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MIT's Computer Science program is ABET accredited. http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=41&ProgramIDs=3316,3317 http://main.a

MIT's Computer Science program is ABET accredited. http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=41&ProgramIDs=3316,3317 http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?Orga... So is Berkely's. http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=368&ProgramIDs= http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?Orga... And University of Texas at Austin's CS Program is not ABET, although a number of their other programs are. (A quick search doesn't reveal who who accredits UT Austin's CS program.) I know that when I was a student, being ABET accredited was a big deal. Students were incredibly worried when the accreditation reviews happened, and put pressure on the department to ensure any recommendations were complied with.

tnecniv 9y ago
It still is a big deal. When I was looking at schools in 2012, I remember pretty much every program specifically mentioned their ABET accreditation.
- rsj_hn 9y ago
  Maybe it's a big deal for foreign schools? Universities in the U.S. are accredited by regional bodies, like WASC. ABET is not recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to give accreditation for higher education, so having an ABET accreditation will not allow you to get government guarantees of student loans, for example. See: https://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/ https://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/ For this reason, it can't be a big deal for higher education, which is why it doesn't set any standards for U.S. higher education. That's not to say that ABET isn't a professional organization or that it doesn't recognize schools schools as complying with its own standards. FIRE gives awards for schools that have freedom of expression on campus. But FIRE isn't going to let you take student loans. The Department of Education has to recognize the accrediting body for that to happen. ABET it is recognized by the "Council of Higher Education", which is not a government body or regulatory body at all. It's just a private professional organization which doesn't have much influence in higher education.
  - tnecniv 9y ago
    I did some reading on the Wikipedia page [1]. Before going in, I was aware of two things, namely that they don't accredit universities but individual programs within universities, and that the engineering professors at my school cared about the accreditation process a lot (which has to be redone periodically). ABET only accredits schools that are already accredited regionally (as you were talking about). ABET itself is a federation of 35 technical societies like the IEEE, ASME, AIAA, AIChE, etc. An ABET accreditation does two things for your school. It represents these societies saying that your program is rigorous enough, and it allows your graduates to become licensed professional engineers [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABET https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABET [2] There are two other accreditations that allow professional licensing according to wikipedia, but they are defined at the state level.
    - rsj_hn 9y ago
      OK, so at Stanford no one cared or heard of ABET -- not anyone that I knew. Maybe at your school they did. I guarantee you that employers don't care, and government officials don't care. It's not like being ABET certified grants you any abilities beyond being ABET certified. E.g. If the American Bar Association doesn't recognize your program, your graduates can't take the bar. There is no such equivalent for ABET -- there is no stick or tangible loss in not being ABET certified, other than possibly some marketing. No grants are not received. No professional organizations refuse entry, etc. Back to the original point, you can't say that because ABET wants X, that the "U.S." Curriculum thus requires X.
      - engi_nerd 9y ago
        Government officials DO CARE about ABET. In one of my part lives as an electrical engineer for the Department of Defense, one of the requirements for the position was an engineering degree from an ABET accredited University. I could not have been hired if I had not had a degree from an ABET accredited University. On the program I work as a contractor on now, the government manager is still a little bitter that he cannot be classified as an engineer because he does not have an ABET accredited Bachelor's Degree (he has a Master's in Systems Engineering, but his BS is in Economics).
rsj_hn 9y ago
I asked for links in the schools accreditation sites, not in ABET's site. I can give you links that FIRE "certified" a school as having FREE speech. That doesn't mean the school cares. It means FIRE cares.
- com2kid 9y ago
  > I asked for links in the schools accreditation sites, not in ABET's site. I can give you links that FIRE "certified" a school as having FREE speech. That doesn't mean the school cares. It means FIRE cares. Schools pay money for ABET accreditation, implying that they do care about it. Some schools advertise ABET on their site, some don't, since many of those school sites end up redesigned every few years, it is nice to have a single site that lists all accredited schools.
rsj_hn 9y ago
In terms of who accredits UT Austin's computer science program, it would be the same body that accredits their physics program. No one. Computer science, or "software engineering" is not actually a field of engineering as far as accreditation is concerned and no license is needed (or really even desired) in order to practice computer science or to have a recognized computer science program. You just need to be good. Computer Science is not law, or dentistry, or even civil engineering. There is no accreditation for computer science. This isn't to say that accreditation agencies aren't looking longingly at charging more fees to accredit CS programs, but for a university to try to "accredit" it's CS program, or its Math program, or its Art History program, is just a sign that this is a university desperately in need of more marketing. The only thing accreditation you need is the university-wide accreditation. This is also true for individuals. You do not need a CISSP in order to be an IT security engineer, you don't need an MCP in order to be a sysadmin for Microsoft environments, and generally individuals who attempt to certify themselves with these programs are looked down upon as not being able to demonstrate that they are good. In my experience, in silicon valley it detracts from the resume, although I'd imagine if you are working for a bank or some other company that doesn't really have onsite expertise then stuff like this can help. The one exception would be CISCO, which really has some tough exams and those certifications are not mocked but are respected (although they too, are not required for anything).

