Civil engineers commonly seek Professional Engineer (PE) licensing, and completion of an ABET accredited degree is important or very helpful for that.
In some other areas of engineering, PE licensing may be sought; those going into directions where PE licensing may be needed may find ABET accreditation to be more important.
The patent exam also lists an ABET accredited engineering degree as a possible prerequisite.
In the absence of specific needs for ABET accreditation, it is treated as an indicator of meeting a relatively high standard of quality.
Some schools decided not to continue or not seek ABET accreditation for some engineering majors. Sometimes, these are highly regarded schools which do that for majors where PE licensing is not typically an issue. A example is Stanford retaining ABET accreditation in civil and mechanical engineering, but not renewing it in chemical or electrical engineering. Caltech is similar, except that it does not have civil engineering at all.
New engineering programs may be seeking ABET accreditation. ABET accreditation is not granted until after the first students have graduated, but is retroactive to those students if granted.
DH was a career engineer with a PE. His suggestion…get the PE. Your aspiring engineer has no way to predict whether or not they will seek a job requiring or strongly recommending a PE in the future (all of my DHs companies did some government work, and they paid their PE holders more than the engineers who couldn’t stamp documents).
There are few schools that don’t seek it. Many jobs require it - or so says the listing - that’s the reason to get it if for no other reason. But I’m not sure how many don’t have it - at least for mecchanical.
My son says he doesn’t know anyone with a PE. He’s at an aero company - so that could be why. He’s a manufacturing engineer.
An MBA seems common though.
Given the few that go to a Stanford or Cal Tech, I think focusing on ABET is smart. Stanford, btw, is accredited for Civil and Mechanical according to their website and ABET’s. Cal Techs is for Mechanical.
I think ABET is more important for schools that aren’t as known for engineering. It assures employers that the program is meeting the bar for the educational standards needed for engineering.
FWIW, my chem E never sat for the PE. The only engineers who sat for the PE in her circle were civil engineers.
My husband is an electrical engineer. He progressed to department head, and VP of his company. None of those would have been options if he hadn’t had his PE. Their company did a number of municipal, state and federal projects, and all needed PE stamping.
Every EE on his team had the PE by the time he left.
If it’s needed for the job, you won’t even be considered for an interview unless you already have the PE. They won’t hire you and wait for you to pass the exams, nd have the requisite experience.
All engineers do NOT need a PE. But as I said, a newly minted engineer does not know what the future will bring in terms of potential jobs. Maybe in the future the PE will be required.
So I like some semblance of being sure once I would advise someone to go to a college for engineering that it is certified with ABET. I get it that very few schools elected not to continue. But you can’t undo not having it. Yes, some new schools might be in the process of applying if their program is that new. But… with so many colleges of engineering out there I don’t know if I can advise going to one of those schools. I just don’t like taking chances like that even with the outliers.
PE - I thought was mostly Civil, Government facing and if your doing Saftey to the public with some consulting roles? But it also seems like a nice thing to achieve like a Board Certification for a doctor per se. I think it’s state and company dependant also.
The number of first time PE exam takers in civil engineering and environmental engineering combined is about as many as graduates in civil and civil/environmental engineering combined. Civil engineering has the largest number of PE exam takers, combining several subareas.
Mechanical engineering has the second largest number of PE exam takers, but only about a tenth as many as graduates. The HVAC and refrigeration subarea has the largest share.
Electrical and computer engineering is third in number of PE exam takers, but that number is about a tenth of the number of graduates in electrical, computer, and electrical/computer engineering. The power subarea makes up most of the exam takers.
Chemical engineering PE exam takers make up about one twentieth of the number of graduates.
Control systems and fire protection engineering PE exam takers are likely graduates from other named programs.
In other words, it looks like pretty much every civil or environmental engineering graduate considers PE licensing important, but only a small percentage of mechanical (~10%), electrical and computer (~10%), or chemical (~5%) engineering graduates consider PE licensing important. The mechanical and electrical/computer engineering PE exam takers are mainly in subareas that are more likely to be designing infrastructure used by the general public (similar to most of the work that civil engineers do).
It has to do with if you’re offering a service or designing a product. You’re covered by different laws. If a service - like almost every civil job - you must have the PE. Since I’m not in the other disciplines, I can’t speak for them specifically. But I guess some of the others just might fall into the service category for some jobs.
I agree that not being ABET is not that important for non CEs from schools like cal tech or Stanford. That seems like a no brainer. But from a lesser known school, you probably do want it.
And one thing I will say… if you think you just might ever want to sit for the PE exam, take the FE/EIT right after graduation - or in the spring semester senior year. Believe me, you do NOT want to be studying for that sucker years down the road. It covers all those subjects in school you’ll never think of again. The PE is similar in some respects, especially for civil since it a broader test than most people’s job, but the FE/EIT is much worse
Edit - different states have different requirements: but in general you can sit for the EIT without an ABET accredited degree. It just takes longer. You can sit without a degree at all, but it takes a whole lot longer that way. And from what I’ve seen, people sitting without an ABET accredited degrees (NOT super hard schools like caltech) or even lower ranked ABET accredited degrees have a harder time passing the tests. Often it takes 3-4 tries. Most people from Virginia Tech OTOH seem to pass the first try.
