The goal of accreditation is to ensure that education provided by institutions of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality. Accrediting agencies, which are private educational associations of regional or national scope, develop evaluation criteria and conduct peer evaluations to assess whether or not those criteria are met. Institutions and/or programs that request an agency's evaluation and that meet an agency's criteria are then "accredited" by that agency.
Be careful to check the accreditation of a school, because there have been schools claiming to be accredited which were not, therefore your hard earned degree cannot be transferred, or recognized by colleges and employers. Your best bet is to stick with a regionally accredited college or university, so you can easily transfer the credits should you wish to do so.
For more information on accreditation in the United States, please visit: http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/index.html.
To browse a complete list of accredited schools, go here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/.
Planning for college can be one of the most exciting times in a person's life. But it can also be stressful, because there's a lot that has to happen before you're actually enrolled. The process of selecting a college or university and applying for admission can be daunting. Call your individual school for an application or to see if they accept what is known as the common application, which you can find at www.commonapp.org. This application is accepted by more than 200 schools, making it easier to apply to more colleges. Schools each have their individual deadlines around January or February, but this can be earlier for the more competitive schools, since they have so many applications to review.
Filling out college applications always takes longer than you think it will, so start early. For letters of recommendation, ask teachers, counselors or employers - people that are familiar with you. Application fees generally start around $50 per application. If this presents a hardship to you or your family, you can sometimes get this fee waived with the university if you give them the appropriate information.
It's no secret that one of the greatest concerns of Americans is how to pay for higher education - either for their children or themselves. Tuition is annually increasing faster than the rate of inflation. In 2004, public four-year colleges saw a rise of 10.4% in tuition over the previous year, while private colleges saw a rise of 6%. Get more information on financial aid.