tnecniv 9y ago

It still is a big deal. When I was looking at schools in 2012, I remember pretty much every program specifically mentioned their ABET accreditation.

rsj_hn 9y ago
Maybe it's a big deal for foreign schools? Universities in the U.S. are accredited by regional bodies, like WASC. ABET is not recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to give accreditation for higher education, so having an ABET accreditation will not allow you to get government guarantees of student loans, for example. See: https://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/ https://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/ For this reason, it can't be a big deal for higher education, which is why it doesn't set any standards for U.S. higher education. That's not to say that ABET isn't a professional organization or that it doesn't recognize schools schools as complying with its own standards. FIRE gives awards for schools that have freedom of expression on campus. But FIRE isn't going to let you take student loans. The Department of Education has to recognize the accrediting body for that to happen. ABET it is recognized by the "Council of Higher Education", which is not a government body or regulatory body at all. It's just a private professional organization which doesn't have much influence in higher education.
- tnecniv 9y ago
  I did some reading on the Wikipedia page [1]. Before going in, I was aware of two things, namely that they don't accredit universities but individual programs within universities, and that the engineering professors at my school cared about the accreditation process a lot (which has to be redone periodically). ABET only accredits schools that are already accredited regionally (as you were talking about). ABET itself is a federation of 35 technical societies like the IEEE, ASME, AIAA, AIChE, etc. An ABET accreditation does two things for your school. It represents these societies saying that your program is rigorous enough, and it allows your graduates to become licensed professional engineers [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABET https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABET [2] There are two other accreditations that allow professional licensing according to wikipedia, but they are defined at the state level.
  - rsj_hn 9y ago
    OK, so at Stanford no one cared or heard of ABET -- not anyone that I knew. Maybe at your school they did. I guarantee you that employers don't care, and government officials don't care. It's not like being ABET certified grants you any abilities beyond being ABET certified. E.g. If the American Bar Association doesn't recognize your program, your graduates can't take the bar. There is no such equivalent for ABET -- there is no stick or tangible loss in not being ABET certified, other than possibly some marketing. No grants are not received. No professional organizations refuse entry, etc. Back to the original point, you can't say that because ABET wants X, that the "U.S." Curriculum thus requires X.
    - engi_nerd 9y ago
      Government officials DO CARE about ABET. In one of my part lives as an electrical engineer for the Department of Defense, one of the requirements for the position was an engineering degree from an ABET accredited University. I could not have been hired if I had not had a degree from an ABET accredited University. On the program I work as a contractor on now, the government manager is still a little bitter that he cannot be classified as an engineer because he does not have an ABET accredited Bachelor's Degree (he has a Master's in Systems Engineering, but his BS is in Economics).

rsj_hn 9y ago

I asked for links in the schools accreditation sites, not in ABET's site. I can give you links that FIRE "certified" a school as having FREE speech. That doesn't mean the school cares. It means FIRE cares.

com2kid 9y ago
> I asked for links in the schools accreditation sites, not in ABET's site. I can give you links that FIRE "certified" a school as having FREE speech. That doesn't mean the school cares. It means FIRE cares. Schools pay money for ABET accreditation, implying that they do care about it. Some schools advertise ABET on their site, some don't, since many of those school sites end up redesigned every few years, it is nice to have a single site that lists all accredited schools.

rsj_hn 9y ago

In terms of who accredits UT Austin's computer science program, it would be the same body that accredits their physics program. No one. Computer science, or "software engineering" is not actually a field of engineering as far as accreditation is concerned and no license is needed (or really even desired) in order to practice computer science or to have a recognized computer science program. You just need to be good. Computer Science is not law, or dentistry, or even civil engineering. There is no accreditation for computer science. This isn't to say that accreditation agencies aren't looking longingly at charging more fees to accredit CS programs, but for a university to try to "accredit" it's CS program, or its Math program, or its Art History program, is just a sign that this is a university desperately in need of more marketing. The only thing accreditation you need is the university-wide accreditation. This is also true for individuals. You do not need a CISSP in order to be an IT security engineer, you don't need an MCP in order to be a sysadmin for Microsoft environments, and generally individuals who attempt to certify themselves with these programs are looked down upon as not being able to demonstrate that they are good. In my experience, in silicon valley it detracts from the resume, although I'd imagine if you are working for a bank or some other company that doesn't really have onsite expertise then stuff like this can help. The one exception would be CISCO, which really has some tough exams and those certifications are not mocked but are respected (although they too, are not required for anything).