Accreditation

There are several types of accreditation. For 98% of our purposes (meaning undergraduate, non-specialized requirements) we will only need to consider two: Regional Accreditation and National Accreditation. These are frequently abbreviated as RA (for Regional Accreditation) and NA (for National Accreditation).

Bottom Line
Just stick with Regionally Accredited schools. The headaches, and almost certain loss of thousands of dollars spent on Nationally Accredited credits that will never transfer to a "real" Regionally Accredited school and degree program, often just isn't worth it. Note however there can be some benefit to an NA degree path, but you need to understand the pros and cons of each choice as well as the requirements of your chosen career path. For example, doctors, lawyers, teachers and psychiatrists typically must have a Regionally Accredited degree to qualify for licensure.

Regional Accreditation (acronym: RA)
Regional Accreditation is generally considered the "gold standard" of college accreditation. Do not be confused by the names! In the academic world, RA is far superior to NA! RA governs public and many private degree-granting colleges and universities nationwide. RA is "academic" in nature.

National Accreditation (acronym: NA)
National Accreditation is much less stringent than Regional and is generally frowned upon by those in academia. NA schools are private, typically for-profit, and only 34% actually award degrees. NA is generally considered to cover "vocational" training. Popular examples of NA schools are ITT, DeVry, etc. These schools also tend to have "bad" reputations, both for lack of quality education and very high fees (chasing federal guaranteed student loan subsidies).

A note on transferrability of credits
The following is a generalization. You should check your specific school for details.

'''You can transfer RA credits to an RA school. You can transfer NA credits to an NA school. You can transfer RA credits to an NA school. But you CANNOT transfer NA credits to an RA school!'''

Generally speaking, both RA and NA schools honor credits earned at an RA school. Note that the decision to honor credit is solely at the school's discretion and any credits must apply to your degree program. You can't expect to transfer in 30 credits in underwater basket weaving towards your computer science degree! However, with no (or very few) exceptions, an RA school does not honor any credits earned at an NA school. There may be some limited exceptions, so check your school for their specific policies on your given situation, and always get the answers in writing.

A note from Wikipedia on RA vs NA

 * Regionally accredited schools are predominantly academically oriented, non-profit institutions. Nationally accredited schools are predominantly for-profit and offer vocational, career or technical programs. Within the American higher education system, critics note that national accrediting bodies (though not necessarily all nationally-accredited schools) have much lower standards than regional bodies, and consider them disreputable for this reason.


 * Some regionally accredited colleges have general policies against accepting any credits from nationally accredited schools, others are reluctant to because regional schools feel that national schools' academic standards are lower than their own or they are unfamiliar with the particular school. It is important to note that both types of accreditation are legitimate and recognized by the Department of Education. However, there have been lawsuits regarding nationally accredited schools who led prospective students to believe that they would have no problem transferring their credits to regionally accredited schools.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_education_accreditation_in_the_United_States

Other types of accreditation
There are other types of accreditation that can come into play for specific career paths, or for grad school or post-grad (doctorate) schools. A more full description of accreditation looks like this:
 * Institutional Accreditation: Accredits an institution as a whole, not a specific degree program. Both Regional and National Accreditation are forms of Institutional Accreditation.
 * Programmatic Accreditation: Accredits a specific degree program at a particular school, but not the entire institution. Examples include: ABET (accredits science and engineering degree programs), AACSB and ACBSP (rival business program accreditation bodies), etc. Each carries its own pros and cons. For example, attending an AACSB school vs an ACBSP school (or a school with no business program accreditation) can become a sticking point for certain executive managerial types.