US universities accreditation for respective states

How do you find out whether a Master’s or PhD is accredited for a particular university? Are the accreditations required? What are the consequences you will face if the university program is not accredited?

First let me tell you what accreditation is, It is the quality assurance process to ensure the quality of the education provided by the university meets the acceptable standards. If the university program meets the standard then it’s accredited.

Why should one student check accreditation of schools, these are the main reasons.

• Degrees should be accredited if you want a job after graduation. Why would someone hire a student who studied from a university which is n’t accredited?
• What if you want to transfer university after a semester or two, you would obviously want to transfer your credits too; if the previous university is not accredited then the new university would n’t consider your credits.
• If you score less in GRE and go to a consultancy for selection of university, and they suggest you universities which you might not have come across, you need to cross check whether the university program is accredited or not to proceed further.

The website to check the accreditation of universities in US is United stated Department of education.

There are 6 regional accreditors in United States for higher education accreditation.

1. Middle stated association for schools and colleges
For states Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands

2. New England Association of Schools and Colleges.
 For states Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont

3. North West commission on Colleges and universities.
For states Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington

4. North central association of colleges and universities.
For states Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan,Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

5. Southern association of colleges and Schools

    For states Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia

6. Western association of Schools and Colleges

    For states California, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Federated States of Micronesia, Northern Marianas Islands, Palau

You can also find the national level accreditation at any of these websites

United states department of Education 

Council of higher education accreditation