I’m hearing this from my sister, who has little knowledge of engineer, but she has asked for my help so I thought I would get users’ thoughts.
My nephew goes to Stephen F Austin in Texas. When he was looking at schools, he was told that his major had just been ABET accredited. My sister THOUGHT he was a mechanical engineering major. But he is actually an engineering physics major. I just looked it up on the SFA site and found, " The Bachelor of Science in Engineering Physics degree is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) , the recognized accreditor of college and university programs in applied science, computing, engineering and technology."
Now my nephew has switched to Mechanical Engineering which is not yet accredited. The school has told him it will be accredited soon but probably not by the time he graduates next year. They say he will be “grandfathered” in when it happens. But is this going to be a big hindrance in his finding a job? My sister is ripped. She and her husband are already paying for five years of college because my nephew struggled with physics so much it delayed his graduation.
Now I read this article from June! "Two new engineering degrees will be added to Stephen F. Austin State University’s offerings in the fall.
Mechanical engineering and electrical engineering will be housed in the College of Sciences and Mathematics and taught by faculty members in the Department of Physics, Engineering and Astronomy."
So they didn’t even have an ME degree when my nephew started. Shoot, I wish I had looked into the university more closely when he was looking at schools.
I can’t answer your exact question but I would suggest that your nephew make an appointment with career services to find out things like what companies come to campus to recruit, outcomes for recent graduates in the major etc.
I think the answer is “it depends” on the employer.
I would start by going to the career center at the school and asking for first destination survey results for mechanical engineering grads to get the list of companies that hire. Those would be the companies I’d target for employment.
I tried looking up the first destination survey but it doesn’t have a detailed enough break down but hopefully the career center or the mech e department has that info.
Honestly their job placement stats don’t look too great. Hopefully your nephew has had some good summer internships.
I will ask my sister when she gets home from work (I am staying in Austin with her this week).
He had a good internship summer before last, but it didn’t pay well so he waited tables this past summer to make more money. I think I will get my husband to talk to him. They have a good relationship and I think Nephew will listen to him better.
I will ask. I get the feeling that it’s the physics courses in the curriculum that aren’t going well for him. I can relate - I hated physics, ha. I made the mistake of taking Honors Physics and was lucky to make a B one semester and a C the other. I still managed to graduate with High Honors in engineering, fortunately.
Most job apps specifically ask for ABET accredited school graduates. That said there are schools or programs that don’t have it and I assume their kids get jobs.
W&L purposely does not seek accreditation. I believe some top schools have some programs not accredited but ME is one where it’s important.
I would stick with the current plan.
If he’s struggling in a engineering physics, my guess is he’ll struggle in ME too.
ABET accreditation cannot be granted for a new program until after the first class graduates. However, if granted, it will be retroactive to the beginning of the program.
ABET accreditation is specifically needed or highly helpful for PE licensing or the patent exam. But, for an unknown or new program, it is also an indication of meeting a fairly high minimum standard of quality that may help make employers comfortable hiring graduates of that program for engineering roles (as opposed to engineering-adjacent roles).
Is there a way your nephew could do a coop or internship after he graduates? I know in the aerospace/defense industry they are hiring like crazy perhaps he could do something temporary with the possibility of it becoming permanent?
My husband has a PE and has worked in the field for many many years. At his company, some of the engineers have the PE and others don’t. They do pay a dividend for getting the PE. Anyone signing for documents on projects funded with public dollars might need to sign these documents…and would need a PE. But not everyone working on the project needs the PE…just the sign off person.
There used to be an alternate route to the PE which required a number of years of work in the field before sitting for the exam. Folks who went to unaccredited schools sometimes did this. Does this option still exist?
I apologize for conflating ABET accreditation and the PE.
It is best if one has a degree from an ABET accredited program. But as noted, if the program is accredited within a certain time frame, this is retroactive for some students.
Personally, I think this is risky. But the best source for clarification is the college directly. Where exactly are they in the process, and when exactly will they know.
Yes - but the student may be gone and out by then.
What I don’t know - and I wondered this as I was reading the jobs - does the company check? Do they write it but not enforced it?
Honestly, other than W&L and some like Randolph Macon that are going through accreditation - who is and who isn’t…I don’t know.
I asked my son about PE because I’ve read other people write about it. I forget his answer but long story short, it’s not for him. Maybe he said for people that build stuff or whatever. Most engineers, as I’m learning, never perform as engineers.