Selecting a college or university to attend has several factors involved. Ironically, due to ignorance of standards, there are many myths that are perpetuated concerning acceptability of a particular college or university's degree in the real world, particularly with schools that offer distance learning programs. I've cut though the crap and have laid out, from MOST important to least, the majority of the standards you need to be concerned with. I've seperated them into 2 groups: professional and personal standards.

Professional Standards

- Make sure that the college is properly accredited. In the United States, this means one of the 6 regional accreditation agencies recognized by US Department of Education and the Council on Higher Education Accreditation, CHEA. Certain specialized programs, such as Nursing, and Engineering require additional certifications. For employment purposes and the purposes of having the most transferrable credits available for both undergraduate degrees and higher programs such as masters and doctorate, proper regional accreditation is the single most important thing to look for. Otherwise, that piece of paper you've worked so hard for is essentially worthless.
I should also mention to beware of diploma mills. These are fictitious colleges and universities that attempt to sell you a fake or worthless degree for hundreds or even thousands of dollars to "earn an AA [BA, MA, Ph.d] degree in 1 week!" In short, these programs require NO academic curriculum whatsoever and even go so far as to guarantee employment verification services. And the growth of the internet and good laser printers makes this possible. I wrote a seperate chapter on accreditation that goes more in-depth on this topic.

- Method of course delivery is irrelevant. For example, the degree will still say American Intercontinental Univerisity and the major or concentration. So will the transcripts. It does not matter whether you did the online program or not. Many people will often ask "Is that an online school?" to attatch a negative connotation to that school. Technically, the correct answer is NO; it is a regular, regionally accredited college, but it does offer online/internet courses or methods of study.

- The military also realized that there were phony diploma mills (explained in the accreditation section) that were scamming unknowing soldiers and sailors into buying their worthless degrees. So someone came up with a bright idea of creating a database of schools that offered the real thing, but also had some sort of distance learning specialization as well. Both military and civilians can use the Dantes Catalog to search for legitimate, properly accredited colleges and univerisities that offer degrees via distance learning.
For the purposes of the roadmap for the AS and BS degree completion found later on this website, I will discuss what has been referred to as the "Big Three" distance learning colleges:
  1. Excelsior College (formerly Regents College), Albany, NY.
  2. Thomas Edison State College (TESC), Trenton, NJ.
  3. Charter Oak State College (COSC), New Britain, CT.
They are referred to as the Big Three because they have degree plans that have NO residency requirement. That means, as long as the credits meet the core requirements of the degree plan (as determined by the school's official degree catalogs or academic advisors), you can transfer in 100% credits to satisfy degree requirements. (I go more in-depth on comparing the pros and cons of these schools later in the BS roadmap).

Quick FYI: if Excelsior or Thomas Edison sounds familiar from a college perspective, it is because they are the creators of the Excelsior College Examination, ECE and the Thomas Edison College Examination Program, TECEP respectively. These are college credit-by-examination where if you obtain a certain score on the test, you earn college credit! More on this in the BS roadmap.
Personal Standards

- Size of school. Does the school have 2000 or 20,000 people in it? Often, state schools tend to have a greater

- Program availability. Are the classes or program you are seeking available at the times and/or places that best fit your conditions?

- Demographics of student body. Will you feel comfortable with associating with what type of people will be going to that school? What if it is an all-female college?

- Professor access. When are the teachers available to discuss course-related topics and questions outside of normal classroom sessions?

- Quality of facilities such as libraries, sports equipment and arenas, computer and research labs, etc.
- Reputation. This is hard to measure quantitatively, but statistics such as job placement percentages and % of those who successfully move on to graduate programs are usually very helpful. Some magazines, such as Forbes and US News and World Report publish their top 10/20 schools in different catagories (nation, region, online, business, engineering, etc). But again, look at the criteria they use. How are they measuring success? Is it the curriculum? Job placement? Average starting salaries of graduates? Student surveys? Prestige alone is NOT a valid indicator of success. Don't overemphasize reviews too much; your best bet is to use your own judgement in determining the best college for your educational and professional goals.

Lawrie Miller of bain4weeks.com has an interesting perspective on the "Name Game;" how institutions use specific names for themselves to appear more prestigious.

- Affordability. Without the funds, you will NOT be able to attend that school, PERIOD. State schools are usually cheaper for in-state residents. Military members and dependents almost ALWAYS qualify for the in-state tuition or other special grants/discounts. And this is on top of the Mongomory GI Bill and/or Tuition Assistance you may qualify for. Don't forget about scholarships, grants, and low-cost loans. Think about the maximum amount of debt you are willing to take on.
- Transferrability. If you are going to a 2-year college and then plan on moving on to a 4-year institution, you want to make sure that the 4 year institution in which you are applying will accept all of the 2-year institution's transfer credits. This also refers to taking courses at one school for the purpose of transferring over to another. Although most regionally accredited schools accept each others credits willingly, each college/university has their own policy as to which courses will satisfy specific degree requirements. This also includes CLEP, DSST, Military, corporate, and other college credit sources. There are also usually maximum transfer credits in which a school will accept. Hence, there is a minimum number of credits that must be taken directly from the college or university (on-campus or distance learning courses). This is referred to as the residency requirement.

NOTE: ALWAYS, ALWAYS check the college's degree catalog/student guide/academic policies or speak with an admissions/academic advisor from the school in which you are seeking admissions to verify approval of transfer credit (whether course or examination) in fulfilling degree requirements. Have an official review of your credits done. This is where the academic advisors receive official transcripts of all your previous college-level work and break down which credits they deam acceptable for your major or degree plan (discussed later on).
There are hundreds of other regionally accredited schools that offer degrees from a distance. In addition to the criterion on what to use to evaluate a college listed above, Usually those that are best for maximizing transfer credits will have a minimal residency requirement (33% or lower). This is different from most 4-year traditional schools which only allow about 50% transfer credits (basically an associates degree) towards the Bachelors.

A couple of schools that I can think of off the top of my head are Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (a popular choice for those like me in the aviation community), and SUNY Empire State College, which was the one that I actually was going to go to originally. These two only have a 25% residency requirement, which still isn't bad if you find using the "big 3" to be infeasable in completing your objectives.

Now onto a quick blurb on the importance of accreditation and diploma mills.....
Study for the exams:
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