Overall worse school with ABET vs overall better school without ABET

I’m still only a junior in high school, but I think I’m going to go into environmental engineering. I currently live in Wisconsin. So my question is would it be better to go to Platteville (the only ABET accredited EnvE school in Wisconsin) or Madison (clearly better school?). Does the accredation even matter? There are a few ABET accredited EnvE programs around me (Purdue, Ann Arbor, Michigan Tech) but they all have pretty insane out of state tuitions. I’m a better than average student. Have a weighted gpa of around 4.5 or so. All IB classes. Realistically I could probably get a 29 or 30 on the ACT. Possibly 32 or so if I study really hard. In the top 10 out of 500 or so in my class. Anyone have any opinions on the situation? Thanks!

Some schools may have environmental engineering as a subarea of another ABET accredited program (usually civil, sometimes chemical depending on the emphasis). You may want to investigate whether your interest in environmental engineering fits into such a subarea emphasis.

Be careful with Madison engineering, since it can have relatively high GPA progression requirements.
https://www.engr.wisc.edu/academics/student-services/academic-advising/first-year-undergraduate-students/progression-requirements/
For example, a chemical engineering student needs to earn college GPA of 3.5 technical and 3.0 overall to stay in the major from frosh to soph year. A civil engineering student needs to earn college GPA of 2.8 technical and 2.5 overall to stay in the major from frosh to soph year.

My engineer DH says go with an ABET school.

Environmental engineering is sometimes treated as a subdiscipline of civil engineering, and sometimes as a separate discipline. Both approaches are fine.

Platteville treats EnvE as a separate degree program from CivE, with separate ABET accreditation. So their EnvE degree would be ABET accredited for EnvE.

Madison, on the other hand, has a single department of “Civil and Environmental Engineering”. They would offer a degree in civil engineering with an environmental engineering concentration. It would be ABET accredited for CivE.

Nobody will care whether you have a BS in Environmental Engineering, or a BS in Civil Engineering with a Concentration in Environmental Engineering. The Madison degree is probably more marketable, just because it’s Madison.

If you want to pursue a state Professional Engineering license – and as a civil or environmental engineer, you probably would – then yes, you want an ABET engineering “seal of approval”. Note, for example, that Wisconsin’s licensing website requires engineers to hold an “approved” degree. To determine if your degree is “approved”, it links to the ABET website.
http://dsps.wi.gov/Licenses-Permits/Engineer/PEprelicense

However, the exact type of ABET engineering accreditation doesn’t matter. The Wisconsin PE Board won’t care if a degree is ABET-accredited for CivE or for EnvE, or even for NucE. Any ABET engineering degree will work.

For the record, UW-Milwaukee and Marquette also offer environmental engineering degrees. These schools, like UW-Madison, have combined departments of Civil and Environmental; their EnvE degrees have ABET accreditation, but in the “Civil” category. Again, it does not matter.

Thanks, that clears a lot of stuff up. So, if I was going to Twin Cities, it would be better to get a degree in civil engineering with a focus on environmental engineering since it’s ABET accredited? Versus getting a degree in environmental engineering from there that isn’t ABET accredited? In a case like this where EnvE is a separate major that is offered, do universities still give the option to go civil engineering and then focus on EnvE? Thanks for the help!

Apparently the Twin Cities EnvE program is new, which is why it doesn’t currently have ABET. It looks like they may be pursuing ABET, so they could have it by the time you graduate. You could ask the department if there is an expected timeline for ABET accreditation.

http://www.cege.umn.edu/current/undergraduate/

They may or may not. Some schools offer an environmental “option” or “concentration” within civil, like at Madison; then if it gets popular enough, they may break it out into a separate major. It wouldn’t surprise if that’s what happened at Twin Cities,

If you are looking at out-of-state schools, then note that the licensing rules (and therefore the importance of ABET) may vary from state to state. All states prefer ABET degrees for PE licensure, but in some states ABET is strictly required, while in others you can compensate for the lack of ABET with some extra years of work experience. Suppose State A has looser rules and State B has stricter rules. If you go to school in State A, then the school may be more likely to have a non-ABET program. However, while a non-ABET degree may be adequate in State A, it may be inadequate if you move to State B after graduation.

Note that Minnesota, like a number of other schools, admits to a frosh pre-engineering program. Those who earn a 3.2 college GPA in frosh course work are assured admission into their desired engineering majors, but others must compete by GPA to get into those which still have space available. However, it looks like civil and environmental engineering had enough space to admit all interested students: http://www.advising.cse.umn.edu/cgi-bin/courses/noauth/apply-major-statistics .

" it would be better to get a degree in civil engineering with a focus on environmental engineering since it’s ABET accredited?" - I like that idea. (I’m a mech engineer, but I started college in civil/envir)

@Corbett Which states is ABET strictly required with no other recourse?

I don’t know. There are 50+ US states and territories, they all have different legal rules, the rules are subject to change at any time, and (to my knowledge) there is no centralized database that tracks them all. I’m not about to look them all up.

But here’s an example: I know that Kentucky has a reputation for strict rules. The only apparent exception to the ABET requirement is that they will accept Canadian and other foreign degrees that are shown to be ABET-equivalent. So maybe I should have said “ABET or international equivalent”.
https://kyboels.ky.gov/Getting-Licensed/Pages/Engineering-License-Process.aspx

http://www.abet.org/global-presence/mutual-recognition-agreements/ describes mutual recognition agreements between ABET and similar organizations in other countries.

Of course, you may want to verify that foreign programs with mutually recognized accreditation are accepted for PE licensing in the states of interest, if you attend a foreign program to study engineering.