Weird Accreditation Question

[sanantone]

This is why I went through the application process for the Smart.ly MBA. I was hoping for free and then RA accreditation somewhere down the road. I was accepted to the EMBA program. They offered a $3000 scholarship, but it still would have cost $6000. That was not a good enough price for a program that is currently unaccredited. It was kind of fun, though. They scheduled skype-style interviews and it was the CEO who interviewed me. Interesting guy.

Is that the name of the school? It sounds like a smartphone app.

[eriehiker]

Well, I think that is kind of the idea. The name is not great. However, about 20% of the MBA is available online for free. I completed that 20% and I thought that it was very good. It is very interactive and requires low-bandwidth so you can do it all on a cell phone. I really enjoyed it. The problem is that they really want young, smart graduates to market to companies. I am 42, so I kind of fell into the EMBA demographic, which costs about $10,000. That is not a great deal without accreditation. They give some full scholarships, but I didn't get one.

[Thorne]

Thanks, but I think you misunderstood my question.  I'm wondering about what happens if the school gains or loses accreditation after one enrolls as a student but before graduation.

My response still answers your question. What matters is whether or not the school is accredited at the time of graduation.

Isn't this only half true? If your school is RA and you complete, say, 60 credits, then the school loses accreditation, aren't those 60 credits still transferable to other RA schools? Honestly, I just find it highly suspect that a person could complete 117 credits at an unaccredited School A, then one 3 credit class at newly-accredited School A (assuming it achieves accreditation standards) and have a legitimate degree.

I remember something about NationsU (right after they got NA) how people completing the unaccredited coursework would have to complete almost all of it again under the new NA standards, but I may be misremembering something.

[a2jc4life]

I know most employers won't care. (For me, I don't expect that to ever be particularly relevant.) But there are other areas where it matters. For instance, to qualify for a particular nutrition credential I'm looking at down the road, part of the requirements are to graduate from a regionally accredited school with a degree in nutrition.

[sanantone]

Thanks, but I think you misunderstood my question.  I'm wondering about what happens if the school gains or loses accreditation after one enrolls as a student but before graduation.

My response still answers your question. What matters is whether or not the school is accredited at the time of graduation.

Isn't this only half true? If your school is RA and you complete, say, 60 credits, then the school loses accreditation, aren't those 60 credits still transferable to other RA schools? Honestly, I just find it highly suspect that a person could complete 117 credits at an unaccredited School A, then one 3 credit class at newly-accredited School A (assuming it achieves accreditation standards) and have a legitimate degree.

I remember something about NationsU (right after they got NA) how people completing the unaccredited coursework would have to complete almost all of it again under the new NA standards, but I may be misremembering something.

The question was about a diploma rather than loose credits.

Normally, schools have adopted the standards required by the accrediting agency long before accreditation because they have to meet the standards in order to become accredited. The school I taught at considered becoming regionally accredited, but they didn't want to freeze their programs. Basically, after getting their programs up to par, they could not be changed because they were under evaluation. I don't know how DEAC operates, and I can't remember what happened with Nations. I think their students had the option to switch, but I can't remember if that happened before accreditation.

I also read on one of Capella's pages that their program was aligned with a programmatic accreditor's requirements, but they were still in the application process. TESU changed its BSBA long before they earned ACBSP accreditation. My degree is considered ACBSP-accredited even though I was almost finished with the whole thing before accreditation. I also believe that APUS has designed its engineering program to meet ABET standards, but they aren't accredited yet.

[RANSOMSOUL]

In the medical sales and management positions in pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, it is very common to see positions requiring a regionally accredited degree. It was rarely listed this way prior to 2005 and thereafter, it would pop up in the top tier players.

Agree with Sanantone. Had a colleague share a couple years back that when his company ran a background check on the sales field (this was a recheck for current employees) there were a few who were flagged for NA degrees and NO degrees. They were let go shortly thereafter.

[dfrecore]

Call me crazy, because I can't seem to recall this info - but when a school loses accreditation (like say ITT Tech), don't they usually then quickly go out of business? So that if you had a bunch of NA credits, you couldn't complete the degree even if you wanted to there. So it's kind of a moot point.

[RANSOMSOUL]

Call me crazy

Hey Crazy!

[sanantone]

Call me crazy, because I can't seem to recall this info - but when a school loses accreditation (like say ITT Tech), don't they usually then quickly go out of business? So that if you had a bunch of NA credits, you couldn't complete the degree even if you wanted to there. So it's kind of a moot point.

Wasn't the issue with ITT Tech that they no longer qualified for financial aid?

[Old Guy]

I remember something about NationsU (right after they got NA) how people completing the unaccredited coursework would have to complete almost all of it again under the new NA standards, but I may be misremembering something.

NationsU simply became accredited on a certain day - end of story.  Accreditation is institutional.  There were no such things as accredited courses or unaccredited courses.