Let me see if I can give you a quick primer on Bible Colleges... It's hard to do becasue there are quite a wide variety of institutions that all under that lable.
First, there are 2 different kinds of degrees:
Associates (AS) generally a 2 year degree
Bachelor's (BA or BS) generally a 4 year degree
If you wish to go on the seminary or graduate school, you will uaually need a Bachelor's degree. (Some seminaries have exceptions) When people say "college degree" they are usually referring to a Bachelor's degree. To be admitted to a Bible college you will almost always need to have a HS diploma or a GED. There are often exceptions for diploma and certificate programs.
Then there is the matter of accredition... Every school that is legitimate believes that they are offering good quality education... but who else thinks so? An accredited school has a body of other educators also saying "This is a good school, it meets certain standards and does what it says it will do, their faculty are capable of teaching what they teach, they provide the resources necessary for learning, and their graduates are satisified with their education, etc. etc. "
In the United States the most highly regarded accredition comes from the regional accrediting associations - Middle States, Southern States, North Central, New England, etc. These groups require certain standards, a whole lot of paperwork and once every 10 years a team of people from other colleges comes and visits each college. For Bible Colleges there is also the Association of Biblical Higher Education, formerly the American Association of Bible Colleges. The ABHE is highly regarded. Most graduate schools, law schools, professional schools, readily accepts students who graduate from ABHE colleges. For a Bible COllege, AABC accredition is the "gold standard". Both of thee groups also have schools that are in the process of meeting the standards - these schools are candidates for accredition.
Having said that, there are Bible colleges who would disagree. They do not agree with the whole concept of humans putting their stamp of approval on a school when the only approval that matters is God's. They may not agree with AABC standards or doctrinal statement.
You will encounter other accrediting groups. Some of them are denominational - they accredit schools only in their denomination and are largly concerned with docrtinal standards, not academic standards. I once came across a accrediting body that had only accredited one Bible college - the college that owned and established the accrediting group! Big red flags to warn you off an iinstitution? College administrators without advanced degrees, a faculty made up almost exclusivly of graduates from the institution, faculty with very limited teaching experience. Schools that are an extension of ministries and under the control of the ministry.
Personally, no child of mine would ever attend a school that does not have ABHE or Regional accreditiion. No child I know of would attend one without having heard from me. I feel that attending an unaccredited school is cutting yourself off from all sorts of opportinities and options for the future. Even before you have begun your education, you have greatly limited what you will be able to do with it. Bear in mind that education is not just about what kind of work you can do when you first graduate. It is about what kind of work you can do when you are 40, and 60 and the world will have made many changes. I believe that Christians have a responsibility to have the necessary skills and training to help build the Kingdom. Since it's impossible to know at age 20 what God will have us doing at age 35, we should be as well prepared as possible.
I know others will disagree, but I'll let them make their own case.
How to proceed?
First, make sure that it is a Bible college that you want. There are Bible colleges and Christian liberal arts colleges. (The word liberal has nothing to do with politics or Biblical doctrine!) At Bible colleges all student major in Bible. They may also, and at many, they MUST also have another major, so all grads have a double major. Some schools limit these other majors to ministry related fields; others offer a broader range. At a Christian liberal arts colleges a wider array of majors are offered. All students will be required to take some Bible classes, and Bible and some ministry majors are almost always offered. I always encourage Christian students with any thought of ministry to look at both. (Another advantage of attending an ABHE accredited Bible college is that if you you feel led to a non Bible college major in a year or two, your credits will transfer to a CHristian liberal arts college or a non-Christian college or university if God leads you that way.)
You can get a list of ABHE schools at:
http://abhe.gospelcom.net/accredited.htm
Liberal arts and Bible colleges:
http://www.gospelcom.net/naccap/member_schools/
Both of these sites offer you, your parents, pastor and friends a lot of helpful information about Christian higher education.
By narrowing the list of possible schools down by majors, geographic region, denomination, size, rural or urban, sports or whatever other things matter to you, you will probaly have a workable number of schools. Check them out on-line, request additional information and you'll be off to a really great start.
Hope this makes sense! I'd be glad to help as you get further along in the process.
So I would love to hear someone elese's opinion on this subject at hand.
