Plata said:
Before selecting any university be sure to check its ranking. Going to an unranked school or a for-profit school will do you no good if you leave aviation and pursue a different career.
Ranking implies a qualitative comparison. By whom?
US News has done it for years, but only ranks the top schools. East Propwash State doesn't have any reason to cooperate, since they'd be ranking well below West Pitot University. No bragging rights down there!
I believe you mean Accreditation, a voluntary process indulged in by every reputable (and some less so) institution of higher education. It's generally overseen by regional groups of colleges and universities, and involves the whole institution in goal-setting, self-examination and more, with a team of people from other equivalent schools coming in and verifying the appropriateness of standards and the accuracy of the evaluation. Usually done every ten years. It's Big Stuff in academia, and taken very seriously.
The results: Accredited, Provisionally Accredited (fix A,B,C by X, and we'll be back) or Not Accredited. The last one can be a kiss of death. Don't waste time and money at any school without accreditation.
Some disciplines also accredit departments or programs, Fenestration State's architecture program would be done by architecture people.
For Profit does not necessarily mean low quality. For some, yes it does - they're in business to make money and some are cheap and shoddy, existing on government-guaranteed loans and selling pseudo-education to anyone with a head still attached to his/her body. They virtually have to be more expensive - profits and growth for share-holders and marketing & advertising costs. University of Phoenix was once said to have tuition rates of 300-500% above public schools. Kaplan University is owned by the
Washington Post Company.
It's Caveat Emptor (buyer beware), with
any educational program. Shoddy can be anywhere.
I would suggest that outside of academic hiring (they kind of
have to believe in degrees - it's their core business, after all
), after you've been in the professional workplace for a while, your achievements there will outweigh
where you went to school. If you're doing a mid-life career change, sure having a degree in accounting matters if you're going for an accounting - related position, say. But your pitch is going to be on what your recent experience does to make you a better employee, more able to apply that experience to accounting. Plus what you've done to stay abreast of accounting trends and changes, going to get your CPA, whatever.
