Briercrest Bible College

Any info on Briercrest Bible College in Canada will be helpful. Degree mill or not? I searched their website and they seem legit to me. Accredited by The Association of Bible Colleges which is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

 

Degree mill . . . not.

Briercrest has an outstanding reputation. THey've been in Canada for many years, have both undergrad and grad programs, and have AABC-accredited for many years. They're one of the old, classic Bible colleges, and I know several U.S. students who have done programs there.

 

I agree with Steve....

with one caviet. Some RA schools will still not accept credits in transfer from non RA accredited schools, be they DETC, AABC or AICS. I don't necessarily agree with that in most cases but that is how it is. The moral of the story being; if you are wanting to obtain a BA or Masters with hopes of moving on to higher education, do your research as far as transfer possibilities. This would be especially true if you have your heart set on the next school. This comment applies more to the more secular degrees offered by Briercrest. Their AABC accreditation should be fine for the faith based topics. But no, not a diploma mill and not something which could be called a "time bomb". Looks like and excellant school.

 

Chris is correct - the RA rule holds under most circumstances. There's one problem here: Briercrest is in Canada, in which schools are not regionally accredited at all. They are chartered by their provincial governments. Therefore, regional accreditation becomes irrelevant.

Nonetheless, you should investigate this on a case-by-case basis depending on any graduate school goals you may have. In most cases, if you are going for a biblical major, a Briercrest degree will get you admitted to an RA theological school (as well as most ATS-approved theological schools) in the U.S.

 

I'd like to add a couple of additional comments:

1) Briercrest recently became affiliated with The University of Saskatchewan. While Canada does not have a RA system, the University of Saskatchewan offers the highest level of learning within the province. This adds to the already great reputation that Briercrest enjoys.

2) I recently contacted a Foreign Credential Evaluation agency regarding how they might view credits earned at Briercrest. Briercrest falls into a strange area in that they are a foreign institution, but they are accredited by a US accrediting body (AABC). As a foreign institution, credits earned at Briercrest would be eligible for evaluation by an evaluation service. Specificaly, my question was whether credits earned at Briercrest would be deemed equivalent to a US RA school. The answer was something like this: Credentials are evaluated on a case by case basis, however, since the accrediting agency that accredits Briercrest is recognized by both CHEA and the USDE, it is likely that a degree earned from Briercrest would be deemed "equivalent" to a RA degree.

Obviously, this is no guarantee, but it is encouraging. Even if you didn't want to rely on a foreign credential evaluation, many RA schools will recognize degrees earned from AABC schools. Many don't, but many do. Briercrest's outstanding reputation should help. If RA is important to you, consider Moody. Moody carries RA and NA accreditation and costs run virtually the same.

Tony