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Online Schools and Degrees
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About Online School Accreditation
Most states require that a learning institution be certified, authorized and / or accredited in order to award degrees to students. However, there are quite a few schools out there that do not meet those requirements.
The most important thing to research before you begin attending an online program is the accreditation the school has, or claims to have. Accreditation is a tough and expensive process to go through, so it's a good way to separate the legitimate institutions from the fraudulent ones. If you want employers and other schools to recognize your online degree, you should seek a degree from an accredited school. Realize though, that accreditation is a lengthy process and can take years, which means that newer schools often haven't completed, or even begun, the process. So not having accreditation doesn't always mean that the school is fraudulent or unreputable.
Here in the U.S., accreditation is done by private accrediting agencies and not by the government. The U.S. Department of Education defines an accrediting agency to be: "a private educational association of regional or national scope, which develops evaluation criteria and conducts peer evaluations to assess whether or not those criteria are met. Institutions and/or programs that request an agency's evaluation and that meet an agency's criteria are then 'accredited' by that agency." The U.S. Secretary of Education also recognizes State agencies for the approval of public post secondary vocational education and State agencies for the approval of nurse education.
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