Any information on the Council of Private Colleges of America?

I learned that Andersonville Theological Seminary is now a candidate for memberhship with this organization. Anyone have information about them?

Here is the link: www.cpca-edu.us

Thanks.

T.J. Gentry

 

The CPCA is not a recognized accrediting agency by either the U.S. Dept. of Education or CHEA, so a degree from Andersonville or any other CPCA institution would be considered an unacredited degree.

Many denominational pastoral positions are held by people with degrees from unaccredited theological schools or seminaries and they do fine. However, for someone whose goal is to transfer or seek a future degree at an accredited college or university, an unaccredited religious degree will likely not be accepted.

 

Andersonville is a joke. Stay far away from them.

 

I have never heard of this organization but the fact that it is not recognized by CHEA or the USDoE means it is of little value in terms of accreditation.

It is far better for an unaccredited school to open and honest about that fact and not even appear to be promoting anything that looks like accreditation (when that org is unrecognized) since it may deceive a consumer. It is disconcerting that this organization has stuck the edu in their name. It makes it look like they are trying to appear to be a dot edu.

Andersonville has generally not received positive comments on boards. There are some who speak well of them and I believe I have seen a Masters level grad who apparently gained entry into an accredited DMin program. The exception rather than the norm.

There are some good unaccredited programs but they are few and far between. However, it often is important where you are going to use the degree. For instance, an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary may not put you in good with a fundamentalist Baptist group that would prefer you did your Masters from a unaccredited fundamentalist school such as West Coast Baptist College (which does have an online Masters in addition to campus programs). On the other hand, the United Methodist Church is more likely to prefer Princeton to West Coast (and be very suspicious of you if you had a Masters from West Coast. http://wcbc.edu/

 

Just to list a few possibly good unaccredited programs:

The Association of Reformed Theological Seminaries - ARTS (Group of Reformed Seminaries)
I believe all of the seminaries listed at the above link are bricks and mortar schools with well qualified faculty and they are not accredited for doctrinal reasons.

Reformation International Theological Seminary - Distance learning, Reformed, generally well qualifed faculty. Web site not that great. At one time grads of their teaching program could sit for Florida Teaching licensure. http://www.reformation.edu/pdf/forms/doctoral.pdf

Whiteflield Theological Seminary (Sproul has a PhD from here). A little heavy on their own grad under faculty but also some good theological degrees among faculty Whitefield Theological Seminary - Home

All of these will have some limitation being unaccredited AND HUGE limitation if you are seeking a job in an Arminian denomination (ha...ha).

 

Stefan, I would caution such strong statements. I am graduating with my Bachelors from Andersonville and recently received notification from Liberty University that I would have no problems being accepted to their Seminary for graduate studies, they also stated that Andersonville students have been welcomed with regularity.

I see you received a Masters from Liberty, so in the off chance a colleague or fellow student is an Andersonville graduate, you may want to ease up on it. For what it's worth, God bless!