to end up at Cal anyways for bioengineering</p>

<p>normally abet accreditation is important, but we're talking about berkeley engineering here. according to a professor i had last semester, he said berkeley's stance has always been "we don't need it, we're berkeley" (with regards to the abet)</p>

<p>^ That is true, since lower tier universities emphasize ABET to let people know that their engineering program meets certain standards. However, for Berkeley's BioE's, the program is not as structured compared to the other engineering disciplines offered by Berkeley. It was so overwhelming to review the program requirements with my advisor when I was a freshmen.</p>

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Cal's bioengineering program is not ABET accredited... UCSD's is. Should that be a deciding factor?

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<p>No, not really.</p>

<p>ABET accreditation is important only if you're going to be a state-licensed engineer. Yet the fact is, no state currently licenses Bioengineers. Hence, ABET accreditation for bioengineering is basically meaningless. </p>

<p>Granted, some states might choose to accredit bioengineers in the future. But I suspect that when that happens, former bioengineering grads will simply be grandfathered in. Even if that doesn't happen, the truth is, licensing isn't particularly important for most engineering disciplines anyway, with bioengineering being no exception. Licensing is an issue only when you are working on engineering projects that are regulated by the state and for use by residents within that state, yet the fact is, the vast majority of engineering projects (i.e. cars, airplanes, electronics, etc.) are sold throughout the country (and the world) and hence are not regulated by any states, which then obviates the need for licensing. That's why generally only civil engineers (who design buildings and structures that obviously can be built in only one state) require licensing, and the vast majority of EE's, ME's, ChemE's, etc. do not. The vast majority of BioE's are similarly surely going to be working on projects that are designed to be sold in more than one state.</p>

<p>My sister majored in bioE at Cal and did not know about ABET accreditation until her senior year. She had many job offers and no one seemed to care. Like another poster said earlier, it's Cal.</p>