Accredited Online Bible Colleges?

[valorJ]

I was browsing the net today looking for accredited online bible schools. I notice that some of the schools like http://www.amesbible.org/ offer a very large part of the program for a very low fee. After you finish with the first part, there are 11 courses left to take to complete a Bachelor of Arts.

My question is this: Do I need to be wary of the accreditation of the school I'm looking at attending when it comes to using the degree in the real world? And once I obtain this degree, I'd like to further my schooling and get another degree. Do I need to find a nationally accredited school or something, or would this be fine?

I want to find an online degree program that I can use in the real world. I mean, this seems great - but is there something I'm missing? How come it's so cheap? Obviously, money is the key issue here for me, as it is for everyone.

What about Regent University? They're more expensive, but are they nationally accredited?

Thanks!

 

[larryjf]

With a religious degree it depends on what you want to do with it. There are some unaccredited schools that have a really good reputation and will be transferable into an accredited program.

I know NationsUniversity is very well respected...
http://www.nationsu.org/

It's best to know the end that you want the degree for and then find out if that end can be met with an unaccredited degree first. For instance if you wanted to pastor for a particular denomination, you should find out if that denomination will accept degrees from the school first (accredited or not).

Some churches frown on accreditation because of the whole religious teaching being controlled by outside organizations thing.

Even Westminster Theological Seminary almost lost their accreditation because they didn't have a woman on their Board (only elders were on their board, and being PCA they don't have female elders).

I am also associated with an online university that is pretty cheap and has a pretty good curriculum. You can take that as a kind of disclaimer...
http://www.mountcarmelibs.org/

 

[valorJ]

Great! Thank you for your reply. I'll take a look at both of the colleges.

 

[Blank123]

another really good school is: http://midbible.ac.uk this Bible school is fully accredited through the University of Wales

 

[Ioustinos]

Liberty University

www.liberty.edu

 

[bliz]

The most desired accreditation is through one of the regional accrediting bodies. They include:

Middle States, Association of Colleges and Schools
New England Association of Schools and Colleges
North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
Northwest Association of School and Colleges
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Western Association of Schools and Colleges

There is no national accrediting organization.​

The other accrediting organization that is well respected and graduates from these schools can go on to graduate schools and professional schools is the Association for Biblical Higher Education http://abhe.gospelcom.net/index.html

Frankly, I would be hard pressed to imagine a scenario where I would suggest someone attend a college that was not either regionally accredited or accredited by the ABHE, or is in the process of gaining such accreditation. Ames is hot accredited by any of these.
​

Ames also does not list the names of their faculty members and where they received their educations or the names of their administrators and their qualifications. Usually this is not a very good sign. They are accredited by two organizations, but neither is well regarded. ​