What about ACICS?

Discussion in 'Accreditation Discussions (RA, DETC, state approva' started by Maniac Craniac, Jul 8, 2010.

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  1. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    For obvious reasons, it doesn't get talked about as much as DETC, but I am curious. What are the relative merits of ACICS? What ACICS schools offer DL programs?

    This question is in response to:
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 8, 2010
  2. b4cz28

    b4cz28 Active Member

    What are the relative merits of ACICS?

    None!

    I have some credit from an ACICS school and it's treated like the plague. No one will take it. Clovis gave me no credit for it but took all my DETC in the end.
     
  3. jackrussell

    jackrussell Member

    I googled ACICS, it seems to be a national accreditation body similar to DETC. Why such a big difference in treatment? I know there is 6 regional accreditation body and one national DETC. Didn't know that ACICS is also a national accreditation body. Kinda confusing......
     
  4. b4cz28

    b4cz28 Active Member

  5. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    Is transferability to another college the litmus test of quality? What was the experience at the ACICS school?
     
  6. b4cz28

    b4cz28 Active Member

    No you're right it does not answer the question at hand. The crap classes that I took answers that. I was not the best student, but I still managed to get grades for work I never turned in. Nothing like missing the deadline, not turning in the work and still getting a B-.
     
  7. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Still, that only accounts for one school. Is an accreditor only as strong as its weakest link?
     
  8. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    Was this representitive of every class or just one?
     
  9. siersema

    siersema Active Member

    A local school, Sawyer College, was ACICS. They only offered two year programs. The students I know who went there, and I know about half a dozen, as well as the couple instructors I know, all seemed to like the college. To me they seemed a bit expensive. I assumed they were ACICS because it was cheaper to get? A few years back they were purchased by Kaplan, and renamed, but they are still ACICS. They offered no distance education. I was there a few times myself but only because they were a Vue test center.
    Interestingly enough the other two Kaplan College locations in the state have accreditation from Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC). The same small city also has Brown Mackie College (ACICS) and Everest (ACCSC). Accreditation seems to vary by location for all three of these organizations.

    Often when I read on various boards online it's all talk about RA and DETC. I wonder how many NA schools are actually out there.

    ACICS actually has a fee list on their website;

    ACICS - Schedule of Fees
     
  10. BrandeX

    BrandeX New Member

  11. BrandeX

    BrandeX New Member

    editing time limits........ full post follows:

    Well this for starters (pardon the wikipedia link it was the easiest to reference): Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    "Many of the commissioners on the Board of Directors serve as executives for the same for-profit schools the council issues accreditation."
    The guys who run ACICS are execs at ACICS accredited schools. This is essentially no different than a tactic a lot of degree mills use to appear legitimate. Several ACICS schools have bad press, lawsuits, etc. often being found guilty of illegal practices. I was scammed (my opinion) for about $20,000 for less than a year at FMU (now changed to the Everest set of schools). These are the guys that those Financial Aid scamming stories are really talking about. Imagine my surprise when one day I found out by looking at the headers typically hidden in emails, that the arbitrary lending/consolidation agency and my schools counseling staff had the same point of origination all related to Corinthian Colleges inc. There has been lawsuits and issues with Corinthian (the parent company of many schools) but will those schools ever have to worry about losing accreditation for shady or even outright illegal practices? Of course not, at least not as long as "Mr. David M. Luce Assistant Vice President, Accreditation and Licensing Corinthian Colleges, Inc." is one of the ACICS commissioners. ACICS - Commissioners

    This is my main issue with ACICS, that the bulk of said schools are essentially accrediting themselves and so many have such a high level of consumer complaints and lawsuits resulting from various issues.
     
  12. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    University of Advancing Technology

    Double-accredited (RA - North Central, NA - ACICS)

    If you hold AAS or AS degree of career diploma from ACICS accredited college you can complete RA Bachelors degree at the University of Advancing Technology.

    http://www.uat.edu/about_uat/default.aspx

     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 8, 2010
  13. BrandeX

    BrandeX New Member

    I would assume you could do the same at other dual-level accredited institutions like APUS. For what it's worth, Penn Foster accepted my FMU credits in transfer, but that is not specifically the issue I was raising regarding them being an accrediting agency that is run by the schools it accredits.
     
  14. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    Right. Another is ACCSC.

    By whom? Compared to what?

    Degreeinfo talks about DETC a lot more than ACICS because the board is concerned with distance learning. I think that some ACICS schools do offer DL, but I can't really think of one offhand. But most ACICS schools offer classroom-based classes out of leased space in office-park like settings.

    I don't think that domestic employers typically treat DETC and ACICS degrees differently. If an employer only accepts RA degrees, neither accreditation will work. If the employer accepts NA degrees, then both accreditations will be recognized.

    Both accreditors' schools tend to be about equal in academic reputation. (Very obscure in both cases.) Both accreditors started out as accreditors of small vocational schools and both are trying to move further upscale and become known as full-service higher-education accreditors. Both DETC and ACICS received similar scope to accredit doctoral programs at about the same time. But neither accreditor presently has anything in its roster that resembles a research university.

    If one of the two has a very slight edge, I'd say that it's probably ACICS. That's because it's a larger accreditor that fields more schools, and because it's less vulnerable to skepticism about DL.
     
  15. Anthony Pina

    Anthony Pina Active Member

    This is no different from the regional accrediting bodies, whose "directors" or "trustees" are generally presidents of schools that they accredit.

    ACICS has historically focused on the accreditation of trade & technical schools. I have the ACICS guidelines for distance learning--they are not that extensive.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 8, 2010
  16. Caulyne Barron

    Caulyne Barron New Member

    With any accrediting body, it is important to keep in mind that these are all voluntary membership organizations. So, of course their leadership boards are comprised of member organization's employees. There are a whole slew of national and programmatic accrediting bodies recognized by CHEA.
     
  17. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    My understanding is that ACICS only accredits schools that offer the majority of their instruction by classroom-based learning. In other words, they're like the anti-DETC.

    -=Steve=-
     
  18. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Well it certainly didn't help ACICS' reputation when one of their Commissioners turned out to have his doctorate from the fraudulent St. Regis University. Here's a detailed post from 4 or 5 years ago from George Gollin on the subject: ACICS commissioner has Saint Regis PhD - DegreeInfo Distance Learning - online degree forum

    My recollection is that at least two schools that were desperate for recognized accreditation ended up with ACICS: Armstrong University (after they lost their WASC accreditation, they got their ACICS the same day) and Schiller International University (which will probably have a whole chapter in my posthumous edition).
     
  19. Anthony Pina

    Anthony Pina Active Member

    Actually ACICS has provisions for both distance programs and courses in its accreditation manual. Now, I do not know whether they actually have accredited any fully DL programs.
     
  20. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    ACICS Distance School --

    Hi

    Here's at least one (very good) ACICS school offering distance programs - The University of Advancing Technology

    This school is now ACICS and RA - but only recently RA. As an ACICS-accredited school, it offered distance programs long before its Regional Accreditation.

    Johann
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 11, 2010

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