Is ABET creditation nessary for comp engineering?

[seraphdd]

Hello I am currently attending a community college and will soon be transferring to a 4 year university.

Here is my problem.

I am interested in computer engineering as a degree and my two school options are NC State and UNC Chapel Hill. NC State has a good reputation for engineering but that is it. UNC Chapel Hill is a much more respected university than NC state in every other area.

The thing is though the computer engineering program at Chapel Hill is not ABET accredited. It seems like a easy solution just go to State, however, the computer science program seems to be far better at Chapel hill which leads me to believe that despite no ABET accreditation Chapel hill still may be the better school for computer engineering.

 

[xodin]

The thing is though the computer engineering program at Chapel Hill is not ABET accredited. It seems like a easy solution just go to State, however, the computer science program seems to be far better at Chapel hill which leads me to believe that despite no ABET accreditation Chapel hill still may be the better school for computer engineering.

You have to go ABET--if you don't, I bet you'll regret it. Most engineering firms won't hire someone as an engineer if they didn't attend an ABET accredited program. In fact, it's probably not even called Computer Engineering, it's probably Computer Engineering Technology; so, even the degree name is intended to flag the fact that you did not attend an ABET accredited institution. Same thing goes for government work. Yes, you can still get a job in engineering, but you might never be called an engineer, perhaps a technician.

I should also note that Computer Science and Computer Engineering are apples and oranges. Computer Science majors are not engineers.

EDIT: Software Engineer's tend to fall somewhere in between, so you might be able to get a job in that area, but don't expect to get any electrical engineering related jobs, which a Computer Engineer easily could.

 

[seraphdd]

Thanks.

I guess I must choose between Computer science at UNC or Engineering at NCSU.

Kind of stinks UNC is not ABET accredited when they are a much higher ranked school. I guess it is because they are considered more of a school of the arts such as business. I also read somewhere they might have an agreement with NCSU to not have an engineering school since they are so close to NCSU.