TESU - Community College & RA Questions

[davewill]

Most U.S. colleges and universities are accredited by one of several regional accrediting agencies hence the name Regional Accreditation. Some schools are accredited by other agencies. Since these agencies are approved by the US Dept of Education, these are called National Accreditation. The RA schools, either believing the national accreditors aren't stringent enough, or just wanting to keep the riff-raff out, mostly refuse to accept credits or degrees earned at NA schools.

Employers generally don't differentiate.

The alt credit sources like Sophia are not NA or RA. They are recommended as equivalent to college credit by ACE or NCCRS, or are accepted at partner schools who have agreements with the alt credit provider. Most schools accept little or no alt credit. This board highlights the schools that accept large amounts of alt credit, allowing people to earn degrees both cheaply and quickly.

Most of these schools have limits to the number of alt credits they will accept (typically 90), which results in needing at least some RA credits. In addition, they all require at least a few credits be earned at the school in question.