In what areas of study is it important to be in an accredited undergraduate program? My daughter is interested in Business and Communications. If a college’s program is not accredited, in what ways will the student be limited?
Grad school. If she ever wants to get an MBA or any other graduate/professional degree, a likely admission requirement is a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.
For BA/BS granting colleges in the US, the desired accreditations are:
- School accreditation: accreditation by a regional accreditation group is generally considered the best kind of school accreditation.
- Major accreditation: some (not all) majors have major-specific accreditation or approval. Examples:
- accounting: AACSB
- architecture: NAAB
- business: AACSB
- chemistry: ACS
- computer science: ABET (CAC) [1]
- engineering majors: ABET (EAC) [2]
- engineering technology majors: ABET (TAC)
- nursing: CCNE, ACEN
[1] Generally considered optional, though could be a way of indicating meeting of a reasonable minimum standard by a lesser known program.
[2] Close to mandatory for civil engineering or whenever PE licensing or the patent exam is a goal. Generally, reputable programs in traditional majors (e.g. aerospace, chemical, civil, electrical, industrial, materials, mechanical, nuclear) have it, although a few of the best known schools for engineering stopped doing it for some non-civil engineering majors because they are well known enough on their own.
Do you mean accreditation of the college/university or if the major is accredited? Most UG business programs are not accredited in themselves- they are an approved course of study within the college/university and it is the college/university that is accredited. Engineering and Architecture are two fields where that is typically not the case, and they have their own systems (ABET & NAAB).
Actually, many of them are accredited by AACSB:
In general in the US, you want the school as a whole to be regionally accredited. If the major is one where major-specific accreditation is important, then check for that in addition to the accreditation of the school as a whole.
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Live & learn! Thanks for the info.
I guess this is more my question. Washington and Lee, for example, touts their Communications department as being the only accredited undergraduate communications program at a small liberal arts college. That got me wondering if/why it really matters.
Furman is still a consideration for my daughter but its undergraduate business program is the only non-accredited one on her list. Again, would that matter?
She doesn’t want to shut the door on an MBA or law school.
imo, not at all (but then I am so out of the loop on UG business programs that I hadn’t noticed the trend to accrediting them, so buyer beware!). To the extent that the UG matters for MBA, (imo) a selective school is a selective school, and the good MBAs all want some meaningful work experience.
For law school neither the school nor the major matters at all, with the possible exception of H&Y with their own/each others undergrads.
W&L has a top bus journalism program but communications in general is a tough major, where most will be unemployed, underemployed, or under paid.
No clue about Furman but never heard about it and communications. That said if someone pushes gm hard for an internship, they’ll find it.
What is the students ultimate goal ? If journalism W&L is highly respected.
Presumably, it is referring to ACEJMC for journalism and mass communications:
http://www.acejmc.org/accreditation-reviews/accredited-programs/accreditedreaccredited/
However, even the ACEJMC says in FAQs – ACEJMC the following:
Of course, making a career in journalism is not an easy task these days.