I can only really think of three scenarios where ABET accreditation is important.
First one being a PE fast track. Having an ABET undergrad degree fast tracks you to PE. Still a long process but definitely cuts the track by at least a half compared to having a non-ABET undergrad degree. This generally only really matters to CEs, where most traditional CE jobs require you to be a PE/SE. On a drastically lower frequency would be EEs working in power and, on an even lower frequency, internal medical devices. On some occasions, this is also relevant to ChEs in O&G.
Second would be working for federal agencies as an employee or a contractor (or have your own engineering consulting company). There are times wherein an ABET degree is part of the requirements or, at the very least, give you a significant advantage when you are an EIT to some jobs in places like the DoD and NASA. Similar to what @ClassicMom98 said, I’d definitely suggest taking the FE exam before you graduate, even when you feel like you wouldn’t need the PE later on. Passing the FE and being an EIT can sometimes be the only differentiator you have during job search and can be to your advantage. Of course, being an EIT won’t replace relevant YoE.
Lastly would be if you are planning to move to a different state or country to do the same or similar job. Because ABET is a signatory to the Washington Accord, if you have an ABET degree or are a PE and want to work in a different state or country, your degree will automatically be recognized and allow you to sit for the local professional/chartered exams or, if you are already a PE, fast track you to getting your new qualification through the process of PE by comity. It can also simplify your visa application by a lot.
I can think of a reason while ABET is important - and likely why Stanford and CAL Tech are both ABET accredited in Mech E. We continue to act as if they’re not (they are) but aren’t in other majors. They likely have a higher portion going for PhD or research gigs.
Why is ABET important - Jobs….getting one
Many note it’s required.
From a job for a Materials Engineer:
Candidate must have a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, Materials Science, Engineering, or one of the Physical Sciences from an ABET accredited institution
From an EE job:
Graduated with a bachelor’s or master’s degree from an ABET- accredited school in one of our listed preferred majors
From a Mechanical Systems Engineer job
Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Computer, Aerospace, or Mechanical Engineering or similar field from an ABET accredited university
This is interesting to me to read - not for the ABET accreditation part, but the parts about needing/wanting PE.
My son graduates this May - he’s a double major in CivE and MechE. He plans to pursue MechE, as the four years of school (at WPI, so definitely ABET accredited programs) have shown him that he likes MechE work more. But he’s planning to sit for the FE this month (April, so really next month), and pursue the PE as he goes along. I don’t know if he’ll need it going forward, but the company he’s accepted a job with supports him doing that, and why not do it and then you have it.
Of course, this is somewhat showing my general bias - I have a law degree and passed the bar exam, even though in the 25+ years since then I’ve never taken a job that actually required me to be a member of the bar. Nonetheless, I keep up on my CLE and stay in active status, just in case. I figure you put all that time and money into the education, may as well keep it current and available in case you want to pivot and need it.
For your student’s majors the FE/PE may be very important and I agree with berrypathfinder that if you are going to take it, do it while the info is still very fresh. It will making studying much easier.
Of my D’s civil friends who took the FE, all passed on the first try. The ABET curriculum will prepare students well for these exams. My D’s school offered free exam prep and exam reimbursement. I bet WPI has similar supports.
FWIW, both s’s are engineers. One Mech E, one Chem E. The MechE planned to take the PE exam but where he first worked out of college was a small start up (by his choice) and he WAS the engineer so there was no one to supervise his work. He has had a few jobs since then and none have required the PE.
ABET accreditation applies to programs and majors, not schools. Chemistry is not a major that ABET does accreditation for, nor are the other physical sciences*. Seems like whoever wrote this job description does not really know enough about the subject of ABET accreditation.
*Except geology, which is under a different ABET commission from engineering, and where only two programs in the US have ABET accreditation.
Yes, WPI offered something that seniors take in the fall. Basically once a week every week through Thanksgiving break professors would come and have sort of extemporaneous office hours to discuss material on the FE and to go over problem sets. Since then he’s been working his way through preparing with a book (weirdly, he loved his SAT prep book, working through it gave him a lot more confidence on the test, so I think he’s feeling like the FE prep book will do the same).
I think his goal is going to be to take the FE before graduation in May. He’s been working with their testing accrediting body as he was trying to see if the time accommodation he had for the SAT/ACT would carry through (he’s dyslexic) and it seems like it will, but now he needs to find a testing location / date that he can use.
It’s funny - I took it when they were just changing it to the “FE” though everyone still called it the EIT. (I still do!) I took it the first year they had the reference booklets given to candidate to use during the test. I think now it a PDF on the computer. Our tests were paper/pencil. During our review session, at the last one the professor handed us new ones and said “This one fixed all the typos in the other.” Oh… I never even noticed, lol. For the PE, we still had to bring in all our own reference materials in crates. I had to draw a parking lot design by hand!
But the test (FE and the PE) was ONLY given twice/year in certain locations. The PE exam I WANTED to take wound up being 2 days before my due date with older S in a location 2.5 hours away. That obviously didn’t work. Wound up taking it 6 months later. I do not recommend trying to study with an overactive newborn while working full time (I had to go back PT at 1 week and FT after 6 weeks) and nursing…