I am looking for online 4 degree and getting sticker shock

I seen before where licensing board of a sate preferred degrees accredited by their regional accreditation agency in addition to professional accreditation.

Also when a friend of my applied to sheriff position in S Cal - Riverside the requirement was a WASC accredited high school diploma or degree from WASC regionally accredited school.

This was some 8 years ego, not sure if the same required today.

 

Absolutely. In those types of cases I look at it as recognized but not accepted.

 

My Mom got a masters degree in psychology and had to travel to Chicago to take some exams before the school got accredited in MN. I uh, am making 16$ working in social service with really good hours and benefits. Probably would have to take some minimum wage customer service job somewhere if I got a IT degree. I am considered the computer guru here since most people I work with don't know computers much.

 

Hi,

HAHA why?

Thanks,

Brant

 

To reiterate, states don't handle accreditation. There is nothing to figure there, they just simply don't do it. You may be confusing accreditation with state approval which are not the same thing.

If she was in an unaccredited Psychology degree program, I imagine she would've had to travel to find a state that would allow her to take the licensure exams considering the unaccredited status of her degree program. Some states require Psychology degree programs to have been under both institutional accreditation and programmatic accreditation (APA), otherwise the applicant can't even sit for the exam.

 

It was in the process of getting accredited in the state. She had to take a few exams in Chicago, then, after the accreditation, she didn't have to. She is now a licensed psychologist.


As far as I can see, American Public University looks legit, I see they are listed as 58th on a list of the best online schools according to wiki, is that good?

 

With 135 units you may already qualify for a BS at one of the big-3 schools.

Excelsior for example requires a minimum GPA of 2.0 for their degrees. However Excelsior requires a certain number of upper level units.
Their requirements for a liberal arts degree are shown here:
https://my.excelsior.edu/documents/78666/292073/SLA+BS+Liberal+Arts/c48f36ae-653b-48a5-bb7b-95b19936b2c3
The reason I mention this particular degree is that it accepts up to 59 units in professional areas (such as IT, business, education, CJ, engineering, architecture).

I earned the BSLS degree so that I could get into a masters program.

In my experience many employers never ask about GPA, they are more concerned about what you can bring to their organization.

 

California routinely allows individuals with unaccredited degrees to sit for state licensure exams.

 

Whatever school it is never was in any state accreditation process because no such thing exists. Even this thing about having to go to another state to take an exam sounds strange to me since even if the school itself was not regionally or nationally accredited whatever exam the school gives wouldn't need to be taken in another state. Unaccredited schools have no oversight beyond state approval and it could be argued that most don't even adhere to that and just do their own thing until they slip up and get busted. AFAIK, the APA doesn't regulate exams either so it wouldn't have been them mandating it, plus the APA doesn't work with accredited non-APA programs to begin with, they certainly don't work with institutionally unaccredited schools.

There is clearly some critical information you're missing about what happened there, but one thing is for certain, as you've been told a few times now, states don't deal with accrediting colleges. It's not what they do. None of the states do it. I don't get what part of that is unclear to you...? Only regional or national accrediting bodies undertake institutional accreditation, and I say good for that. In my many state dealings over the years, I've found state workers who couldn't keep track of their own ass if they weren't sitting on it, so I certainly don't want them accrediting collegiate institutions.

 

But only from programs already approved and grandfathered in. The state doesn't approve new programs leading to licensure offered by unaccredited schools.

 

Even so, OP's mom wasn't in California so she would've had to travel as LA pointed out.

But this story has some strange parts to it, to be honest.

 

Just to be a contrarian...

I have heard of a few states referring to their state approval as "accreditation."

Also, the New York Board of Regents is a USDOE recognized accreditor and does provide institutional accreditation to New York based schools. It's uncommon. It doesn't relate to what the OP is talking about. But it does exist.

 

Unless they're performing the same functions and holding programs to the same rigorous standards of a regional or national accreditor (which I highly doubt), then it's really just state approval under a different name, or an inferior form of accreditation, but surely not accreditation to the degree we know it as.

That particular system has been in place since the 1700's, a time before there was an accreditation system fully comparable to the modern setup of today. If I'm not mistaken, it was common for states to do that in bygone times, New York is just one state that has held on to its roots with it.

It should be noted that colleges under the USNY system are still accredited by a regional accreditor. In bygone times it would've been USNY alone but I'm not aware of any college handled only by the Board of Regents today. So to what degree "it exists" in terms of the depth of oversight is the question, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that they operate with these schools in the way other states operate with standard state approval. With about 8,000 schools and other programs in NYS, I'd have a hard time believing the oversight is beyond state approval level in aggregate.

 

That's inaccurate. Rockefeller University is ONLY accredited by the NYSBOR. There are a handful of other programs where this is the case including three PhD programs.

State registration in New York is the equivalent of state approval in other states and it is a separate process from accreditation though BOTH are overseen by the NYS Board of Regents. Even registration, however, is hardly a rubber stamp process here.

Interestingly, the Board of Regents is unique among Accreditors because it also retains the sole authority in the state to award the Doctor of Medicine degree to foreign medical school graduates who received a comparable degree that isn't an MD (like a Bachelor of Medicine). I'm unaware of any other accreditors actually awarding degrees directly.

 

Colleges under the system are still accredited by regional accreditors, with some exceptions it appears. As I've said, I wasn't aware of any only accredited by the Board of Regents today, but that number pales in comparison to those accredited by a regional accreditor alone or in tandem with the NYSBOR.

 

Again, you are clearly thinking about registration with NYSBOR not accreditation. There is no reason for a school to have RA and accreditation by the NYSBOR. The only advantage to accreditation by NYSBOR is access to Federal Financial aid which, if a school is RA, it would already have.

NYS BOR only accredits 22 institutions and I believe only one of them holds dual accreditation. The rest do not.

 

I am not trying to be a psychologist right now so, for now, it doesn't matter. I don't know, I have been looking at jobs online and a PHP doesn't pay a lot more than what I am making now. It does look like a fun job though. I am still planning on going. Just a few more hoops..

 

No, again:

Colleges under the system are still accredited by regional accreditors, with some exceptions it appears.

My saying "under the system" didn't = accredited by NYSBOR. If I meant accredited I would've said accredited.

I would think not but some do like the Technical Career Institute (NYSBOR + MSCHE), they even brag about the fact of having dual accreditation on their website. There is also Guttman: they're not dual yet but they're a candidate for accreditation with the MSCHE while accredited by the NYSBOR.

 

Considering the system we were discussing was the accreditation program of NYSBOR I'd say that you were clearly confused what we were talking about when you made your original assertion.

Or else you're just trying to backpeddle.

You said:

There are 22 institutions accredited by the NYSBOR. The remainder of the schools registered under the NYSBOR are not accredited "in tandem" with regional accreditors because the NYSBOR didn't accredit them. They merely registered, the NYS equivalent of state approval.

All of these words I'm using are being used intentionally because they have different meanings applicable to the situation.

Cornell maintained dual accreditation with NYSBOR and MSCHE for many years. They let the NYSBOR accreditation lapse though they are still registered with the NYSBOR. They have to be. State registration is required for a school to be allowed to award degrees and is a requirement for regional accreditation. Accreditation is a separate process entirely and, according to the Board of Regents, is really only necessary within the state if you want access to Title IV.

 

So what is the scoop on APU? Has anybody known someone who graduated there? Is it a decent college to go to? It looks like, with the military discount, I am looking at about 1600$ for 6 credits; or is it more?