Accredited Programs - Why They Matter
Level 2 - Admissions 101
Welcome! One of the common questions that come to mind is how to know if a college is a “scam.”
In this time, you cannot afford to invest the time and money that go into college or grad school programs only to find out that the program won’t allow you to do what you need it to do.
When you are referring to “scam” colleges, this often refers to a couple of unique situations:
Programs that make specific claims that they cannot support
Programs that produce “useless” degrees
But one of the most misunderstood aspects of programs is whether a program is actually accredited.
What is accreditation?
Accreditation is the review process that to determine if an educational program meets defined standards of quality.
What this properly means is that a program is willing to be independently audited to guarantee that it meets some generally agreed upon standard of quality.
Why does accreditation matter?
Accreditation is important because it provides a customer guarantee on the quality of the education they should expect.
Think of it this way.
If you buy meat, you buy it with assurances that it meets specific quality standards. You COULD try to vet a cow yourself and hope the meat meets your specifications, or you could put your trust in a standardized process of how meat is reviewed.
This is similar to college. As a student, you have no way of readily verifying that a college or program will meet specific qualifications.
Accreditation provides assurances that the program will meet some specific standards.
But what does this actually mean for you?
You cannot get federal financial aid to a program that is not accredited
Employers often check if your program is accredited
You often cannot participate in state licensing exams (e.g., healthcare licensing)
Colleges will usually only accept transfer credits from accredited programs
How do you avoid unaccredited schools?
The easiest way to do so is to reference the US Department of Education. They have a website that lists official accreditors - if those groups have not accredited a school, then the school is not accredited.
This is the safest way - many programs will claim to be accredited, but that may be false or it could be they are accredited by a non-US Department of Ed accreditor.
If you cannot, look for any of the following as red-flags:
Programs that offer you the chance to “buy” credentials
Degrees, diplomas, or certifications that are offered in an extremely short time
No information on location or faculty
Makes claims or statements that are not proven
There is one other situation you should be aware of.
Often, most people are looking for accreditation challenges upfront - meaning at the time they apply to a college. But accreditation is a continuous process.
Once a college is accredited, it still has to continue maintain quality for it to continue to be accredited.
Charlotte School of Law provides an example. Although provisionally accredited and then fully accredited in 2011, it eventually lost its accreditation and shut down not long after. That means that students were either caught in a place where they had debt to a law school that no longer existed or had graduated from a law school that no longer had a good reputation.
That is a risk, but there are ways for you to mitigate that risk. With any program you are applying to, you want to check the following:
Are admissions standards becoming more lax?
Are students graduating within a reasonable time?
What are the job prospects for those over the last 5 years?
If you are seeing a negative, downward trend, it’s cause to pause.
Have questions? Feel free to reach out.