[darkxanthos]

I was looking for something similar 6 years ago or so. “High quality” is difficult... but regionally accredited and a real degree does exist.

I went to Southern New Hampshire University and got my BA in Math w/ concentration in Applied Math. I started grad school at GA Tech for an MS in Operations Research via their distance learning program. I also got into USC and Kansas State.

I learned about this other degree after I was done though so you have at least two accredited options. It is slim pickings though: https://www.tesu.edu/heavin/ba/mathematics

[chrisseaton]

Why do you care about accreditation? Do people ask you if a degree is accredited? Nobody’s ever asked me.

[dragonwriter]

> Why do you care about accreditation? Do people ask you if a degree is accredited?

If people care about a degree and don't care about accreditation, you might as well just purchase one from a degree mill; but, yes, lots of people do care about accreditation. (And those that don't seem to care about accreditation as such often only don't because they are more selective, and disregard every degree not from a sufficiently elite subset of accredited schools, and treat other accredited schools as well as all unaccredited schools as worthless.)

> Nobody’s ever asked me.

Did they ever ask you where the degree was from?

[phaus]

I've never been asked either but some companies care where you went to school.

However, it still matters outside the context of trying to get a job. If for some reason you want to transfer to a different school, if you don't have a regionally accredited degree many universities won't accept any of your credits.

Accreditation is kind of a mess in the US. Regional is the golden standard. National is kind of a joke and if your school is nationally accredited it might not be good enough to transfer to a better school (really depends on the school some of them will take your credits).

The worst part is that many networks of universities create their own accreditation organizations with names that sound similar to the real ones.

From my experience, regional accredited schools can still be absolute shit, but for some reason its the most respected credential a school can have.

[closeparen]

Anyone can hang a shingle and sell “college.” Accreditation is the bare minimum indication that they’re speaking the same language as everyone else using the term.

[darkxanthos]

A very tangible reason to care if a degree is regionally accredited is that your degree will transfer to just about any other school. If my bachelors wasn’t regionally accredited I wouldn’t have gotten into my current masters program for example.

Like the other comments say as well... it’s basically what qualifies a “real” degree.

[projectramo]

In that case, consider this a degree. I mean, right now on HN, I have granted you my own HNC degree (HN comment).

You are hereby granted a PhD in biomedical engineering.

You are also granted a Master's in Accounting.

And a Bachelor's in Love Studies.

Done and done. Please type out and print your own Diplomas.

[chrisseaton]

People don't care about 'accreditation' - they care about the reputation of the individual institution you got the degree from.

[throwawayjava]

This is both false and not relevant.

This is false because many fields do care very much. E.g. medicine (and not just mds), law, the patent bar, and many engineering fields care about accreditation. Even degrees from highly acclaimed universities aren't enough if the degree isn't accredted by the right body (eg ABET for the patent bar).

This is also not relevant because, in practice, places with good reputations are typically accredited.

[optimuspaul]

I would agree with this. Many fields care a lot about accreditation.

I do think there are people that don't care, but I suspect they also don't care about the degree as well. They are more concerned about the real world performance of the individual. I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone in the above mentioned fields like that.

I also think that a Math degree falls into both of those "ideals", but more so on the side of accreditation is important.

[chrisseaton]

For example Stanford CS is not ABET accredited, or nationally accredited at all. Do people get turned away for having a Stanford degree because ABET haven't rubber stamped it?

[throwawayjava]

Probably not often because software companies don't care about PEs and because Stanford CS graduates are unlikely to apply for positions in non-CS fields (unless they also have an education in those fields).

But yes, there are a lot of jobs out there that even Stanford CS graduates aren't qualified for.

Note: the patent bar's eligibility rules have special exemptions for CS degrees that are not ABET accredited but do satisfy other criteria, so many Stanford CS graduates will automatically qualify for the patent bar based upon those alternative standards. But that doesn't mean the patent bar doesn't care about accreditation.

And it's worth noting that any institution with a half-decent reputation has some form of accreditation. Again, this was the second point of my post -- accreditation is actually does do a very good job at over-approximating the set of educational institutions whose degrees mean something.