Accredited?

On 5/22/2021 at 2:23 PM, Pixie.RN said:

Excelsior College gave up its ACEN accreditation effective May 10, 2021, but they still have regional accreditation. There is info here: https://www.excelsior.edu/admissions/requirements/nursing-requirements/associate-in-nursing-requirements/

I looked it up but I'm still confused as to what it means.  From what I can gather I can still sit for the NCLEX in MA, which is all I really care about.  I just don't want to pay the tuition and end up not being able to finally get my RN. 

On 6/15/2021 at 4:16 PM, Lunah said:

Yes, apparently Massachusetts does not require its graduate nurses to have graduated from a nationally accredited program to be eligible to sit for the boards. You should double-check with the Mass BON, of course. However, do you have your ASN already? That is what your profile says, which would mean you are an RN?

No, I have my Associate in Science as well as a Diploma of Practical Nursing.  I had to move back to my home state to care for my Dad so I never bridged as I had intended.  Difficult to do so now because I'm not affiliated with any schools around here.  

There are some inaccurate terms being used in some replies here. Regionally accredited  (also called Institutional Accreditation) means the college has obtained the highest accreditation for its general education courses which will (usually) allow those courses to transfer (if comparable) to any other college. Regional accreditation looks at the financial status (will they go broke with out any notice and close), the quality of the curriculum, the quality and achievements of the faculty, the % of those who graduate and get employed....and those graduation/employment figures need to be available on the website.

National accreditation is some kind of hokey-pokey accreditation that is only used to get federal loan dollars for students. There a lot of things that can stay hidden or not even investigated. This accreditation doesn't look at financial strength...For examples 3 for-profit colleges only had national accreditation 

1. Corinthian College (more than 100 campuses)
2. ITT Technical Institute
3. Education Corporation of America (70 campuses)

Enrolled students arrived one morning to find the doors locked with no one home. Students are still fighting to get their money back.  Credits from most Nationally accredited programs DO NOT transfer unless a degree was conferred. I cannot speak for all of these programs however.

Programmatic accreditation Is a special accreditation from organizations like ACEN/CCNE that look at the total specifics of the professional (RN. LPN) curriculum. They also look at the financial support for the nursing programs, the quality of the faculty and the teaching methodology and equipment. The site visits are very thorough and expensive. ACEN had recognized Excelsior as a school of excellence 2016 - 2021

http://www.nln.org/recognition-programs/centers-of-excellence-in-nursing-education

The following is my opinion about what happened to Excelsior and is not from ANY accreditation body:

There were several  ADN students who failed many of the hallmark tests, wanted a lot of 'do overs'  and found some 'ambulance chaser' lawyers who lodged a big lawsuit to obtain $$$ from the school. Then, the ACEN accreditation body got involved and started demanding some changes in the ADN curriculum that were not acceptable to Excelsior. Excelsior, hesitant to spend more money on legal costs to try to reinstate ACEN accreditation decided to move on. The following link details the accreditation status for several Excelsior programs:

https://www.excelsior.edu/about/accreditations/

There are many postings on AN detailing if you can go on to a BSN program after graduating from a non ACEN program. Yes, there are many colleges that will accept you. 

If I have gotten any of this wrong, please let me know..