ABET's accreditation reviews are carried out largely by volunteers. Program evaluators, known as PEVs, read a program's self-study, join a campus visit and help produce the findings that go to an ABET commission. They come from universities, companies and government agencies, and each one is put forward by a professional or technical society that belongs to ABET rather than hired by ABET directly. This guide covers who is eligible, how societies screen candidates, what training involves and how much time the role takes. Credentials Wave is an independent publication that reports on ABET; it is not ABET and does not recruit for it.

The basic requirements

ABET's own eligibility rules for program evaluators are short:

  • Current membership in an ABET member society before applying.
  • At least a bachelor's degree in the field. A graduate degree helps but is not required for most disciplines.
  • Willingness to follow ABET's code of conduct, which covers conflicts of interest and confidentiality and is the first thing an applicant agrees to.

The online application takes about 20 minutes, according to ABET. Applicants pick one of four commissions to serve: applied and natural science, computing, engineering, or engineering technology. They explain their interest in accreditation, and they usually need their society membership number on hand to submit. The application then goes to the society responsible for that discipline. Because many society selection boards meet only once a year, ABET says a decision can take from several months to a year.

Each society sets its own bar

The society requirements vary widely, and ABET publishes them on a single page. A sampling:

  • IEEE recruits evaluators for electrical, computer and related engineering and engineering technology programs. Its Educational Activities Board requires IEEE Senior Member grade for Engineering Accreditation Commission work and IEEE membership for the Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission. IEEE says about 10 percent of applicants are accepted each year and that it is especially seeking evaluators from industry and government.
  • ASME asks for at least five years of professional or postgraduate experience, ASME membership, formal training and a commitment of at least five years of service.
  • ASCE asks for at least 10 years in engineering practice, Member or Fellow grade, and current U.S. professional engineer registration or equivalent education and experience.
  • ASEE asks for at least five years of academic, business or government engineering experience, not counting graduate study, and a six-year appointment with at least one visit a year.
  • CSAB, which leads computing reviews, accepts members of ACM, the IEEE Computer Society, ASA or INFORMS, evaluates computing credentials and requires strong written and spoken English. Data science applicants specify whether they will serve the computing commission, the applied and natural science commission, or both.

Deadlines for the current round

Several societies take applications in the fall. IEEE's window for the 2026-27 year closed on Friday, November 6, 2026; ABET's society page lists IEEE applications as due the first Friday in November, which would place the next IEEE deadline in November 2027. Other societies listed on ABET's page are still open as of this writing: CSAB's applications are due November 30, and ASEE's are due December 1. ASME's page entry lists a September 15 cutoff, and ASCE reviews applications from October through December. Candidates should confirm dates with the society before applying.

Training

A candidate approved by a society enters ABET's Program Evaluator Candidate training, which ABET describes as running from January through June. It has up to three parts:

  1. Online pre-work, with written assignments and three proficiency assessments. ABET's training page puts it at 20 to 25 hours, while its application page says 15 to 20 hours; candidates should plan for the larger figure. It must be finished at least four weeks before the in-person session.
  2. Simulated Visit Training, a facilitated workshop of about a day and a half that walks through a mock accreditation visit. ABET's application page says it is held between March and June at ABET headquarters in Baltimore.
  3. Society-specific training, where a society requires it.

After training, the society assigns the new evaluator to a review the following summer, typically for a fall visit. Evaluators who have not served on a visit for more than two years, or who have not had formal training in the past five years, take ABET's recertification training.

The time commitment

ABET estimates that a single review takes five to seven days of an evaluator's time: about three hours of online preparation, two to four days reading the program's materials, three days on campus, and one to two days of travel. Visits usually run Sunday through Tuesday between September and December. The role is unpaid; the IEEE describes it as strictly volunteer.

ABET also publishes a competency model for program evaluators that groups the expected traits into six areas: staying technically current, communicating effectively, interpersonal skill, working as part of a team, professionalism and organization. Evaluators are assessed against those six areas after each program evaluation they complete.

Sources