Engineering requires extensive formal training.

Four years of undergraduate training leading to a bachelor’s degree in an engineering program is essential, fol- lowed by work under the supervision of an experienced engineer. Many engineer- ing jobs even require advanced degrees beyond the bachelor’s degree. The work of engineers serves the public good by providing communication systems, transporta- tion, energy resources, and medical diagnostic and treatment equipment, to name only a few.

Before passing fi nal judgment on the professional status of engineering, the nature of engineering societies requires a little consideration. Each discipline within engineering has a professional society, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for electrical engineers and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for mechanical engineers. These societies serve to set professional standards and frequently work with schools of engineering to set standards for admission, curricula, and accreditation. However, these societies dif- fer signifi cantly from the AMA and the ABA. Unlike law and medicine, each spe- cialty of engineering has its own society. There is no overall engineering society that most engineers identify with, although the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) tries to function in this way. In addition, relatively few practicing engineers belong to their professional societies. Thus, the engineering societies are weak compared to the AMA and the ABA.

It is clear that engineering meets all of the defi nitions of a profession. In addi- tion, it is clear that engineering practice has much in common with medicine and law. Interestingly, although they are professionals, engineers do not yet hold the same status within society that physicians and lawyers do.

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