<p>The top choice for my son does not have ABET certification. There are state universities that he is an automatic admit for that do. BUT, my concern is my son has some special needs. He is very smart. But..I am thinking maybe he cannot make it through a school like TAMU. And that the personal relationships he would form at a smaller and closer by school, with a small department, might be more important. I mean..wouldn't it be better to graduate from a school without ABET accreditation than not graduate at all? I am actually asking..that was not meant to sound rhetorical. (by the way, my husband is an IT manager at a major software company and he never heard of ABET, so, perhaps it is not as important as I thought?) But my son's AP computer science teacher seemed to think it was important.</p>
<p>edited to add: Ok..U of Chicago, WashU, and Rice are listing as not having ABET certification in Computer Science (none of these schools are on his list). So I am guessing it is not that important?</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen and heard from Engineering/CS major friends working for computer technology/software companies…ABET seems to only be important if your work is more closely related to an engineering related discipline like EE/MechE or if the outfit prefers CS majors with an engineering-like background. </p>
<p>However, not all computer technology/software companies require or necessarily even care about ABET so long as the graduate has the software development skills necessary to do the actual work and the theoretical grounding to keep up with industry trends and/or to be promoted above “code-monkey” positions. </p>
<p>Also, check to see which companies recruit and where their graduates beyond the top 5-20% end up. </p>
<p>Ucbalumnus has a good list of what a respectable CS program should consist of.</p>
<p>ABET accreditation in CS is a short cut in evaluating CS degree programs – basically, an ABET accredited CS degree program should be decent or better, while a non-ABET accredited CS degree program can be anywhere from worthless to top notch. It is not really an issue for licensing purposes like it is in civil engineering.</p>
<p>Check for upper level CS courses in:</p>
<p>Algorithms and complexity
Theory of computation, automata, and languages
Operating systems
Compilers
Networks
Databases
Security and cryptography
Software engineering
Elective courses like graphics, artificial intelligence, etc.
(if desired) Hardware courses like computer architecture, digital design, electrical engineering courses</p>
<p>^^ I agree with UCBAlumnus, as usual.</p>
<p>IMO ABET accreditation isn’t generally important for CS and there are some schools with top notch CS programs where virtually all of the grads get hired, including at the major companies you can think of, and there are great opportunities. Of course there are some that aren’t top notch as well but that likely also goes for the ABET ones.</p>
<p>The advantage of ABET is that it’ll require certain core courses so the school wouldn’t be able to skate on any of this.</p>
<p>One thing to do is to make sure your S’s special needs are compatible with a rigorous CS program. A decent CS program requires a lot of HW, independent thinking, analytical thinking, etc. and it’s also pretty exacting - the program either runs correctly or it doesn’t and will be graded accordingly.</p>
<p>If you indicate a few of the schools he’s considering some posters might have more specific info on the CS programs at those schools.</p>
<p>Austin College is his top choice.</p>
<p>They have a small computer science department and take a lot of freedoms in letting the students pick what they want to study and tailor the program. So, I guess one term, they did iphone apps. Another, they worked on android systems. There is not a ton of math involved compared to some computer science programs. That concerned me.</p>
<p>Lots of Comp Sci programs don’t have ABET certification, but you do want to make sure they have sufficient courses.</p>
<p>OP - Check out the CS placement record and access to co-op/internship programs. Also note that smaller schools have many advantages, but course selection will be more limited.</p>
<p>CS course listing at Austin College: [Mathematics</a> and Computer Science](<a href=“http://bulletin.austincollege.edu/223/mathematics-computer-science/#cs]Mathematics”>http://bulletin.austincollege.edu/223/mathematics-computer-science/#cs)</p>
<p>The major program does not seem to require much – five freshman and sophomore level CS courses and three junior and senior level CS courses. A CS major probably wants to take more than three junior and senior level CS courses on various topics useful for industry jobs and/or graduate school. The only required math course for the CS major is the discrete math course (the most important one for CS); CS majors may want to take more math courses like the modern algebra course for some applications like cryptography. Although many of the usual math courses like calculus are not directly applicable to CS, many CS degree programs do require more math because the ability to think mathematically is important in many junior and senior level CS courses.</p>
<p>The junior and senior level course selection does include some of the commonly useful courses for industry software jobs, but is missing the theory of computation and compiler courses that are useful to take to prepare for graduate school. Also, there are no junior or senior level hardware courses, if that is of interest. A drawback is that most of the junior and senior level CS courses are offered only once every two years, which limits scheduling flexibility.</p>
<p>A CS course should incorporate nearly all of Linear Algebra, Modern Algebra, Math Logic, Discrete Math, Combinatorics, Graph Theory, Cryptography, and Theory of Computation - in addition to the three-term Calc sequence, and Probability and Statistics. No need for other engineering math (diff eqs, etc.). A really good program would offer even more.</p>
<p>What Mr. K said. S1 (math major with CS job) felt the math was more important than the programming.</p>
<p>I agree with ucbalumbus that this degree doesn’t require much.</p>
<p>I have reviewed many applications to the graduate CS program at the third-rate university that I work at. We would require the equivalents of the first three 400-level courses (or they would have to make it up taking our UG courses). Also, they would need our UG architecture course.</p>
<p>Though third-rate and no ABET, our CS graduates have few problems getting jobs.</p>
<p>Fwiw Wash U cs is abet credited. Students have a choice if they want to pursue the abet accredited degree, or one that is not. The difference is just one semester of chemistry, and two of physics.</p>
<p>If the school isn’t accredited at all I might be worried. If the cs program in particular isn’t, I wouldn’t care.</p>