Today, I figured that I would spend a little time talking about whether it is important to get your education through an accredited college or university.  The simplest answer is that you can rarely go wrong with a properly accredited education.  

Plenty of people receive their education through unaccredited schools and they make very good use of their education.  But, there are significant problems with that kind of education.  For example, many employers do not acknowledge or accept these types of degrees and you may have some difficulty gaining admission to other schools with a degree from a non-accredited school.

The unaccredited option may work for people who really don't need a degree, but rather want one, either for self satisfaction ("validating my life's work" is a phrase I sometimes hear), or to give themselves a marketing edge. One large subset of satisfied unaccredited degree-users, for instance, is therapists, who typically need only a Master's degree for their state license. But they feel that if they have a Ph.D., and use that title in their advertising, they will have an edge over competitors without the doctorate. The same is the case with owners or executives of small businesses.  A real estate agent with an MBA or a business planner with a doctorate in finance, may get more clients because of the higher degree, and indeed may have additional useful knowledge.

For other situations, I would recommend that you check to see if your potential school is accredited or not.  I would pick an accredited school over a non-accredited one any day of the week. 

Tomorrow, I will provide some insight on the whole accreditation process.