How Can I Find Out If a School Is Accredited?
Accreditation is a way of guaranteeing that the degree you are earning at a school will be accepted by other schools and employers. Schools earn accreditation by meeting a set of standards set forth by a licensed Accreditation Agency. Schools need to be re-accredited every so often depending on the type of school and type of Accreditation Agency, but the minimum term of accreditation is three years. There are several different Accrediting Agencies licensed with the U.S. Department of Education and a list is published every year by the Secretary of Education.
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Instructions
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Find out the name and address of the institution you are researching. At the very least you will need the full name of the school and the city that it is in.
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Visit the link entitled "College Accreditation" (see Resources) if you are searching for the accreditation of a college or university. Enter as much information you can into the database. Select the correct institution from the list of possible matches to see the details of the accreditation. From here you can also search for the accreditation of certain programs within the institution, such as Medicine or Engineering.
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Visit the link entitled "Online Accreditation" (see Resources) if you are searching for accreditation for an online institution. Fill in the name of the institution you are looking for and hit "Search." The DETC is considered by many to be the most reliable agency for accrediting online institutions.
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Visit the link entitled "Elementary and High School Accreditation" (see Resources) if you are searching for an elementary, high school or vocational school. You only need to enter the name of the school and hit "Search." A list of possible matches will come up. Select any of the categories in the header to see the matches organized alphabetically by that category.
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Determine the reliability of the Accreditation Agency for your school by making sure they are registered with the U.S. Department of Education by visiting the link entitled "Licensed Accreditation Agencies" (see Resources).
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Tips & Warnings
There are many accreditation agency but not all of them are equal. Make sure that your institution is accredited by a reliable agency and not an "accreditation mill" which can often be scams. The Department Education only recognizes accrediting agencies within the United States. So any international institutions will not be accredited. Some schools do not choose to be accredited, but may offer quality degrees nonetheless. Likewise some Accreditation Agencies are not recognized by the Department of Education, but they may require quality standards for the institutions they accredit nonetheless.
