Exactly how important is accreditation.?

fieldsports
Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:48:51 +0000

If you’re taking a more technical field than general business administration, I am not the best person to know the significance of accreditation; I would defer to people currently working in that field.

About the schools, it seems that you hope to transfer to Temple anyway, and ultimately have a four-year degree from Temple. As such, if you’re paying a premium to take the first two years at a private college, you can probably get a better value for yourself at a community college, or perhaps at Penn State Abington or Penn State Brandywine. Some people assume that a four-year school is always better than a two-year school and going away is always better than commuting. It’s not as simple as that. Some of those schools can offer high-quality academics and good transfer advising. You have to look at the overall plan for your degree and beyond. A successful year at such a school could improve your transfer prospects (both as to admission and merit aid). Maybe Penn State Main Campus would become an option for years 3 and 4, if that appeals to you.

I believe (for my own kids, at least) that college is supposed to help a young person get started on a more comfortable and fulfilling adult life. Some people see it as finishing school – a place to camp out between late adolescence and early adulthood, the expenses don’t matter, the job prospects afterward don’t matter. Most of us are not in a position to take that attitude. If it’s meant to give you a leg up on a nicer life as a young adult, debt can pull you back down in the other direction. It amazes me how some people, who would never borrow tens of thousands of dollars to take a vacation, will borrow it so that the first 60 credits can be earned in a residential setting (when the student could get the same first two years of education more affordably, transfer, and end up with the same more distinguished school on four-year diploma). There are often no real bargains available for years three and four. It seems a shame in the long run to over-spend on years one and two, and then potentially take decades digging out of it. When one graduates, one wants to be able to buy a car, maybe travel, buy a house, perhaps relocate to take a dream job and acquire the wardrobe that will be needed for the job, maybe get married and have kids – all this often within 10 years or so of college graduation. Debt can interfere.

In some parts of the country, it seems that people do not have two-year schools within commuting distance that offer solid academics. In the Philadelphia area, you probably do have some solid bargains available to you. If you speak to Temple (or Penn State) now about your community college options or Penn State satellite options, and explain your intended major, you can probably even get some good advice about what to take in order to successfully transfer the credits and stay on track for only needing four more semesters when you ultimately get to those four year schools.