National University Computer Science

[MrBossmanJr]

Anyone ever consider or have gone through the computer science program at National University? The one month terms are interesting.

[dfrecore]

Anyone ever consider or have gone through the computer science program at National University? The one month terms are interesting.

They have such a bad reputation, I wouldn't consider them for anything.

[MrBossmanJr]

OoO, but their computer science degree program has ABET accreditation. I was considering finishing it at TESU because I only have 6 courses left, but I don't know if companies would hire me without the accreditation.

[sanantone]

Some of the best computer science programs in the country don't have ABET accreditation because they've determined it's a waste of money. It's usually not needed for employment purposes.

National University is a nonprofit that operates like a for-profit, and they aren't cheap. Everyone is different, but I was at a school with 5.5-week terms, and they were awful.

If you want to become a patent agent, then ABET will make your life easier. I'm not sure if it will help you if you ever want to become a licensed professional engineer. My state requires a lot more work experience for anyone who doesn't have an ABET-accredited engineering degree. An ABET-accredited degree in computer science, IT, occupational safety, engineering technology, or anything else that's not engineering gets second-class treatment.

[posabsolute]

ABET is not really that strong in the CS world, you should look at local positions you would like to apply when you are done, check if they have ABET as a requirement.

[dfrecore]

OoO, but their computer science degree program has ABET accreditation. I was considering finishing it at TESU because I only have 6 courses left, but I don't know if companies would hire me without the accreditation.

Look at 10 colleges that you respect, and see if they have CS degrees that are ABET.  My nearest 4 colleges (2 CSU-system, 1 UC school, and 1 private school) all have computer science degrees, and none are ABET (they have engineering degrees that are ABET or are in the process of getting ABET, but not computer science).  So I'm going to guess that our local employers don't require this, so the schools don't have it.

Check for yourself and see if you even need to worry about it.

[MrBossmanJr]

Oooo, thank you. I have been looking it up on Quora and Reddit. It seems like you don't really need it for computer science unless you plan on working for the U.S. patent office or certain federal jobs. People are saying it's really important for engineering, but not computer science. Apparently, Stanford University doesn't even have it for computer science.

[jsd]

for fields outside of the "licensed professional engineer" field, ABET seems even less noteworthy than AACSB/ACBSP/IACBE, which is also not very noteworthy outside of academia. Some business schools might want programmatic accreditation for the very few of us who want to be professors, but the CS/IT/related degrees certainly don't care about that, even within academia if your goal is teaching.

[sanantone]

for fields outside of the "licensed professional engineer" field, ABET seems even less noteworthy than AACSB/ACBSP/IACBE, which is also not very noteworthy outside of academia. Some business schools might want programmatic accreditation for the very few of us who want to be professors, but the CS/IT/related degrees certainly don't care about that, even within academia if your goal is teaching.

I've noticed that elite schools will earn all kinds of programmatic accreditations even when they're not needed. So, the fact that some of the best CS programs don't care to earn ABET tells us how useless it is. 

CEPH accreditation isn't required outside of USPHS, but just about every good public health program has it. It's an interesting flip because a lot of the low-ranked and unranked schools don't have CEPH. With ABET, I noticed that a lot of low-ranked and unranked schools have gotten it for their CS and IT programs. 

My state's PE license can be earned by software and computer engineers, but if you don't have an ABET-accredited degree in software, computer, or any other engineering field, you'll need eight years of work experience just like the applicants without ABET-accredited degrees.

Another example is safety and environmental engineering. They can earn a PE license, but if their ABET-accredited safety degree does not have engineering in the title, it's the same as earning a non-accredited degree and twice as much work experience will be required.

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ABET has different divisions, and my state's engineering board only accepts EAC.

EAC - engineering
CAC - computer science
ETAC - engineering technology
ANSAC - environmental and applied science