what are some of the best online schools that are accredited?

Answer 1

Check accreditation of any school in the U.S. by looking at the CHEA website at http://www.chea.org/search/search.asp

Also, there is a little more to accreditation than either Taranto or Prof posted. For accrediting an entire school, there are only the three different levels. Regional is best, National is second, and then there is unaccredited which is entirely unacceptable. Regional accreditation is granted by one of six regional accrediting agencies. National is granted by either DETC or ACICS. To the best of my knowledge, there are only the two national accreditors.

However, the absolute best accreditation is accreditation of a schools program. A program accreditation doesn't accredit the entire school, but usually just a section. For example, AACSB accredits business programs. ABET accredits engineering and technology programs. APA accredits psychology programs, etc. In order for a school to achieve an accreditation by one of the above agencies, it usually needs to be regionally accredited first.

Now, if you are thinking about University of Phoenix, Kaplan or Strayer or any other for-profit university, please reconsider. The gripe I have is the cost of the for-profits. For about one-third to one-half the cost of UoP, you can get a degree from a regionally accredited state school.

The following are some schools for you to consider. Each of the follow have tuition rates of $130 to $140 per credit hour except for APU. APU's tuition is $250 per credit hour but includes books.

Fort Hays State University - http://www.fhsu.edu/virtualcollege
Peru State University - http://www.peru.edu/offuttafb/degreeprograms/onlinelearning.htm
University of Wyoming - http://outreach.uwyo.edu/ocp/
American Public University - http://www.apu.apus.edu/index.htm

Good luck,

Answer 2

I am a little appalled at the uneducated response above. Regardless of delivery method (on ground, online, hybrid), a higher ed institution in the US can have 3 institutional accreditation statuses.

1. Regionally accredited - the highest and most useful.
2. Nationally accredited - real, but not as recognized or useful. Yes it is less than regional accreditation, which isn't intuitive.
3. Unaccredited

Be sure to check here before you enroll: http://www.chea.org/search/

As far as schools, depends what you are looking to go for. Might want to repost with more specifics. If at all possible, you'll want to go to a recognized school for maximum utility.

Good luck!

And obviously, you'll want to check with more reliable sources than Yahoo! Answers

EDIT: Great point by Linkin below. At the associates degree level, the curriculum is very vocational and learning the skills would be key. At the doctoral level, I don't think you would want to look online unless it was for purely personal development.

Answer 3

Online schools can be good, and even well respected. It just depends on what you're doing.

Employers don't have a problem with an associates degree from online schools. Even some types of bachelors are fine.

Get into the masters and up, then online isn't respected and you'll have to get in despite having an online degree.

Answer 4

This is a trick question.

Since there are no good online schools, there can be no best ones.

Many (like U of Phoenix) claim to be accredited -- but most of them only have regional accreditation -- and lack the more prestigious national accreditation.