how important is it for a major to be accredited?

College Search & Selection
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<p>I'm trying to decide between several different schools and the topic of major accreditation comes up...</p>

<p>From what I heard, taking a major at a non-accredited school will slow you down in the long run when you graduate.</p>

<p>Right now I'm about to transfer and do a Health Science major @ SJSU, which is non-accredited for my major.</p>

<p>Am I just wasting time here? Should I cancel my app?</p>

<p>THANKS!</p>

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<p>So, there are varied levels of accredittation…</p>

<p>The most important accredittation is that of the college/university. The institution should be REGIONALLY accreditted.</p>

<p>Then, you may find you specific degree program has a NATIONAL accredittation. This too has value as it represents a standard set by members within a professional field; however, it should not necessarily be a “make it or break it” deciding factor. Why?
(1) Some fields dont have national accreditting bodies.
(2) The regional accredittation covers all academic programs of the college/university.
(3) The lack of a national accredittation does not automatically signify a lesser program. It is a voluntary and rigorous process to undergo review for a national accredittation, and is not always the priority for a school/department with limited resources to dedicate to the process.</p>

<p>My suggestions:
(1) Research the field of your discipline. Is a national accreditation common or available?
(2) Compare course offerings, faculty credentials, required field-work hours, etc., of your favorite “non-accreditted” program of that to a regionally and nationally accreditted program. How do they compare?
(3) Request information from graduate programs in your field regarding admission of students with advance-standing (often the most common benefit of graduating from an undergraduate program with national accreditation.) Also, most graduate admission offices provide information regarding the undergraduate origins of their students. How many of those schools have a national accreditation for a degree program in your respected field?</p>

<p>And just to reiterate again - because this issue seems to trip students up the most - be sure to enroll at a REGIONALLY accreditted institution.</p>

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<p>This may not directly apply to the OP, but [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.abet.org%5DABET%5B/url”&gt;http://www.abet.org]ABET[/url</a>] accreditation is important in general for engineering majors.</p>

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<p>It can be ‘make it or break it’ if the lack of professional accreditation prevents you from sitting for a certification. Research this VERY carefully.</p>

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<p>That’s true. Yet ABET also accredits computer science programs, and in that case it is generally considered unimportant.</p>

<p>The point is that the importance of programmatic accreditation varies greatly from field to field. In some cases it is vital, in others it is optional, and in others it doesn’t even exist. The Original Poster needs to provide more info about the specific major and accreditation of concern.</p>

<p>In general, programmatic accreditation becomes increasingly important in fields subject to licensing or certification. For example, ABET accreditation is valuable in civil engineering (where you need a state PE license to practice), but not in computer science (which is essentially unregulated).</p>

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<p>awesome thanks.</p>