<p>ChemE at caltech is also not accredited, which from what I heard can sometimes be a problem for potential employers. This is of course a nonissue for people going to grad school which almost all caltech chemE-s do.</p>
<p>(The reason caltech chemE is not accredited is that for the major to be accredited it had to require at least one engineering course for every science course requirement, which caltech of course doesn't do).</p>
<p>"This is of course a nonissue for people going to grad school which almost all caltech chemE-s do."</p>
<p>Does almost all mean 5 out of 6? I was looking at the website and they had a picture of the senior class from 2005. Six people.</p>
<p>The ABET website says Caltech Chemical Engineering has been accredited since 1936.</p>
<p>Yeah, I had never heard anything about Caltech ChemE being non-accredited. But Ilya usually knows what he's talking about. Is there a source or this just a rumor?</p>
<p>The non-accreditation information i heard (in separate conversations) from Nick Ma (a chem e in the class of 2007) and Vivek Narsimhan (chem e in c/o 2008)... the AICHE website does mention that caltech cheme has been accredited since 1926 so my info might be wrong.</p>
<p>I think I've heard that as well, but I heard that it wasn't a big deal that Caltech wasn't accreditted. There were a ton of ChemE's that graduated from my house this year, so I'll get the scoop later tonight.</p>
<p>Let's stop spreading disinformation. ABET is the authority here, not "the scoop" on what guys in the house are saying.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.abet.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.abet.org/</a></p>
<p>Oh please, Joe, get off your high horse. Any ChemE, especially one that just graduated, would know if Caltech is accredited or not.</p>
<p>It just seems silly to continue the uncertainty and hearsay ("oh, I'll check and report back"; "I heard this from so-and-so in the class of 200X"; etc.) when the answer is right there in plain sight.</p>
<p>If you'd prefer a Caltech source rather than ABET itself, the answer is also on page 48 of the Caltech catalog. <a href="http://pr.caltech.edu/catalog/pdf/catalog_05_06.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://pr.caltech.edu/catalog/pdf/catalog_05_06.pdf</a></p>
<p>I'm sorry if my engineer's desire for the simple and elegant solution involved a high horse in your opinion; as far as I can tell, it involved nothing more than an internet connection.</p>
<p>My saying that was coming from dozens of times when someone would post a question and then, when no one answered in 2 or 3 hours, post again whining that no one was responding. You're right, it's better if we could limit posts to the question and the answer, rather than speculation, but people are too impatient for that.</p>
<p>My comment about the high horse had to do with your discounting the validity of getting information from others. Just because I used words like "get the scoop" and "guys in the house", doesn't make it any less valid. I also found it funny that you'd so condescendingly dismiss the opinions of people you know personally.</p>
<p>Look, "speculation" might be a credible line of reasoning if we were guessing about something to happen in the future or wondering about information to which we're not privy. We're doing neither.</p>
<p>"you'd so condescendingly dismiss the opinions of people you know personally."</p>
<p>Again, you're ascribing all sorts of emotive and motive qualities--high horses and condescension, oh my--to a simple statement of fact. Whether or not Caltech ChemE is accredited isn't a matter of opinion! It objectively either is or isn't. It <em>doesn't matter</em> who knows whom or how recently he graduated.</p>
<p>I'd never dismiss anyone's opinion that "Core1 sucks" or "Niles Pierce is HOTT!," but if you tell me that "you heard someone might have said" that 1+1=3, well, even if you were a brilliant math major I've known for 5 years, it doesn't make it correct.</p>
<p>It's not just you; there are a couple other people on this thread, obviously not including those who (correctly) pointed out that Caltech ChemE has been accredited for 70 years. We had those perfectly straightforward and correct answers--the very first person was even kind enough to cite the accrediting body's publication where he found the information, like a good academic ought--and then several people casting doubt on the conclusion with vague references to "having heard something" from various other people. There's obviously nothing wrong with getting information from others, but the question here was settled. I posted and included a link solely to point that out--not to condescend--so that others reading the thread (perhaps potential ChemE students) would not have any doubt that Caltech ChemE is accredited by ABET, regardless of any misconception individual alumni or students might have on the subject.</p>
