Program accreditation

[jonm86]

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Does anyone know anything about programs that are approved for candidacy for accreditation but are not yet accredited? For instance is there any guarantee to the students if eventually accreditation is not granted?

 

[Ptroni91]

I don't have any personal experience but every time I saw a program be a candidate, it would eventually be accredited a few years down the road, however there's no 100% guarantee that it'll be accredited. There's no guarantee to the students if the accreditation isn't granted, therefore I feel like it's not worth the risk to enroll to a non-accredited program.

 

[OneWarrior]

Does anyone know anything about programs that are approved for candidacy for accreditation but are not yet accredited? For instance is there any guarantee to the students if eventually accreditation is not granted?

I thought I would share my experience...

One of the schools that I was accepted to had been granted candidate for accreditation status. CAPTE would return in three years to determine if the school would move from their pre-accreditation status to full accreditation. The program director stated that the inaugural class would be given a 'pass' because they would have completed the entire 3 year program. Thus, the very first class would be able to sit for the NPTE and become licensed. As a result of the three year wait period in order to receive full accreditation, two additional classes would have started before the school was officially notified of either approved or denied accreditation status. The program director stated that agreements had been put in place with other accredited physical therapy schools in the state that would allow the first and second year students to transfer to other schools should they not received accreditation. The director also informed me that it would take some catastrophic events to happen in order for the school to not receive full accreditation. Of course, this is all from the program director of that particular school and I personally did not check other resources to verify his statements.

I could somewhat understand the fact that the inaugural class would be given a 'pass' to take the NPTE because of the 3 year wait in between pre-accreditation and accreditation, but I was skeptical because most jobs state that you must have graduated from an accredited physical therapy program. Personally, I did not want to go to a school and put in 3 years to find out at the end that the school would not receive accreditation. One of those things that I thought would not look good on my resume when it came time for a job.

With that being said, this school did have some safeguards in place for students, but there was no guarantee. Your best option may be to contact the school to ask these particular questions because they are important when it comes to you selecting a school to attend. Additionally, schools invest a lot of time and effort in setting up programs that require accreditation and I would find it hard to imagine a school not being granted accreditation. However, there are no guarantees and I personally wouldn't take the chance if there are other options available to you.