Maybe this is a wierd question but...

I couldn't sleep properly last night so instead, I started thinking about different things (should have had nyquil.. oh well). One of the questions that randomly popped up is as follows:

The dominant ideology of this forum (and a legitimate one at that) is that if something is unaccredited, do not go for it since it might be, as someone put it, "a condom riddled with pin-holes" ... My question: What about recent educational "start-ups" who sincerely wish to provide sound education? Naturally, to be accredited, a school has to be in business for a few years, and must have a few "satisfied" graduates. How will a school be able to recruit students if it is un-accredited? (Since it is amidst all the diploma mills to lend it a bad name to begin with). Or maybe since this is not the way to start an institution...

 

Dunno

The issue has occurred to me to. How do you become accreditted unless you were first unaccreditted, in which case some poor students lost out, and to get them you must have told them that accreditation wasn't important?!?!?

Any good examples?

I guess that at least those students have degrees from an accredited college, although it could still have reaked havoc on their careers...

 

Point 1: The dominate "idealogy" is not RA is the only way, but rather- "For most people, their first degree should be widely acceptable and not have the potential of causing conflict or future embaressement. But ever persons situation is different and unique and the must make the final decison for themselves."

Point 2: There are several schools out there which are currently unaccredited which are on the track for accredition. Three examples quickly come to mind Univeristy of California - Merced, California State Univeristy - Channel Islands, and Clifornia Ste Univeristy - Montery Bay. Each is working with another currently accredited school which is actually granting the degrees until they become accredited.

CSU-Channel Islands degrees are granted by CSU-Northridge. This is similar to how other schools in other countries do it also.

Another example is how North Central got their accreditation.

They just don't get a mail box drop, open a web site and say that accreditation does not matter.

 

Got it! Maybe now I can sleep better lolz But this flu is killing me

 

My favorite new college

This spring, Patrick Henry College will graduate its first class of students who have spent all four years at Patrick Henry College. PHC has been phenomenal success even though it is not yet regionally accredited.

PHC graduates appear to be successful. Some have been accepted to study at such law schools as William and Mary College, George Mason University, and American University. According to PHC's annual report, ROTC has invited PHC students to participate in officer training.

PHC is a candidate for Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS), 2003 and preaccreditation from American Academy for Liberal Education (AALE), 2002.

 

I've been thinking about how to gauge the credibility of non-accredited schools for some time. My practice has been to Google schools and then think about the kind of results that are generated.

I don't think that there is any single criterion. But there are a whole variety of things that seem to me to indicate various kinds of credibility.

1. State backing. UC Merced and CSU Channel Islands aren't accredited, but the mere fact that they are owned and operated by the state of California gives them instant credibility. New state universities come with built in clout that anonymous internet-universties just can't match.

2. Accreditation candidacy. Hsi Lai University, which I'm personally fond of, is a candidate with WASC. Though candidacy isn't accreditation, it does indicate that the accreditors take the school seriously. New universities on an accreditation track usually start the accreditation process promptly and don't linger around for years without accreditation.

3. Financial resources. Soka University of America has a $150 million endowment and is constructing a very attractive physical campus.

4. Strong associations. The Keck Institute for Appied Life Sciences is the newest member of the prestigious Claremont College consortium. It's also funded by the high-profile Keck Foundation, who helped give us the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

5. Professional recognition. The National Test Pilot School teaches contract courses for NASA and the FAA, it trains military officers from many nations (US, Australia, Canada, Denmark, S. Korea etc.), its director chaired the first-flight readiness review team for a new Lockheed-Martin supersonic jet, etc.

6. Successful graduates. San Francisco Law School graduates include a California Governor, a Lt-Governor, a recent chair of the California Bar Association, several judges and many attorneys.

7. Success in preparing graduates for licensing examinations. Ryokan College's graduates' pass-rate on the California psychology boards exceeds the success rate of several RA schools.

8. Academic collaborations. The Institute of Buddhist studies offers an MA through the RA Graduate Theological Union. In May 2002 this very active little CA-approved school cosponsored a conference on 'Buddhism and Cognitive Science' with GTU's Center for Theology and Natural Science. In March 2002 they cosponsored a conference on central Asian Buddhism 'Visions and Visualizations: Buddhist Praxis on the Silk Road' with the Stanford's Buddhist Studies Center.

9. Prominent faculty. Lewis Lancaster, the recently retired head of UC Berkeley's Buddhist Studies Doctoral Group and an internationally known scholar, now teaches part-time at Hsi Lai and advises graduate students for them.

10. Academic participation. IBS has chaired meetings of the AAR and its journal is of a very high standard. They published the conference proceedings of the conferences above.

11. Special clout. The FAA has granted the NTPS special exemptions to some of its aircraft regulations and the California State Legislature has voted it a special tax exemption.

12. Special recognition. The US government threatened to shut down NTPS because they feared that it was leaking US military technology. That's pretty good evidence that the government believes that its teaching is credible.

13. Awards won. NTPS faculty have won a variety of aviation industry awards.

14. Media recognition. NTPS is regularly mentioned in the aviation press.

15. History. Campion college was formed by the director and most of the faculty of the former Ignatius Institute, forced off the University of San Francisco campus in a political power struggle. It brings with it much of the credibility of the former institution.

16. Just who they are. The recently accredited American Film Institute Conservatory is... well... the American Film Institute.

17. Research productivity. The City of Hope's little 33 student doctoral program recently was accredited by WASC. But for many years before that, this major medical center had been research productive as a research center without degree programs. They pioneered some of the recombinant DNA techniques that made the biotech industry possible.

18. Cool student work. Expression Center for New Media in has produced some student work of a very high standard, in my opinion. Check out their website. IASHS has produced a bunch of CA-approved dissertations that probe the borderlands of sexual practice in a way that probably no other school on earth has.

 

I believe that it is most important for a person's Bachelor's degree to be accredited. The accreditation with most utility is RA but DETC is a close second (relative to the third choice) and far exceeds the utility of the third choice, unaccredited degrees. Going after a degree from a school that is on the accreditation track is taking a chance but could save a small amount of tuition in return.

P.S. Bill Dayson has done a most excellent job describing some of the criteria indicating the differences between a school on the accreditation track and a not so wonderful unaccredited school. One other thing is in general if a school has been around for a few years and has not yet applied for accreditation then I'd suggest avoiding it.