what is an accredited college?

Answer 1

Accreditation means that an organization outside the college itself has looked at the school and has found that it meets certain standards. I agree with Found-1 that any school which just says that it is accredited may very well be trying to make you believe that they are better than they are, because there are a lot of organizations out there who will sell an accreditation to just about anyone.

You also should know that there are two levels of accreditation. The whole college should be accredited by a regional accreditor - WASC, Middle States, North Central, etc. These are respected organizations which accredit the vast majority of legitimate schools. They look at everything from financial responsibility of the college to whether the school is actually following its own mission and whether the school can show that it is achieving what it claims to achieve. I don't know of any schools which choose not to get accredited, so if the college doesn't have regional accreditation, beware!

The second level of accreditation is at the level of the specific discipline. Not every discipline has a commonly-used accreditor (I don't think, for example, that most Philosophy departments are separately accredited), but in some schools, accreditation is a definite sign of quality. Education (NCATE), Engineering (ABET) and Business (AACSB) have premier accreditation organizations that schools aspire to. There are secondary organizations, such as ACBSP for Business, but they don't have the respect of the premier ones.

Answer 2

I'm sure there is a very long and technical answer someone is going to be able to give you here. I'm sorry I don't have it but my thoughts are this.
Any more, this term has been watered down by dozens of "accreditation" entities who say a school is accredited... and I always wonder, "Accredited by who and for what? Underwater nuclear basket weaving?" The brand new school always produces some peace of paper in a frame that I could print off on my own printer. Prob done by some guy who had the ten bucks to buy a domain name.

If you want to know if the school is legitimate (and I would recommend doing this if you are looking at a specialty proprietary school (massage therapy, equine massage therapy, cosmetology, bible college, radio/film school, stenography, the possibilities are mind boggling and endless) look them up on the Department of Education's Federal School code list.

Then they are legit and have a successful Dept of Ed history and you can receive federal financial aid to go to that school.