I have been writing this blog for more than a year now, and
one of the most common questions I have emailed to me or receive in the Penn
Foster College
forum is whether degrees or credits from nationally accredited schools will
transfer to regionally accredited colleges.
They also want to know how to find out if a regionally accredited school
will accept credits or degrees from nationally accredited schools. This is especially important to students who
want to get an nationally accredited associates degree and transfer into a
regionally accredited college’s bachelors degree program, or enter a graduate
program in a regionally accredited college using a nationally accredited
undergraduate degree to meet admissions requirements.
Unfortunately, this is a complicated question to
answer. It usually depends upon the
college, each of which has their own admissions criteria. While one regionally accredited college or
university may have not problem admitting a student with credits from a
nationally accredited school, other colleges may specifically require credits
and degrees from regionally accredited schools.
My first answer is to check with the school you want to
transfer to. For example, I wanted to
know if an undergraduate degree from a nationally accredited college would meet
admissions criteria to enroll in the MBA program at the University
of Oklahoma. I was told that undergraduate degrees must be
from regionally accredited schools to enter the program. Meanwhile, Liberty University…a regionally
accredited school…will allow students with bachelor’s degrees from nationally accredited
schools to enter its graduate programs.
When in doubt, ask the admissions counselor at the school you want to
transfer to.
While there is no “one stop shopping” online directory which
will tell you which regionally accredited schools will accept credentials from
nationally accredited schools, the Higher Education Transfer Alliance, or HETA
directory compiled by Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) is the
closest thing there is. The HETA
directory contains many regionally accredited schools where “transfer decisions
are not made solely on the basis of the accredited status of a sending
institution and that the institution has agreed at least to consider transfer
requests from other institutions.” This
does not guarantee the RA schools will accept credits or degrees from
nationally accredited institutions, but just having an NA degree will not
necessarily disqualify you from entering their programs.
It should be noted that even if you are transferring from
one regionally accredited school to another, there is no guarantee that all of
your credits will transfer. It is
completely up to the receiving institution whether they will accept any, some,
or all of your prior college-level credit.
So, the best advice for students at NA colleges who want to
transfer to RA institutions is to ask lots of questions, check ahead of time
(preferably before you enroll in an NA institution) and make the best informed
decision you can. There are some great
NA colleges and universities that may meet your current and future needs, but
it is up to you to decide if they are the best option for you.