@Nordicdad - I don’t know about California since I never worked there. California also allows graduates of non-ABA accredited law schools within the state for example to sit for their state bar exam. Frankly, I would not hire a lawyer or an engineer who graduated from an unaccredited school. California apparently has a philosophy of “anything goes”. In any event, having a non-ABET accredited degree will shut the candidate out from many good opportunities including state and federal government positions (when I worked for one of the Federal laboratories for example, and at a later time applying for an engineering position with the state Transit Authority, those agencies specifically required the applicant to hold an ABET-accredited undergraduate engineering degree in addition to PE. Considering that the vast majority of engineering programs in the United States are accredited, in my view it makes absolutely no sense to attend one that is unaccredited, even if the school claims that it is going to seek the accreditation.
That said, I recommend all engineering students attend an ABET accredited program, regardless of the engineering specialty (mine is EE and engineering physics for example).