Neat old article on credit transfers

[sanantone]

A lot of DEAC schools don't participate in Title IV funding because the market they are targeting is students who don't want to go into debt. Generally, DEAC schools are much cheaper than regionally accredited and ACICS and ACCSC schools. ACICS and ACCSC schools tend to participate in Title IV funding and charge exorbitant tuition rates to take advantage of their low income students who qualify for max amounts of financial aid. Patten University is a regionally accredited school that does not accept Title IV funding after being bought by a company that operates a DEAC school. They decided to put it on the same pricing model as New Charter University. They save students a lot of money, so I don't see anything wrong with it. There are several students here attending Patten University. Amberton University, which is a generally respected institution, is also a regionally accredited school that does not participate in Title IV funding for ideological purposes. What is most important is accreditation. These colleges qualify for Title IV funding just by being accredited, so not accepting it is usually done with the intent of keeping students out of debt. Participating in Title IV funding increases administrative costs and those additional costs go into the tuition rates. Accrediting bodies are the ones that keep an eye on a school's finances.

Note: Before UniversityNow bought Patten University, it participated in Title IV funding and was in danger of losing its accreditation. UniversityNow got the school back on track, it was taken off of probation, and stopped accepting Title IV funding. So, participating in Title IV funding is not an indicator of the stability of the school. Penn Foster has been operating for over 100 years without accepting Title IV. Amberton University has been operating for almost four decades this way.

Newer public colleges or universities may not be accredited at all. Northeast Lakeview College in San Antonio has been around for 7 or 8 years and is still not accredited. In many fields, it is common to see AA, AS, and AAS degrees. Business administration and criminal justice are two fields where you'll see all three. Intro to Criminal Justice in an AA program is the same as Intro to Criminal Justice in an AAS program. Financial Accounting in an AS program is the same as Financial Accounting in an AAS program. Generally, AAS programs just require fewer general education courses. The degree is not designed for transfer, but that does not mean that the courses within the degree are not designed for transfer. Whether or not a particular course will transfer depends on it being at the college level (100 level or higher, but some schools use 1000 or other number systems) and if it will fit into the program you're transferring to.