Which Arizona University has the best Computer Science program?

ucbalumnus
Mon, 03 Dec 2012 12:09:53 +0000

A CS degree program may lack ABET accreditation because of the following reasons:

a. ABET accreditation in CS requires more subsidiary requirements in science and math (or other non-CS requirements) than the school chooses to have in its CS degree program. The CS courses and degree program can still be good (e.g. Stanford, or Berkeley L&S CS).
b. ABET accreditation in CS requires a decent selection of quality CS courses. If this is the reason, then the CS degree program should be avoided (this is probably the case with a lot of smaller schools that are not strong in science and engineering areas).

Obviously, you would have to carefully go through the CS courses and curricula to determine whether a or b applies to a CS degree program without ABET accreditation. A quick look at UA’s web site indicates that it has a good selection of [CS courses](http://www.cs.arizona.edu/courses/descriptions.html), so it is more likely that reason a above applies.

In general, an ABET-accredited CS degree program should be at least decent, but lack thereof does not necessarily mean it is poor (except for the niche of patent law).