The Importance of Accreditation
The word “accreditation” gets tossed around a lot in discussions about colleges and education. While you probably understand that accreditation has to do with the quality of a school, you might not know everything about it. Before you pursue your associate’s degree through online education, you should read the following overview of accreditation, so you can pick the highest quality program that’s right for you.
What is Accreditation?
Accreditation is a stamp of quality on your education, and a way that you and your future employers can know that you have gotten a good education. In accreditation, a third party organization called an accrediting body will examine a school and its curriculum. Only if the school is up to certain standards will it receive certification from that accrediting body.
There are two types of accreditation, institutional and programmatic. In institutional accreditation, an entire school or university is evaluated. There are 6 regional accrediting bodies in the United States that award institutional accreditation.
Programmatic accreditation is given by non profit organizations and professional groups, and focuses on only one program offered by a university or college. For some particular types of program, this type of accreditation is especially important. You can check the Bureau of Labor Statistics web page for the job you are considering, to determine the importance of programmatic accreditation for your field. (ed.gov)
What Does It Mean For You?
Choosing only schools and programs with the appropriate accreditation will ensure that you earn a degree that will open up doors for your career. Especially with the relatively new possibility of online education, you don’t want to take any chances on paying for a degree that might end up being useless. (ed.gov)
Avoiding Diploma Mills
Diploma mills are fake online schools that try to take your money in exchange for one of these useless degrees. Checking for accreditation is one way that you can avoid accidentally giving your money to a fraudulent school.
Some diploma mills will try to list a number of fake accrediting institutions to make them seem more credible. If a school has a list of accreditations that sounds perhaps too impressive, they might be fake. You can check the nationally recognized list of accreditation agencies to see if the accreditations a school claims are legitimate. (ed.gov)