<p>In any case, let's go back to correcting the errors of the HMC trolls who prowl these waters rather than fussing over those of our own people. The former is much more satisfying. How 'bout that Mudd article in Wikipedia, eh?</p>
<p>Ah, well here's where the problem lies. By saying I was going to check with people, I was planning on being able to pass on an overview of what several different ChemE's found while applying to grad schools and jobs. The original question, remember, was not just about whether Caltech was accredited, but how that effected graduating students. This was the root of my confusion about why you would be so dismissive at the idea of anecdotal evidence, especially since you're fond of using it in your own posts.</p>
<p>Anyways, as you said, enough. Arguing is exhausting. :(</p>
<p>I'm certainly fond of anecdotal evidence about subjective matters like "what's it like to apply to grad school from Caltech?" Indeed, it's often the only information out there about questions like that, so yes, I'll include all I can in my posts.</p>
<p>This is different. The world doesn't present a lot of straightforward yes/no questions, but in this case it did. The people who replied with things like "Caltech's not accredited, but my friends X, Y, and Z say it's not a problem because..." were trying to help but in actually just adding to the confusion and disinformation floating around. Since we'd already established that Caltech ChemE majors aren't always clear on the accreditation status of their program (because some of them apparently think, incorrectly, that it's not accredited), and the underlying question had been answered several times with hard evidence, I worried that a post that in essence said "I'll go ask yet another group of ChemE students what they've heard" was likely to come back with another mixed/uncertain answer to a pretty straightforward yes/no question. Further, if someone's got the basic yes/no question demonstrably wrong, it kind of casts doubt on any additional information on the subject they've provided, at least for me.</p>
<p>If the "scoop" you were referring to getting wasn't actually going to contain an answer to the accreditation question but actually just be some first hand info on ChemE careers or graduate admissions, then I apologize for preemptively posting the link to the ABET site. I just assumed by your post's proximity to the several posts above that it was in the same line of thought as they were (i.e. trying to answer primarily the accreditation question anecdotally), particularly the other posts of the "I've heard ChemE Major X say they're not accredited" variety. I understand your confusion if you didn't intend to do that and if not, I'm sorry I jumped on your post.</p>
<p>I just wanted to gainsay in advance any more posts claiming some uncertainty about the accreditation.</p>
<p><em>dances around in a toga</em></p>
<p>Why can't weeee be friends? Why can't weeee be friends? Come on everyone, let's hug!</p>
<p>Joe and Alleya are both nice and cool and there is nothing to argue about anymore. Peace and love, man, peace and love.</p>
<p>Regarding the whole accreditation gambit.</p>
<p>First off, Caltech ChemE is clearly accreditated, as evidenced by the ABET website.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.abet.org/accredit.asp#C%5B/url%5D">http://www.abet.org/accredit.asp#C</a></p>
<p>But secondly, even if it wasn't, it wouldn't matter much. The truth is, few organizations outside of the government demand accreditation, and accreditation really doesn't do a whole lot for you, especially in a field like ChemE. Accreditation is somewhat important in civil engineering and to a lesser extent ME, mostly because accreditation is one of the ways to satisfy the pre-req requirements to attain Professional Engineer (PE) status. Relatively few ChemE's, however, find value in becoming a PE. The vast majority of ChemE's do fine without ever becoming PE's.</p>
<p>Going back to the source of this thread, Ted's writings (tjou) are well worth reading. Also, his 2002 SURF report is also good. It's a good place to start for a comprehensive look at various aspects of Caltech, especially the ones that set us apart from other schools (Honor code, Student Houses, dual student gov't).</p>
<p>Indeed.</p>
<p>It might be worthwhile to point out that it lives here: <a href="http://donut.caltech.edu/about/history/Jou02/%5B/url%5D">http://donut.caltech.edu/about/history/Jou02/</a></p>