DEAC Accreditation

The facts support the idea of choosing RA over DEAC. It's not really a debatable question. As to whether a DEAC BA or Masters will be adequate for a particular individual depends entirely on the purpose of the degree. I've heard for example that most public school systems won't accept a DEAC degree for teaching purposes. There may be exceptions, I don't really know. But there's another matter. It's one that enters more clearly into the realm of personal opinion. What I'm referring to is the question "Would you rather have a DEAC grad degree or a non-US grad degree?" In most cases I would choose the non-US degree. Now not all non-US degree are the same and so I have to hold back a little bit but I'm willing to say that for any specific DEAC degree you can name, I can name a non-US DL degree that I think is better. So I would actually place DEAC degrees as #3 on the preference list.

 

I'd also go for the foreign degree. Most of my state's licensing boards are picky about accreditation. They usually have guidelines on the acceptance of foreign degrees, but U.S. schools have to be regionally accredited.

 

Regarding the Eng vs Eng Tech issue, Kizmet is right to point out a difference in coursework that muddies those waters a bit.

I'll just add that not ever M.Eng. is created equally. Cornell offers an M.Eng. in CompSci, for example. So having an undergrad in, say, mechanical engineering would put the applicant at a disadvantage compared to the applicant with a B.S. in CS. I'm speaking broadly as to whether the ABET is enough to carry the day. There are, of course, more variables at play with regards to graduate admission.

At my company, we hire a lot of engineers. We have some engineering techs with degrees in engineering and we have some engineers with degrees in engineering tech. It's one of those things that had a very clear distinction that has been muddied in certain areas. To be a manufacturing engineer, for example, you can even get away with an unrelated degree and relevant experience. Where we have to start drawing hard lines is at product engineers. For that, you need to be eligible to sit for the PE license exam. You might not need it as an entry level engineer. But you would never be able to promote to engineering manager without being a licensed PE who can sign off on product designs. And for certain jobs you can't get in on the ground floor unless you have the potential to reach up at least one level higher.

Regardless, we're talking about RA/NA here.

I didn't have a problem teaching with a DEAC Masters at an RA/Public CC. Then again, I'm not so sure anyone actually checked to see who accredited the school that awarded my first Masters. It's also going to be irrelevant in about two months when, all things constant, I will have my very own super expensive RA MBA and can put my formal education to bed once and for all.

I don't think there is any particular harm in getting an NA Masters provided: 1) Your employer is down with it 2) Licensing doesn't come into play OR you are in a state where the program is licensure qualifying and don't have intentions of leaving 3) You don't really care if you teach or not.

Worst case scenario, you get another Masters down the road. I don't think my having an MSM in Project Management will be looked down upon (it hasn't thus far). It won't detract from my MBA or vice versa. Unlike my dual bachelors situation which prompted enough questions to where I removed one from my resume.

 

Any thoughts why DEAC is not growing in terms of the schools they accredit? They just went down to 90, at one point they accredited over 100. Any chance they will lose their agency accreditation status?
In other words, could they be shut down?

 

Why would the decrease be looked at as a bad thing? They pull accreditation from schools that aren't performing properly. That's one of the ways to maintain the quality of an accreditation program.

They are in zero danger of being shut down, nor should they be. Of all the NA accreditors, they are easily doing the best job.