Question by kpelc3rd: Help choose online College for Accounting?
I have been looking around for moths now for a well accredited and legitimate online school. I have found some but how ever some have restrictions.. Help me choose a school that will fit the following criteria..
* Associates in Accounting
* I am looking to complete the degree 100% from home online. But how ever I like the schools that have a campus as well, just seems more legit.
* It would have to be a undergrad degree..
* I have been taking a few general Ed calsses at my community college. ( Math, English and a Computer course for a total of 9 credits.)
There are so many college out there.. that offer online now I am not sure where to start, although aware of the scams and the non accreditable schools out there. Please narrow it down for me.
Also.. What are your comments on a associates in accounting? thanks
*

Best answer:

Answer by Gregg DesElms
You’re going to get a lot of answers here telling you to stay away from online schooling. There is an anti-distance learning bias among many… mostly rooted in ignorance, and fueled by the bad name that diploma and degree mills have given online learning.

First and foremost, it is not whether or not the school has a campus that makes it credible. It is whether or not it is ACCREDITED.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

Diploma mills operate in the “distance learning” (of which “online” is a part) modality, and so have given distance learning a bad name in the minds of those who don’t realize that even Harvard and Yale now offer distance learning programs. The acid test… the Bush-esque “decider,” if you will… is whether the distance learning program is accredited by an agency approved by the US Department of Education (USDE) or the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Period.

And you cannot take the school’s word for it on its web site. The diploma mills — most of which have VERY impressive web sites — lie about their accreditation.

Always, always, always LOOK-UP the school you’re contemplating applying to in either the CHEA database, or the USDE database, or both, to wit:

http://www.chea.org/search

http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/

A school can’t even BE in either of those databases unless it’s accredited. If you can’t find the school in which you’re interested in either of those databases, then STAY AWAY!

And that goes for ALL schools… not just distance learning schools.

As long as the distance learning program is ACCREDITED (as evidenced by either it or its school being listed in either or both of the CHEA and USDE databases), then it is credible, and as good as any other degree… including degrees earned solely in the classroom.

Don’t let anyone here misguide you about that.

SEE: http://www.examiner.com/x-6028-Global-Campus-Education-Examiner~y2009m6d29-The-US-Department-of-Education-releases-a-report-on-online-learning-studies

Most accredited degree programs will limit the number of credits earned elsewhere that you can transfer in. You only have nine (three classes), so you’re well below most programs’ limits. You should have no trouble transferring those three “general education” classes into virtually any other accredited program… that is, as long as those three classes were obtained from an accredited institution.

An associates in Accounting (which will probably have the “A.S.” designation), will not qualify you, you should know, to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or anything like that. You would need a bachelors degree (probably a “BS”) from a school that your state’s accounting board finds acceptable in order to sit for the CPA exam. Again, just so you know.

An AS in Accounting could, however, qualify you to be a bookeeper… maybe even a so-called “full charge” bookkeeper… and maybe even in an accounting office. You might also be able to work (as a bookkeeper) in the accounting departments of many small- to medium-sized companies. Such a degree would certainly be transferable into a regular four-year bachelors degree, and count as the first two years thereof… which would be my ultimate advice.

But, for now, you just want an associates (hopefully, not an “applied” associates… an “AAS”) in accounting; and you want it to be accredited; and you want it to be online.

Try the following Google search, which, because of the advanced operators used to refine it, will probably yield better and more relevant results (and for more pages full thereof) than I’ll bet you’ve been getting:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&num=100&newwindow=1&q=%2Baccounting+%2B%22associates%22+OR+%22associates+degree%22+OR+aa+OR+as+OR+%22a.a.%22+OR+%22a.s.%22+%2B%22distance+learning%22+OR+%22distance+education%22+site%3A.edu&aq=o&oq=&aqi=

Additionally, I believe that if you register for, and then ask questions in the forums at DEGREEINFO.COM (where I used to be an administrator), you’ll get no end of good recommendations.

Finally, you should get a copy of this book:

Bears Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Ten Speed Press; 16 edition (January 1, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1580086535
ISBN-13: 978-1580086530
Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.4 x 1.2 inches

Hope that helps.

EDIT: And by all means, follow the advice of “CoachT”, another answerer here, whom I believe I know from other forums; and whose advice, if I’m correct about who he is, has always been (and clearly remains, as evidenced by his answer here) stellar.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!