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Comment by johngalt | Hacker News Reader

I'm surprised they started with a masters, but I guess it makes sense. They are only targeting people who've already gone through an accredited degree program. Makes the program more likely to be taken seriously.

Udacity already issues credit for a fewer lower level classes via SJSU. I wonder how soon the gap will be closed and a whole online degree available.

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> They are only targeting people who've already gone through an accredited degree program. Makes the program more likely to be taken seriously.

I think not only that, but also allows the curriculum to be more focused. Likely they weren't prepared to throw in all the non-major related classes that typically go with an undergraduate degree. Its a great start.

I think you'll be surprised about what degrees are actually "accredited" and what ones are not. For example, UCSD, Princeton and Cal Tech do not have ABET accredited C{S,E} degrees.

Why would I care about ABET accreditation for a CS program? It's not like CS is a regulated field that requires a national standard. That would be like complaining that a schools History department isn't accredited.

For things like medicine, professional engineering, legal, etc... I care that those degrees are from accredited programs, but not CS. What I do care about is that the school itself is accredited and legally allowed to confer degrees.

For what it's worth: CalTech does have ABET accredited programs in Chemical, Mechanical, and Electrical engineering. So, they must not feel that ABET accreditation offers much for a CS program.

I misread the FAQ, it's the institution and not the degree that they care is accredited.

> Why would I care about ABET accreditation for a CS program? I'm not sure why someone would care (some people do though). ABET does not offer accreditation to history departments (now there's a controversial idea). I found the fact that these institutions do not have them as an interesting curiosity.

Actually, both of you, it's "Caltech." One word, one capital letter.

Source: www.caltech.edu

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