How does an online school become accredited?

We’ve all seen the ads for places like DeVry and Kaplan Universities but how do these places become legitimate collegiate options? Does some guy in a basement just decide one day that he wants to start a college and get kids to pay for it? Or is there some type of process similar to traditional schools’ processes? Keep reading to find out just how these places become accredited online schools.

It turns out that online schools have to go through the same processes and meet the same standards that are met by legitimate traditional schools. The term “accredited” for schools is given if a school meets the up to date standards of education as described by the United State Department of Education. Without accreditation, schools aren’t seen as legitimate and their degree would essentially mean nothing.

There are two other major benefits to attending a school that’s accredited by the Department of Education. The first is that students who obtain this degree can go on to seek higher level degrees such as a Master’s and Doctorate at other accredited schools. Your bachelor’s degree wouldn’t be honored by those schools if it wasn’t from an accredited online school. The second benefit is that accredited schools also qualify you for better financial aid. Much of your aid comes from the federal and local governments and they simply aren’t going to support your education at a school that is deemed as not good enough by the DOE.

The actual process of becoming accredited is no different for any kind of school. The Department of Education must be called in to evaluate your program and decide if it meets all the standards to become an accredited online school. This can be the make or break point of your school as your degree will be worth nothing if the accreditation is turned down.

Also, to keep that status, accredited online schools must continually show the DOE that they are evolving to meet the changing needs of students these days. As technology continues to take over our world, the schools have to show that they’re involving things like computers in the curriculum. This obviously helps accredited online schools as most, if not all, of their classes are conducted online.

The process of accreditation is not different for any kind of school and all are eligible for this necessary term. Without it your school is broken and with it there are infinite possibilities, whether your school be traditional or online. Nothing is really that different for accredited online schools.