Although the accrediting agencies are regionally based, each one is widely recognized. There are also additional institutional accrediting agencies that are recognized by the U. Students should be aware that while most nationally accredited institutions will accept transfer credits from regionally accredited institutions, the opposite is not true.
A student who earns an associate's degree from a nationally accredited school, for example, may not be able to transfer any credits to count towards a degree at a regionally accredited school. Always check individual school policies if you plan to transfer schools later in your educational journey. Note that the information in this article may be subject to change - for instance, if an accreditor changes its name - so always check the U.
Department of Education database to be sure that your school is properly accredited, and discuss your plans with an admissions officer at your school, or the school to which you plan to transfer. Article Resources: The U. The benefits of having a degree in the job market are tremendous.
For many jobs, having a degree is necessary to be hired at all, or to be promoted beyond a certain level. The benefits of higher education are projected to increase in coming years. However, it cannot be just any degree. Obtaining an accredited degree is absolutely essential if you hope to garner the career success you deserve.
Accreditation is a process in which outside agencies evaluate a school's programs to ensure that they meet applicable academic standards. Without accreditation, it is impossible for employers to know whether your diploma is from a legitimate institution or whether it is from a diploma mill—a company that offers degrees in exchange for money and little academic work. Academic institutions are equally skeptical of degrees from non-accredited schools, so it can be extremely difficult to transfer credits from a non-accredited institution to an accredited one.
When investigating your school's accreditation status, you should also be sure that the accreditation agency is itself accredited. Just like there are diploma mills, there are accreditation mills that provide meaningless certifications to schools. For a list of valid accreditation agencies, you can go to the websites for the U. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education. There can be differences between legitimate accreditation agencies as well. For example, a certification from the Distance Education Training Council doesn't always mean that credits from that institution will be transferable to other academic institutions.
If your school is certified by the DETC and you're planning on attending another institution in the future, you should check your prospective institution's policy on accepting transfer credits. The most widely accepted accreditation agencies are the regional agencies, such as the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. These are the same agencies that accredit non-digital schools and accreditation from them is as universally accepted as you can get.
A degree is a fantastic asset in today's job market. It will exponentially increase the number of jobs you can do and the promotions you will be eligible for. In order to reap the benefits of having a degree, make sure you get it from an accredited institution. Department of Education has an easy-to-use search engine for exactly this purpose. Most colleges, universities and even K schools are accredited.
Accreditation demonstrates to the public at large, other institutions and potential employers that students graduating from an accredited school are well prepared and educated. So when a school loses its accreditation status its students can often experience some negative repercussions. When a college, university or vocational program loses its accreditation status, there are many more looming implications for its students. Students attending the school at the time of the accreditation loss face the school closing rather abruptly.
This is due to the fact that the federal government does not usually provide financial aid to unaccredited post secondary institutions.
The vast majority of these schools are heavily dependent on financial aid and the immediate withdrawal of all government funds guarantees that the school will quickly go bankrupt. Furthermore, these students will have a difficult time finding admission to another school to complete their degree or program if their school closes from an accreditation loss. While most colleges and universities will accept high school students from unaccredited schools, they're not nearly as forgiving to those students who attended an unaccredited post secondary institution.
If an unaccredited school manages to stay in business then its graduates will undoubtedly face a tough time finding a job. Many employers simply do not hire graduates from unaccredited schools. Some employers in the medical field cannot hire graduates from unaccredited schools because they believe these graduates are not guaranteed to have adequate preparation, making them a liability to the company. Not all colleges and post-secondary institutions are created equally, and the last thing you want to do is spend 4 years going to school just to earn a degree that is worth nothing more than a piece of paper.
If a school loses or is denied for a regional accreditation with one of the 6 different regional agencies in the country, it means that this school has not met the institutional standards that all participating schools must meet.
For schools that had a provisional accreditation or a credential that was up for renewal, this can be extremely damaging. Both private and public schools must currently be accredited to be able to accept Federal Financial Student Aide Applications. With a majority of students relying on this aide to fund their college tuition, failing to meet the standards can affect the entire student body and lead to lower graduation rates and higher debt.
We won't sell or give away your info, ever. This is for new article notifications and major announcements only, promise. Let us know below. This does not add you to an email list. This is for contacting us about adding a new college topic only, promise. What does it mean if my college is unaccredited? There may be many different reasons, but there are two common ones.
Avoid regulation. There are two main types of post-secondary accreditation. The first is institutional accreditation and it refers to an entire school or institution having met minimum academic quality standards.
Most colleges and universities in the United States receive institutional accreditation from one of the six regional accrediting bodies. Even though a school may be accredited, its individual programs can be accredited as well. This second type of accreditation is called programmatic accreditation. Not all of a school's programs will have its own separate accrediting body, but many professional programs will; a few examples include engineering, nursing, law, medicine and business.
Prospective students choosing to enroll in one of these types of professional programs are strongly encouraged to ensure that their chosen program and school are both accredited by their respective accrediting bodies. Accreditation signifies that the educational institution provides a quality education by meeting specific academic standards. These standards typically revolve around the school's ability to provide academic support to its students, the rate in which students are expected to progress, how well students are prepared upon graduation, faculty quality and curriculum requirements.
Accreditation ensures that all colleges in that particular region or area that obtain accreditation can compete against each other on a level playing field; for instance, a student won't necessarily get a better education at one college over another.
By attending an accredited school or program, a student knows that they will obtain a certain level of knowledge and training. Accreditation also increases the likelihood that an external party, such as another school or employer, will recognize the academic credential the students has worked so hard to achieve. Without accreditation, there is no way for an employer, government agency or another school to know that the student didn't just buy a college degree from a degree mill over the weekend.
Though that sounds far-fetched, before accreditation came along, it was an entirely possible scenario. The consequences of going to a non-accredited school will depend on the exact reason the student enrolls in a course or program.
But generally speaking, if a student attends a school that's not accredited, they will miss out on certain advantages and face the possibility of graduating with a degree, diploma or certificate that is practically worthless beyond any personal satisfaction the student may garner from the accomplishment. Students interested in an online college or university should be particularly careful to make sure the school is accredited. Most online programs in the United States today are not degree mills and expect the same level of academic performance from their online and on-campus students.
However, the risk remains and prospective students interested in a particular school or program should verify its accreditation status as soon as possible, even before applying. This is because there's little point in completing an application, possibly paying an application fee and writing an admissions essay to a school that's not accredited. But how can a student know for sure?
The following is the process by which prospective students can tell if a particular school is accredited by a recognized accrediting agency. Most accredited educational institutions will have a link to their accreditation status on the bottom or corner of their front page. At the very least, it should be easily found through the website's search function. If looking for programmatic accreditation, the prospective student will probably need to find the accreditation information on the specific program's homepage.
Even though a school's website claims it's accredited, an unscrupulous school could lie about its accreditation status and put whatever it wants on its website. Therefore, students should also check the website of the accrediting agency that has accredited the specific school. Any legitimate accreditation agency will have an easy way to look up a particular school and verify current accreditation status.
So the school says they're accredited and the accrediting agency confirms they've accredited the school. That's it, right? Not quite.
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