Accrediation, the key to winning the admissions battle
Accreditaion is key when convincing a student that the program at your institution is a good fit for them. It is like gold, equivalent to all the money they will spend on their education.
Hi Jorge,
I agree with you about accreditation. Our college is not accredited, only licensed through the FAPSC. While licensing is crucial to be up and running, accreditation is the green light for transference of credits and full degrees to other accredited institutions. In general, we lose students not because our programs are not attractive, but because the coursework in our college, at this time, will not be accepted by the great majority of colleges and universities in the U.S. Plus, students pressed for funding cannot receive federal grants or student loans to help finance their education, a big deterrent. If there is anything I hope to positively contribute with is helping our school prepare for regional accreditation. We are a very young school, only 3 years old, and the requirements for accreditation is to be in business 2 or more years. It is a time consuming process, and sometimes I think it is still on the back burner. But knowing how important it is in attracting students, I am hoping the top administration of our college will consider it as important as I do.
Kirsti,
A strong work ethic is the best sell when trying to obtain this in the company. That comes from personal devotion to the basic tenants of honesty, integrity, and ethics.
Patty Aronoff
I will say that when parents or prospective adult students ask about accreditation it is what pushes them over the fence to our side. Going to a college that is not accredited does not help people when they are looking for jobs. Employers are looking for people with strong ethical backgrounds so have a degree from an accredited college goes a long way. Not that non accredited colleges dont have strong ethical backgrounds but they will definately weigh less in job prospectives than people with accredited degrees.
Jorge,
Accreditation is a great thing to have. However, accreditation is not enough. It is a voluntary membership in an organization supported by the US DOE. It covers requirements beyond the state licensure and places your school in the availability of federal financial aid. There are many great schools out there that are not accredited
Patty Aronoff
Hello Jorge,
I agree accreditation is key, but what is really "gold" as you say, is that another organization (regulatory) has done due diligence to your program from top to bottom. This gives students and their families the trust they need to move forward past admission to the decision to attend. Even though accreditation is voluntary, it is very important. Accreditation not only impacts the "perceived" quality of program, but also the way in which the grades generated are viewed by the larger network of colleges and universities.
