I have noticed a lot of comments and concerns regarding if the school is accredited and how it depends on where you live. I want to know what will happen after I receive my AS, can I begin my search for my dream career or will I be stuck with a useless degree?
Higher Education (University +) - 1 Answers
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Penn Foster is accredited by the DETC (a nationally recognized accreditor listed by the US Dept. of Education) and is therefor "accredited" no matter where you live. Some people simply don't understand how accreditation works and therefor post things online that aren't exactly correct. Here's the deal: While logic would tell you that national accreditation is "better" than regional accreditation - this isn't the case. The highest accreditation of a college is regional - Penn Foster isn't regionally accredited. But, they are accredited and recognized by the US Dept. of Education and are therefor legitimate. All of this will make a difference to some (very few) employers but it will make a huge difference if you'd like to later get a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited college (U Florida, Florida State, etc.) because those colleges will usually not accept transfer credit from a DETC accredited college (such as Penn Foster or Ashworth). note: someone will now write and tell us that they were able to transfer DETC credit to an RA college. It does sometimes happen. But, usually, that's not how things work. If you're not planning to do any more education after the AS then this doesn't matter to you in the slightest. An AS is an AS is an AS. Penn Foster is about equal to East Podunk Community College which is equal to BFE Technical College. None of them are Harvard or Yale. If you're going to want to transfer that credit to a 4-year college then you may want to weigh some other options. Trying to transfer DETC credit to an RA is a nightmare. Now, if your dream career requires an AS in whatever subject you're studying at Penn Foster then you'll be good-to-go. That's a different discussion though. Understand, whether a school is accredited doesn't depend on where you live. The accreditors are all national in scope and are either listed by the US DoE or they aren't. All six regionals are listed on the same list as DETC. There are also programatic accreditors that matter a lot in some industries (teaching, business, nursing, social work) and these also don't matter on where you live. If you're planning an occupation that is licensed in your state then it matters less whether the school is accredited and more on whether your state accepts that school for licensing requirements. That's up to your state and is a different discussion than accreditation.
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