A regional accreditation is the most coveted accreditation any online schools can receive, the same for a ground university for that matter, but many online schools try to trick you with the terminology they use to make their institution sound more reputable.  It’s important that you be on the lookout for some key terms that are tossed around but that hold little to no value.

Pursuing accreditation: This seems pretty self explanatory. I could be “pursuing” a run for the presidency, but until I’m president who cares.  This verbiage says nothing about the institutions chances of achieving that accreditation.

Chartered: In some places, a charter is the necessary document that a school needs to grant degrees. A common ploy for diploma-mill operators is to form a corporation, and state in the articles of incorporation that one of the purposes is to grant degrees. Do you see the conflict of interest there?  Stay away.

Licensed or registered: This usually refers to nothing more than a business license, granted by the state, city, or country in which the school is located, but which has nothing to do with the legality of the school, or the usefulness of its degrees.

Recognized: I love this one. It does sounds great, but what are you being recognized for? Who is recognizing you? Are you recognized for being a scam?

Member: Swiss Business School advertisers itself as a “member” of the accrediting agency, the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs.  That’s not a lie, but it’s not exactly being frank either.  Some accrediting bodies also serve as trade associations for their respective fields, and in that capacity offer industry representation, in the form of a “membership” to any school that pays them annual dues, whether it’s accredited by the body or not.

So do yourself a favor and proceed with caution.  There are plenty of reputable institutions out there.  Don’t let those few bad seeds get in your way.

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