What does it mean for an online college to be accredited?

Decosta · 11-25-2008, 03:27 PM

I'm try to decide about online college and I keep finding all sorts of information about a college must be accredited. What does this mean? how does it help me?

JennyColada · 11-26-2008, 07:28 AM

When a school is accredited that pretty much means that the diplomas and degrees that they offer are verified to be valid and, well...worth something.

For example, if I were to start a school called "Jen's University", it would be unaccredited, so if someone were to get a degree from JU then it would pretty much be worthless.

Sandys · 11-26-2008, 12:25 PM

It means that the college is recognized by the accrediting agencies that also accredit traditional colleges, in the sense that it offers quality education that is at par with regular college. It also helps incase you want to transfer credits from one college to another, you can't do this if the college is not accredited. Also incase you'd want to apply for financial aid or other grants, this is only possible through an accredited college. Most employers also don't recognize degrees acquired from colleges that don't have legitimate accreditation. You can get more information about why college accreditation is important to your education from: