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Why Should you Only Look at Accredited Online Colleges?

November 24th, 2009

The online education process, while still being relatively new, is not without its own problems.  Diploma mills have sprung up in the last few months, entailing a wide variety of online colleges that present themselves as holding accreditation, although students walk away with a meaningless diploma in the end.  Accredited online colleges are the only way students can earn a diploma that is applicable outside the university; diplomas from schools that lack accreditation are dismissed by potential employers.

Accreditation is a lengthy process that may take several years, depending on the institution.  This has become a wide-spread problem that traditional school students rarely encountered, but has grown due to the emergence of new online colleges.  While nearly every online school presents itself as holding accreditation, many have “twisted” the truth to make it appear as if they have the recognition of major education boards and similar institutions.  However, there are only a handful of applicable accreditation sources, and researching further into these organizations can help potential online college students turn away from “diploma mill” schools.   

Other than this manipulation of the truth, schools that lack accreditation are typically recognized by employers and have names that sound like major traditional universities.  These degrees are not beneficial in the working world and the entire online education process will end up being a waste of time and money if you do not research fully into this type of school’s accreditation.  It should be common-sense, therefore, to only look at accredited online colleges, but many students do not understand the importance of accreditation within the online degree community. 

Since traditional universities typically do not concern themselves with boasting their accreditation status (most schools have had accreditation for decades), students do not usually understand the importance of accreditation within universities.  However, accreditation is what gives college degrees the importance and respect they usually garner.  Learning the process of researching into accreditation is a skill every potential online student should learn throughout their search for the perfect degree program. 

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