<p>I want to go to college, as an undergraduate, to major in computer science. I live in Tallahassee though so I was trying to look at some other options besides FSU. I was looking at some other schools in Florida, as well as in New York and California. But, I recently discovered this whole thing about ABET accreditation. If a school is accredited by ABET, it means that the program meets a certain standard. But not having the accreditation does not necessarily mean the program is bad, for many of the ivies and other too schools like NYU are not ABET accredited. FSU and UCF are accredited but UF is not. I know FSU is a good school but I was kind of set on leaving Tallahassee, So that would mean going to UCF. Should I just go to FSU even though I don’t really want to? Many say that ABET accreditation isn’t important for computer science but I was kind of thinking about going to law school and I’m pretty sure ABET accreditation is required to do so. I’m just not 100% sure what I want to do so I don’t know where I should go. Is UCF a good school? I plan on moving out of state after undergraduate so would it help to go to a school more recognized such as FSU? Ugh.</p>
<p>Idk if this matters but I have a 3.62UW and a 3.98W GPA and I received a 27 on the ACT after taking it once. I also got a 1790 the first time taking the SAT and an 1850 the second time with a combined score of 1890. I am taking both one more time each as well.</p>
<p>Lots of questions…</p>
<p>First ABET is important for engineering, though possibly less so for CSE. However, Florida has too many decent ABET engineering schools for you not to choose one. All of the following Florida Public Universities have accredited programs:</p>
<p>Florida A&M University
Florida Atlantic University
Florida Institute of Technology
Florida International University
Florida State University
University of Central Florida
University of North Florida
University of South Florida</p>
<p>UF main offering is Computer Engineering, which is ABET. However, if you’re not interested in Computer Engineering, then you’ll want to look at the other schools.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure ABET has nothing to do with Law School. As long as your school is “accredited”, your credits can be transferred, etc. For example: FSU is accredited with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Commission on Colleges. This accreditation has nothing to do with ABET.</p>
<p>UCF is a fine school. You should visit UCF and compare it to FSU, before making your choice. In general, UCF has a stronger engineering program, but FSU does have a decent CISE. With your stats, you may also be able to get some merit aid from UCF.</p>
<p>If you want to move to a different region of the country, you may want to look at schools in that region. If you want to live in California , then going to a school in that state will make it easier to find a job in that state. Of course, going out of state can be very expensive.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>Cannot blame you for wanting to leave Tallahassee if you are from there.</p>
<p>However, there are excellent reasons to attend FSU for computer science over all other schools in Florida. See this discussion on CC: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/florida-state-university/1460071-fsu-vs-uf-computer-science.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/florida-state-university/1460071-fsu-vs-uf-computer-science.html</a></p>
<p>Georgia Tech is fairly close by and also has an excellent CS program.</p>
<p>Don’t base your decision on a comparison of the schools’ engineering programs. FSU has its own separate department of computer science, which is not a part of its engineering school. I prefer it this way. </p>
<p>At UCF and UF, CompSci seems to be subjected to the politics of their engineering schools, which got very public and ugly last year when UF threatened to fold its CISE department (although they finally relented until public scrutiny). The curricula for “Computer Science” at both schools looks almost like a computer engineering degree with some programming classes thrown in, in my opinion. This isn’t necessarily bad, but not what I wanted.</p>
<p>UF and UCF also seem to be very Java oriented. FSU uses C++ for much of its CS courses. C++ is harder to learn, but I have been told by many folks that it’s better because it forces you to understand concepts that are abstracted by Java. </p>
<p>Also, if you want to live in California, going to a school with a more famous national “brand” may be beneficial. UCF is well-regarded for its engineering school, but overall it is well known outside of its region.</p>
<p>There was US News ranking of computer science programs from 2010 which showed that UF has the highest-ranked CS program, followed by FSU, and then UCF. For engineering UCF slightly outranked FSU.</p>