What is an accredited school?
The U.S. Department of Education defines accreditation as “the process by which colleges, universities or other degree-granting institutions are evaluated for quality assurance” (U.S. Department of Education). Accreditation is important because it determines if a college degree will be accepted in another country and how employers view the qualifications of its graduates. There are several different types of accreditations including regional, national, institutional, specialized programmatic, and professional organizations.
Why is Accreditation Important for Online Colleges?
Accreditations are important for online education institutions because accreditations help ensure that programs have meet certain quality thresholds. Accreditations also indicate that programs and institutions have made an active commitment to monitor and improve the quality of their curriculum. For a institution to become an accredited college or program, they must be reviewed by a third party accrediting agency. The agency reviews a number of educational factors including admission requirements, curriculum offerings, faculty and financial resources. The goal here is to ensure the highest academic standards are maintained in nationally accredited online schools.
What’s the difference between an accredited school and a non-accredited school?
The key difference between an accredited school and a non-accredited school is that an accredited school has been reviewed by one of third party accreditation agencies and has met the required standards. Note that just because a program isn’t listed as having achieved online accreditation status doesn’t mean that it won’t be an accredited online college in the future. The program could be under the review process and added as an accredited online program in the following year.
How do you check if a school is accredited in USA?
The accreditation status of any college or university is verified through the American Council on Education (ACE). Students or individuals interested in checking the status of an online accredited college can check the U.S. Department of Education’s Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs.
View our list of accredited programs below!
- AACSB MBA
- AAPC (Medical Coding)
- ABA (Paralegal)
- ACBSP vs. AACSB
- APA PsyD
- Architecture NAAB
- ARRT (Radiation Therapy)
- ASHA Speech Language Pathology (SLP)
- Bachelor’s Degree Programs: Top Affordable
- BSW CSWE
- CACREP (Counseling)
- CAHME (Masters in Health Administration)
- CCNE (BSN)
- CCNE (MSN)
- CEPH (Public Health)
- COAMFTE (Marriage and Family Therapy)
- CSWE MSW
- Engineering ABET
- IACBE vs AACSB
- Master’s in Applied Behavior Analysis
- Master’s in Library and Information Science (MLIS) ALA
- NAACLS (MLS)
- NASP (School Psychology)
- NASPAA (Public Administration)
- PCSAS vs. APA
- Software Engineering ABET