One is taking a big risk attending an unaccredited engineering program. Many schools apply for accreditation after starting up engineering programs, and ABET considers the school after (I believe) three graduating classes have been produced. If ABET accredits the school, the accreditation is retroactive to the first class, however, there is no guarantee the school will pursue accreditation, or if it does, no guarantee ABET will accredit the programs for which the school sought the accreditation. In the meantime, the unaccredited engineering degree holder will be overlooked in many cases in favor of accredited degree holders, the federal and state governments will not hire non-ABET degree holders for engineering positions, and if one is pursuing a field in which a Professional Engineer (PE) license is required, the the state engineering examining boards will not permit sitting for the exams. So, why would one attend a non-accredited program?