Transferring to a Non ABET program 2

[patrickkieran]

I am a junior at Manhattan College in New York studying environmental engineering. I would like to transfer to suffolk university in boston because of the financial aid they offered. The only problem is that Suffolk's program is only 5 years old, and has not yet recieved accredition from ABET, while Manhattan College has. Will I be kicking myself later if I transfer? I plan on getting into Green Building design and will probably want my PE within ten years. If suffolk becomes accredited within the next few years, will my graduating class be granted an ABET degree?

 

[TheTick]

Three important steps to transferring to a non-ABET program.
[ol][li]Buy a bullet[/li]
[li]Borrow a gun[/li]
[li]Shoot you career in the foot[/li][/ol]

 

[jgailla]

patrickkieran,
It is my understanding that once a school gets ABET accreditation, the graduates before the accreditation are still considered to have graduated from an ABET school.
Because of the process, a school has to turn out several graduating classes before accreditation.
It may be that only the people that graduated while the school was under the accreditation process are grandfathered in.

Regardless, TheTick is right.
Unless ABET accreditation is imminent and documented, don't even consider transferring.
The people at these colleges will lie to you about engineering classes and accreditation. It happened to me.

 

[zdas04]

Good advice above. Try not to step over dollars to pick up nickels. I know a bunch of companies that will not recruit at non-ABET schools--consequently HR will discard resumes from those schools.

Don't do it.

David

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Stay put or transfer to another ABET school

 

[Ron]

jgailla...not necessarily. I know of one specific case where the school became ABET accredited, but it was not retroactive to prior graduates.

Patrick...agree with others..if you anticipate becoming licensed as a P.E., don't do it.

 

[xnuke]

Please see the last page at

http://tinyurl.com/y96jsxh

to learn about retroactive accreditation. If the program at Suffolk is 5 years old, they may have had a graduating class. If the evaluation visit is this year, the previous year's graduates may be accredited, and future graduates will be as well. Sounds like ABET won't go retroactive with accreditation more than one year. Contact Suffolk and ask them about their plans for accreditation.

xnuke
"Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life." Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[MGXFP]

Don't gamble that a University will pull its head from its tailpipe and do what they promise.

Even if you save 20K by going, how much will you potentially lose if they don't file the paperwork or jump through the appropriate hoops? That's a big gamble on several bureaucrats. Even in an exempt industry from licensure how much confidence do you have you will never need a PE? Laws change every day.

Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.