Selecting Accredited Online College Degrees In The United States

This is your final year in high school and you are preparing yourself for college admission? Like many other students, you too are not interested in the conventional setup and want to opt for an online course, instead! The popularity of online college degrees has increased significantly in the recent days. Along with it has increased the number of fake colleges.

What is accredited online college degree?

Many students often get fooled with the attractive advertisements of the fake colleges or universities and enroll themselves for courses, which do not have any value. If you do not want to be among them, make sure the degree is approved by the U.S. Department of Education or by Council for Higher Education Accreditation, acronym as CHEA. Only these two agencies are authorized for accreditation of online college courses and opting for courses by any accreditation agency might be a waste of time. When looking for accreditation, you should not just verify the legitimacy of the college. You should also verify the legitimacy of the accreditation agency as several fake accreditation agencies too have come these days.

What is state approval or state accreditation?

Many students consider state approval or state accreditation and regional accreditation to be the same thing. Do not be among them. Some online colleges may have the state approval for functioning in that particular area. However, they might not have any recognition beyond that and such degrees may become useless in future. If you want your qualification to be recognized by other colleges or universities, you should opt for regionally accredited degrees.

Students planning to study a degree course in the United States, need to seek a course accredited by any of the following regional boards:

WASC — Western Association of Schools & Colleges

NEASC — New England Association of Schools & Colleges

NCA — North Central Association of Colleges & Schools

NASC — Northwest Commission on Colleges & Universities

MSA — Middle States Association of Colleges & Schools

SACS — Southern Association of Colleges & Schools

All six regional accreditation boards have equal prominence and you can pick any of them, based on your preference. Apart from the regional accreditation, you can also find degree colleges with national accreditation, viz.

DETC- Distance Education & Training Council

ACICS- Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges & Schools

ACCSC- Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges

What are the best accredited online college degrees?

Whether you are preparing for an admission in a conventional college or looking for an online degree course, it is important for you to learn about the popular accredited online college degrees.

Bachelor and graduate degree- If you are planning to apply for your bachelor degree, you can try for securing admission on Marketing, Health Care Administration and Management or Computer Science. You can also opt for Business Administration and Management Courses or Accounting programs. Though these are the popular programs, you can seek admission in arts, designing, criminal justice, info tech or any other course, as per your preference.

MBA and graduate business degree- Apart from bachelor’s degree, you can also enroll for MBA courses online. The best part is, online courses are not just restricted to US citizens and international students too can apply for it. Some of the popular online MBA courses are, International MBA, International Marketing Management, Human Resources, Finance MBA, Executive MBA and Accounting MBA.

Online engineering programs- You can even complete your engineering degree course online and pave your way for a lucrative career. Some of the popular online engineering programs include Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Management, Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering or Biomedical Engineering.

Online information technology programs- If you are interested in an advanced online degree, designing and sharing technology programs, you can opt for information technology courses. Popular degrees in this field are Software Engineering, Information Technology, Cyber Security, Computer Science and Computer Information Systems.

Online degrees are now recognized by almost all professional companies. It can also help you in maintaining work and study balance.