Difference between an accredited college or approved

Each state "approves" schools to be eligible to have their students take the official exam to get their nursing license. (the NCLEX exam) Some people will use the word "accredited" for this process, but "approved" is really the better term.

"Accreditation" signifies another layer of approval above and beyond the state level. It means that a professional organization has given their approval, based on a set of standards maintained by that professional association. There are several different organizations that accredit schools. Some, accredit entire universities. Others, just focus on a specific course of study such as nursing. And of course, some organizations have higher standards than others.

For example, most major universities and colleges are accredited as a whole by regional organizations. Many for-profit schools, trade schools, career colleges, etc. are accredited by different organizations that focus on those types of schools. (I think some of those organizations are nationally based rather than regionally based.)

For the specific discipline of nursing, there are 2 major (national) organizations that accredit nursing programs. One is the National League for Nursing (NLN). Their accreditation arm is called NLNAC. They used to be the only organization, but today, they focus just on programs at either the BSN level or lower. The other organization is the American Association of Collegiate Nurses (AACN). They review and accredit programs at the BSN level and above. As you can see, at the BSN level, they overlap and schools can choose which set of standards they wish to meet.

Accreditation becomes particularly important should you ever want to apply to another school -- and use the credits earned in your original program. Most schools that are accredited will only accept as legitimate those courses that you took from another accredited school. They want to know that your courses were taken at a school that was good enough to meet the standards of either the NLN or the AACN.

The school should be happy to tell you what accreditations they have earned (on their websites or in other materials) -- and you can then go to the websites of those organizations to learn more about them.