Notes

Now that you know credit transfer, let's talk accreditation.
Regional accreditation vs national?
Most schools have regional accreditation and there are about 6 agencies across the country that accredit universities regionally.
These schools are mostly non profit and dedicated to academics and these schools are generally more expensive as the accreditation process is expensive and these schools do not solely focus on profit.
This accreditation is usually the gold standard of accreditation.

Now before we talk about national accreditation, let's talk program specific accreditation.
Like a high school class, you know that none of them count for college credit except AP classes when you pass the exam, right?

Think of specific program accreditation as just one particular program or group of programs having an accreditation that does not affect any other program.
For an example, Let's say the University of Seattle and their Computer Science department has a unique accreditation, that means the accreditation is specific to that program.

Now let's talk national accreditation,
Depending on the employer, they may view this type of accreditation as less prestige. Schools with this accreditation are generally cheaper. Most schools do not have this type of accreditation but schools that do have it are accredited by national accreditation agencies.
Be careful as it is seldom that credits from nationally accredited schools transfer to regionally accredited schools.



Does accreditation affect whether a school is public or private?
No.
Regardless of accreditation, there are countless public and private schools.

What if I don't pick a school that has any type of accreditation?
That would not be ideal and very few students go this route. Credit virtually never transfers in this case.

National credits normally does not transfer to regionally accredited schools.
Regional credits normally transfers to nationally accredited schools.
The only case where credits normally would not transfer is nationally accredited school to regionally accredited school.

The department of Education does no issue accreditations.

The main takeaway from this lecture is that when choosing schools, always prepare for the possibility of transferring credits and with that you should always be aware of the accreditation policies. Far too many times have students have ignored this.
Are we saying you can't attend the university you love? NO.
We are simply stating that in some situations, credit may be nearly impossible to transfer.


Now let's talk more about credit transfer.
The COVID-19 pandemic taught us all a lesson. Always prepare for the worst.
One thing you may want to consider as you go to college is tuition insurance. Incase tragedy strikes again you'll be able to get your funds back more easily and not have to deal with school bureaucratic tape.