Ranking of Accreditation

No, but it's a strong indication and currently there isn't anything else.

I think you may be confusing accreditation with reputation. Take any two RA colleges, barring any additional professional accreditation, neither has "better" accreditation. But if one has a recognizable brand name then it may very well have a perceived reputation that causes it to be considered "better" than the non-brand name college. That doesn't mean it is actually better, it's just a generally accepted perception.

As far as services, brand name universities can have a tendency toward suckage when it comes to student services in many areas. Even much of the faculty can seem more concerned with themselves and own their research or latest publication than with actual teaching, especially of undergraduates. Schools lacking the brand name advantage tend to do better with student services and more 'personalized' education, sometimes because they are smaller colleges and other times simply because #2 really does try harder. As in all things, there are exceptions to those very general examples.

Yes, but there can never be a guarantee of something so intangible. No amount of accreditation, no amount of quality of faculty or curriculum, no amount of tuition, pretty much nothing can provide any such guarantee. What is actually learned is ultimately always up to each individual student. Some do their best to try to get the most out of their education. Others try to just get by while learning as little as they can get away with and still be granted a degree at the end. It's also noteworthy to remember that a brand name degree, in and of itself, doesn't guarantee it's holder anything either.

Kit

 

This is certainly not true of the aerospace industry (although there may be a few exceptions). I have worked for large and small companies and if a degree was required for a job then it had to be from an RA school.
My last employer provided reimbursement for any course or degree provided it had National Accreditation.

 

And in many cases they require an ABET accredited degree. Engineering is more degree accreditation aware because of the state engineering licensing requirements.

I tend to lump companies that contract with bureaucracies (aviation/aerospece is bureaucratic, no? heehee) into the bureaucratic category, because they are stuck following the same rules.

 

Professional Accreditation is granted to RA schools in the area - program distepline.

ABET - Engineering and Technology

APA - Psychology

ABA - Law

The best and most accepted for licensing and employment and education is the combination on RA and PA.

So RA + ABET - Engineering

Or RA + APA - Psychology

I have a friend who can have privet practice ie licensed but has problems when it comes to his NA credentials.

The firms in his case definitly prefer credentialised person with RA + PA degree.

 

1. RA + PA - B&M Name recognized school - top 20 prefered
2. RA + PA - Good name school
3. RA + PA
4. RA - Name recognized school
5. RA - 100 % DL school - no B&M campus
6. NA
7. Other than DETC

 

This is very interesting. It is interesting that you differentiate with DL in the RA category, but not the PA category. Not sure I entirely agree, but a very interesting ranking.

 

It is somewhat subjective but in my opinion....

1) RA (plus in some cases Prof accreditation usually linked and very important - eg's APA/ABA).

2) TRACS (schools are not just distance learning and must have B&M campus, library, etc).

3) DETC

4) Other National Accreditation Bodies.

North

 

1. Not a guarantee, no, but a required indicator for general recognition in most cases. Quality indicators can be at the institutional or macro level (e.g. RA) and at the micro level e.g. schools, depts, courses. These can vary greatly depending on diverse factors such as faculty and dept head personalities and policies. Perhaps this is why professional accreditation (at the dept level) is important.

2. I don't think these factors correlate as much as it is an administrative management issue concerning governance and operations. Poor governance and operations indicates bad management and a lack of competitive awareness. I do think however that the potential is there for some schools to grow lax in their competitive awareness due to their reputations and perhaps their performance suffers as a result. I also think there is a lot to the concept that "we're #2, and we try harder".

3. It seems that most people are brand conscious. As a result, pedigree is an important differentiator. The degree is a mark of accomplishment, your receipt per se. Yes, your degree is supposed to be an indicator of what you learned, but we all know there are a lot of educated idiots. And there is much fakery. So... in my experience in aerospace, defense, and information technology industries, degrees are really important for the newbies, however once past that hurdle, companies tend to be more concerned about your professional certifications which indicate specific knowledge in your career field.

 

It is important to remember that there is a difference between the actual standards of some accreditors, even within accreditor "levels." There are also differences in how and even if they enforce their standards.

For example, in our experience, the Southern Association has shown a greater tendency to actually enforce its standards than have some other regionals. Therefore an identical standard at another regional may mean less than a standard at Southern Association.

There are some genuine differences among accreditors. We have found that some national accreditors require less student work than do regionals. That is one reason (just one) why there are issues in transfer of credits.

 

I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked!

Thanks for the common sense, Alan. It helps. I hope.

 

Re: Re: Ranking of Accreditation

I think I know what you mean about TRACS. I've read through their policies and standards which seem very professional. I even talked with someone on the phone who seemed to have his act together. I'm not thrilled with where they draw their doctrinal lines, however. They will likely remain a minor player in the world of accreditation as the accreditor of Independent, fundamentalist Christian institutions alone. They are going to have a lot of trouble drawing in conservative evangelical schools that do not share their narrow, doctrinal stance.

 

My own idea, similar to the one expressed above is that the main difference between a top school and an average school is that the top school has more resources (better libraries, research facilities, instructors who research/publish more frequently, more specialized courses, etc.) This allows motivated students to go further with their education than they might in a less resource-full environment. Many students show up for that Freshman year thinking that they are going to be the passive recipients of "a good education." The best students take a more active role and to a large degree, educate themselves.
Jack

 

I think that the experience between graduate and undergraduate students at research type universities can be vastly different. For research type universities, their reputation depends more on the research and opportunities for the graduate students. For undergraduate classes, I thought that the community college that I went to had many advantages over Berkeley, at least from the undergraduate student point of view.

 

accreditation and religious institutions

Accreditation is important when checking into the legitimacy of a school. But I will say I have accredited and non accredited and the one I value the most was a non accredited theological degree(which I attended for 3 years trimester). That school was legit but they weren't producing grads for secular pursuits, it was for licensing minsters in there organization. Religious schools often times do not want to be subject to governmental intrusion example; what kind of books they must have in library and which courses they must teach. I'm not trying to make it seem there some secretive groups which they are not but they want to left alone.