Accreditation-How Important is it? 1

[pso311]

How important is ABET-accreditation ?

I graduated from an accredited program, and personally would not attend a University that did not have this credential.

Do employers recognize the difference between accredited/non-accredited, and does it play a role in the hiring process?

-Scott

 

[buzzp]

I agree, I would not attend one either. However, I don't know of any employers that make it a point to check accreditation of potential employees colleges'. I think if they found out the school was not accredited they may shy away from that candidate as opposed to one that went to an accredited college.

 

[JAE]

If your college isn't accredited, then you will have problems in the USA getting licensed. Most states require an accredited degree.

 

[Tobalcane]

I thought in order for a college or any advance education to offer a bachelors of science in engineering, the school had to be accredited. If the school does not have the accreditation, it would be false advertisement.

I know in Massachusetts that you don’t need an accredited degree; you don’t even have to have a degree in engineering. You can have a degree in hotel management and still take the exam. If you have the 15 plus years, you don’t even need a degree. But I’m beating a dead horse…



Go Mechanical Engineering
Tobalcane

 

[Tobalcane]

I’m sorry but I did not answer your question. I believe it is very important that you receive your degree from an accredited institution. Most “engineering “companies will advertise for an engineering degree from an accredited engineering program. I have a degree in Bachelors of Engineering (instead of Bachelors of Science). I was having a conversation with my director of engineering and I told him that I have a Bachelors of Engineering. The first question that came was that if the degree was accredited by ABET. Which of course it is, but it shows you that the people on the top think highly of the accreditation.

Go Mechanical Engineering
Tobalcane

 

[HgTX]

Most states have some kind of provision to substitute experience for education. Massachusetts requires an extra four years for non-accredited program (on top of the four required for everyone).

The NSPE is concerned about diploma mills, which I guess could be seen as an extreme form of nonaccredited program:

http://www.nspe.org/etweb/10704diplomamills.asp

There's no legal requirement for engineering programs to be ABET-accredited. That's why ABET is referred to specifically. As an example, Johns Hopkins (hardly a diploma mill) is currently seeking ABET accreditation for their environmental engineering program; the degree program started a couple of years ago. I decided not to go to Hopkins in 1986 because their mechanical engineering program was not accredited at that time (it is now, but I'm not a mechanical engineer).

Hg

 

[JAE]

HgTX offers some good points - just an add-on thought to his first paragraph - many states are actually phasing out experience-based qualifications for licensing.

 

[metengr]

pso311;
If you are a newly minted "Engineer" and you are interviewing for that first professional job, you have a 50/50 chance that the employer would bother to check ABET accreditation. In most cases, they would check and verify thru your college or university transcripts that you have basically received your diploma, and that's about it.

After that first job experience, when you change employment a majority of companies would probably not have a need to verify your degree or academic credentials because they can check on previous references to verify your position and employment status. Now, if you have passed the Fundamental of Engineering examination when you graduated, and have registered as an EIT (Engineer in Training) with any State, in most cases to an employer you graduated from an accredited engineering program, and they would look no further in terms of college transcripts or ABET accreditation. This especially holds true when you become licensed as a PE. At least this has been my experience over the last 23 years.

 

[jsummerfield]

I work in the engineering and construction business. When we issue a requisition to HR they go two directions, temporary and permanent. For the temporary opportunities they sometimes use the phrase "turn on the shops" meaning advise the temp agencies. Those agencies fax or email many resume's that have no resemblence to the requisition issued. For example, if I request Instrumentation or Control Systems Engineer I may get every resume' with the words instrument, control and system. This includes the "instrument man" on a survey team. No one in HR checks anything about degrees or other requirements.

I prefer PEs for lead positions. For others I do not worry about ABET; and have hired non-degreed engineers. However, I immediately reject any resume' with a diploma mill degree.

John

 

[GOTWW]

I have worked with a NON-ABET, he had an electronics-engineering degree, rather odd. As most ABETS issue an electrical engineering degree. He is somewhat of a loose cannon, very, very much differnt that the ABET students such as myself.

 

[USACompositeGuy]

I too have worked with an engineer in the aviation industry that had a mechanical engineering degree from a non-ABET school. I must say that if he is a good representative for the non-ABET schools I will always check before I hire anyone. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and I hope that this was just a bad case rather than the norm. Anyway , Just my two cents.

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