How do you know that 'Regionally Accredited' is meaningful until you are educated? My high school guidance councillor certainly never talked about this.

My college actually shouted "we're accredited" at the top of their lungs, but I didn't give a fart until I was half way through the degree, and one of my profs talked to me about why they worked so hard ensuring accreditation (for the same reasons you state) - at which point I said, "pheww it's a good thing this place is accredited"

I had no difficulty getting a job after grad. But I certainly didn't know that accredited was important before I entered the course.

This is a mistake I made. My dad didn't go to college and my mom got a 2 year degree from a community college. A shitty for profit school sold me on the idea that I could get an awesome job in 2 years and then continue on to a bachelors program. Except that the credits don't transfer and you can only get the BS from the same shitty school. I also didn't see anyway I could pay for schooling without working full time and I didn't see how I could make that work at a traditional school.

Although I'm doing ok in my career I know many people who go to these types of schools do not. Now I don't know what to do. I would love to have gone or go to a 4 year state school. At this point in my life I make too much money and have too many responsibilities to be able to quit and go back to school. I also have 10 years in the field which I hope makes up for the education gap in some cases.

Are there any actually decent (accredited) programs that have hours for working people? The only way I see myself getting a BS is if there is a full night program somewhere but at this point I'm not even sure that it's worth taking on more debt.

Look into DePaul. They have decent distance learning and are accredited. The distance learning is like a second classroom that is remote (instead of like a MOOC). They record the lecture of the day and post it in the evening. If you have any tests, you often need to find a proctor. They also have restrictions on who can be a proctor (you can't just find a teacher friend).

> My high school guidance councillor certainly never talked about this.

They should have. :( It's sort of important.

The odd school here and there can get away without accreditation if their reputation allows it. For example, at least one of the founders of Pixar came from my former university, which has an unaccredited CS program (at least at the time I attended).

The focus in this discussion is on school accreditation. Program accreditation is a different beast of far more narrow interest. School accreditation is essential; program accreditation is a feature.

School accreditation is done by a regional accreditation organization and validates every diploma the school grants.

Program accreditation is only available for certain degrees to begin with, and is usually under the authority of a professional group in that area of study.

Practically every state university is an accredited institution, even if they offer (i.e.) accounting or engineering programs that are not accredited by a relevant organization.

Dunno how old you are, but I think most CS programs up until about 2003 werent accredited because no such program existed. Any BS from before that is just backed by the reputation of the school--which is basically the case save for the bottom of the barrel for every subject. (Because if you have to ask...)