Accredited Online Degrees: The Facts
A degree from an accredited college carries a lot of weight in the academic and career world, opening doors to higher-level degrees and greater job opportunities. Likewise, a school’s accreditation status should carry a lot of weight when you’re making the decision of which online college to attend.
Accreditation is important whether you choose to pursue an online or traditional degree, but this factor is doubly important when it comes to online colleges. Why? Online diploma mill scams and poor-quality online colleges continue to peddle their wares, often stealing the credibility of online colleges. Accreditation is a process of school approval that separates the good from the bad, and helps students examine the best possible choices in online education.
Fact #1
You need to know what accreditation is to appreciate its value.
Accreditation was established to ensure colleges and universities teach at an acceptable level of quality, according to the U.S. Department of Education, which lists private regional and national accrediting bodies that the U.S. Secretary of Education deems reliable. These accrediting bodies are recognized as trustworthy in their ability to evaluate the quality of education or training offered by colleges, as well as their programs. Accrediting agencies develop evaluation criteria and then conduct peer evaluations to discover whether or not colleges meet those criteria. Colleges can request that one of these agencies evaluate them, and if they are found to meet that agency’s established criteria, the college is "accredited" by that particular agency. Remember: It’s not the Department of Education doing the accrediting; they just provide a list of dependable accrediting bodies. Check out the USDE’s list of accreditation agencies list instead.
Fact #2
Online colleges are held to the same standard as brick-and-mortar colleges.
The accrediting process that traditional colleges go through is the same process online colleges go through. Therefore, the same criteria are examined at both. Online colleges don’t get to skip the evaluation process.
Fact #3
You can find lists of accredited online colleges and programs from authoritative websites.
Along with the above-mentioned lists of quality accrediting bodies, the U.S. Department of Education maintains an excellent website with a master list of 6,900 accredited colleges and programs. All these colleges and programs have already been accredited by a private agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education. Another good source is the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), an association of 3,000 degree-granting institutions whose mission is to be a "national advocate and institutional voice for self-regulation of academic quality through accreditation." At the CHEA website you can click on the Databases and Directories button to look through listings of accredited institutions and programs, as well as a database of recognized accrediting organizations.
Fact #4
Phony accrediting bodies exist.
Just like there are fake online colleges out there, there are also fake accrediting agencies out there "accrediting" those fake institutions. In fact, many diploma mills conjure up their own accrediting bodies to make themselves look more authentic, hoping prospective students won’t do their research. But with a little snooping around at the above databases, a student looking for a good online school will outwit these plans and find an online college with the credentials to back up their claims.
