Is CSAC Accreditation the same as ABET?

When a graduate program requires that your undergrad program be accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) would accreditation by one of its participating bodies (Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC) ) be considered equivalent? If not, is there a defacto equivalency? I ask that question because Computer Science can often if not most of the time be used as an appropriate undergrad for certain engineering graduate degrees (like Computer Engineering or Engineer Management.)

 

ABET is best known for accrediting engineering programs. However, ABET actually runs four different accreditation programs:

-- ABET/EAC: Engineering Accreditation Commission. For traditional engineering programs.

-- ABET/TAC: Technology Accreditation Commission. For "engineering technology" programs.

-- ABET/CAC: Computing Accreditation Commission. For computer science and information systems programs.

-- ABET/ASAC: Applied Science Accreditation Commission. For a mixed bag of programs, including health physics, industrial hygiene, safety, industrial management, and surveying.

In general, I would say that the different types of ABET-accredited degrees are *not* considered interchangeable under most circumstances.

State engineering boards, for example, routinely specify ABET/EAC degreees. Some boards will also accept ABET/TAC degrees, but typically more experience is required. I doubt that any engineering board would accept an ABET/CAC or ABET/ASAC degrees (except in states where no degree is required).

Graduate schools vary on a case-by-case basis. It's not unusual for engineering graduate schools to accept undergraduate degrees in related sciences (although such students are often required to "make up" certain undergraduate engineering courses). At some schools, for example, it may be possible to enroll in a chemical engineering graduate program with an undergraduate degree in chemistry, or a geological engineering program with a degree in geology. At other schools, this may not be possible.

So graduate computer engineering programs may or may not accept students with undergraduate degrees in computer science. If they do, then it may not matter whether the computer science degree is ABET-accredited. Many of the best CS programs, like Stanford, Carnegie-Mellon, or the entire Ivy league, do not have ABET/CAC accreditation. ABET accreditation is simply not considered as important in CS as it is in engineering.