Accreditation???

Part of the confusion is that there are two different kinds of accreditation you need to consider. One is the general academic accreditation of the school, which applies to the entire school and has nothing to do specifically with nursing. In the case of general academic accreditation, regional accreditation is the "gold standard," as meanmary noted. MSCHE is one of the regional accrediting organizations that accredits "regular" (for lack of a better word) colleges and universities. The proprietary tech-voc schools, many of which offer nursing programs, are usually accredited by organizations that have been created and funded by the proprietary tech-voc schools, and those organizations are national organizations that offer national accreditation. That accreditation is basically meaningless (it exists so the schools can truthfully tell prospective students that they are "accredited" and hope that the prospective students won't know enough to ask further about it). Credits from schools with national general academic accreditation generally aren't able to be transferred to "regular" colleges and universities; because the tech-voc schools are held to lower academic standards than the schools that have regional (general academic) accreditation, the credits aren't equivalent to courses taken at schools with the higher level of accreditation, and they are usually worthless when you want to further your education later.

The nursing-specific accreditations, ACEN and CCNE, are both national accreditations, which is what makes this so confusing for newbies. National nursing accreditation is good; national academic accreditation is bad.

You want a school that has national nursing accreditation (ACEN or CCNE; there are some other health-related accreditations that, again, apply generally to the tech-voc schools, that mean nothing in nursing) and regional general academic accreditation.

Best wishes!

Well, when they tell you you can apply, they are telling the truth -- of course you can apply, same as anyone else; doesn't mean you'll get accepted, though. Also, there are the for-profit "diploma mill" schools, including nursing graduate programs, that will take anyone who applies, regardless, so there probably would be a few graduate programs that would accept you (not necessarily schools you want to attend).

Did you ask the school whether they are applying (or have already applied) for ACEN or CCNE accreditation? The accreditation process takes a few years, so there's no such thing as a new program that has nursing accreditation. Every program starts out unaccredited. And is the school you "fell in love with" a for-profit or a not-for-profit school? Many of the for-profit schools will tell potential students whatever they want to hear in order to get them to enroll and start paying tuition.