I found out that my electronic engineering program is non-ABET accredited, trying to figure out if transferring out is a good idea or not. It claims to be accredited by NEASC, but I’m unsure if that even applies to engineering. Is a non-ABET accredited program completely not worth it?
If this is a new degree program, then it can only receive ABET accreditation after some students graduate from it. However, the usual case is that the ABET accreditation becomes retroactive for those early graduates.
There is the risk that the program fails to meet ABET accreditation standards.
I found out my university lied to me and they’re not actually trying to get accredited. It was mentioned briefly that it’s bad but I wanted to get the idea of HOW bad.
Do you need ABET accreditation for this degree to count? My school told me it has been trying to become ABET accredited but it seems they may not be accredited until after I graduate. Is this a problem? Does my degree count as accredited or not?
ABET accreditation is in general very important. It’s a standard of quality for every school and a prerequisite for obtaining “professional engineer” status which in some engineering majors is pretty much necessary for advancement.
Employers will typically choose somebody who received a degree in an ABET accredited program over one who did not. This is not to say that you will have no hope of finding a job if your program is not accredited, but you will have to work harder to prove to employers that your coursework has provided you with adequate preparation to work in industry.
For EE, it is generally expected that bachelor’s degree programs are ABET accredited.
What school is this?
NEASC accreditation would be baseline accreditation for the school as a whole, not accreditation for a specific major. Major-specific accreditation (e.g. ABET for engineering majors, AACSB for business and accounting, NAAB for architecture, etc.) would be in addition to baseline accreditation for the school (most majors where there is major-specific accreditation are pre-professional majors).
Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island. They claimed to have a brand new engineering program starting up, and told me they were under the process of getting ABET accredited by the 2016-2017 school year. At the time I figured “okay, whatever. It’s a brand new program and it will be accredited.” I recently asked the engineering department chair about my degree–I asked her “If I graduate in 2017 does the accreditation apply toward my degree?” and general questions like that. What she did is she just said “oh the university is NEASC accredited, don’t worry about it”. I was sitting there thinking “wait a minute! The staff (Professors, Dean, Department Chair of Engineering) told me multiple times they were undergoing the ABET accreditation process!!” So I contacted ABET and ABET said my university ISN’T UNDERGOING THE PROCESS and HASN’T EVEN COMMUNICATED WITH ABET. Therefore, the staff outright lied to me about this. Fortunately I’m very early in the program so I can probably transfer(wether that means I take my credits with me or not), but what kind of university does this? Builds a new engineering building and doesn’t attempt to get the program appropriately accredited? The only conclusions I can draw is either one of the following
- They either don’t care and just want your money or
- Maybe it will be accredited but LONG AFTER I GRADUATE
In addition to this, I recently discovered that their business program is unaccredited as well.
Usually I advise students to sit tight, but something isn’t right about that place. Their web page offers NO information and the degree isn’t electrical engineering, it’s called electronics engineering. Nowhere can I find a curriculum to even know what’s involved. They do seem to graduate lots of chefs, but engineers? I don’t know. Something is off. How far in are you? Do you have any written documentation that they were undergoing the ABET process, even e-mail?
I’m not in the stem industries and I don’t know how this whole ABET thing work. But the fact that Devry University is ABET approved give me little faith in ABET approval process.
@sensation723 That’s a rather ignorant position to take. I’m no big DeVry fan but the three programs they have accredited are all engineering technology degrees, which are very different than traditional engineering degrees, and without knowing more about them, it’s really not fair to dismiss ABET based on that. This is especially true when ABET is still a widely respected organization in industry and government (or at least their accreditation process is).
http://catalog.jwu.edu/programsofstudy/engineering-design/electronics-engineering-bs/providence/OP, with so many ABET accredited Engineering programs, why did you elect to attend Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island? How were your high school GPA and SAT/ACT scores?
Johnson and Wales University and others of their ilk, tend to operate as “For-Profit” Universities (with predatory tendencies), although they are technically non-profit institutions. Not sure what the differences are between JWU’s Electronic Engineering and Electrical Engineering curriculum at other ABET universities. Can graduates from non-ABET schools take the Professional Engineers (P.E.) Licensing exam?
Electronic engineering sounds like it is an engineering technology program.
J&W normally requires 180 quarter credits for graduation; this particular program requires 200.25 quarter credits. (Conventionally, 1 quarter credit = 2/3 semester credit.)
Looking at the course listing, it appears that it does not meet the ABET criteria for math and science. It has 18 credits of math required, and 18.75 credits of science required, for a total of 36.75 credits. This is 20.4% of 180 credits, while ABET criteria specify at least 25%, which would be 45 credits.
With me my scores in high school, SAT’s and community college were pretty good. In fact I ranked in the top 10 from my high school class. When I narrowed down where to go to college, it was a near tie with Wentworth Institute of Technology and JWU, I was accepted into both, but I went to JWU because I wouldn’t have to pay to live in a dorm and simply because it was close to where I live. In addition to this, I was under the impression that it was a perfectly okay university to go to with a brand new program undergoing accreditation. I don’t so much care where I go to school, I care about the quality and affordability of the program. If I were to go back in time, I wouldn’t have attended JWU, but I’m here and I have some figuring out to do. Fortunately for me I’m 1 year in, but there are many other people who are 3 or 4 years in, It’s unfortunate, but I’m very glad that I’m at least not in that position. I figure I’m going to talk to the Dean about all of this and get his perspective. I’ll at least give my program the ability to explain itself regarding this issue. If things go badly from there I will fully start to consider transferring somewhere.
Could you transfer to URI? I have a nephew who commuted to URI from northern RI for all 4 yrs. I’m sure it was a pain, but he did it and graduated with an ABET accredited engineering degree.
@Jamrock411, I don’t know how I ended up where I did. I googled the school, selected their page, and it had no links, just a place to request more information. It had a very fir profit school feel. Tonight, the full page popped up. Weird. Usually I get along with the Google. 
I plan on attending Johnson & Wales next fall to take software engineering courses, have you heard anything new about the ABET?
@Jamief16 Software engineering already claimed they’re not trying to get accredited
https://www.facebook(dot)com/johnsonandwales/posts/513512038708458