How to Check a School or Program Before You Enroll

A polished website proves nothing. Neither does a “.edu” address, a list of accreditors on the school’s own site, or an admissions rep who calls back within the hour. The Federal Trade Commission warns that fake schools often have slick websites and make up their own accrediting bodies.

The good news is that the checks that actually matter are free, public and take an evening. Work through them in this order; the early ones can rule a program out before you spend time on the rest.

1. Confirm the school is accredited by a recognized accreditor

   Accreditation is a review by an outside organization that judges whether a school meets quality standards. The word that matters is recognized: the accreditor itself should be recognized by the U.S. Department of Education or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Schools generally need accreditation from a federally recognized accreditor for students to use federal financial aid there.

   Look the school up yourself in two places:

   • The Department of Education’s Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs (DAPIP), which lists schools and programs accredited by agencies the Secretary of Education recognizes.
   • CHEA’s directory of accredited institutions and programs, which also lists recognized accreditors.

   If the school says it is accredited but you can’t find it, or its accreditor isn’t on either list, stop here. The Department notes DAPIP data come from accreditors and aren’t audited, so if something looks off, confirm with the accrediting agency directly.

2. Check programmatic accreditation if your field has it

   There are two layers. Institutional accreditation covers the whole school. Programmatic accreditation covers one program, such as nursing, physical therapy assisting, engineering or law. CHEA explains that institutions and individual programs are reviewed by different sets of accreditors.

   In some fields, programmatic accreditation is the difference between being allowed to sit for a licensing exam and not. A school can be fully accredited while a specific program is not. Search the program by name in the CHEA directory, and look up what your state’s licensing board requires.

3. Read the school’s outcomes, not its brochure

   Two federal tools pull from the same core government data and are worth opening side by side:

   • College Scorecard shows graduation rates, typical debt, net price and median earnings, with many results broken out by field of study. Earnings figures only cover students who received federal aid, and very small programs may have data suppressed, so “no data” is not the same as “bad results.”
   • College Navigator, from the National Center for Education Statistics, lets you search by program and award level and compare schools, including retention and graduation information.

   Look at the graduation or completion rate first. A cheap program that most people don’t finish is not cheap. Then compare earnings for your field at that school with the same field at other schools near you, because the Scorecard notes that a school-wide median can hide big differences between programs.

   Illustrative example

   Say Program A costs $6,000 and about 1 in 3 students who start it finish. Program B costs $9,000 and about 3 in 4 finish. Per enrolling student, A looks cheaper. But if you think of cost per finisher, A is roughly $18,000 ($6,000 times 3) and B is roughly $12,000 ($9,000 divided by 0.75). Completion rates don’t predict your result, but they tell you how well the program supports people like you to the end.

4. For licensed fields, get the exam pass rate

   If the job requires a license (nursing, cosmetology, many allied health roles, some trades), the program’s first-time pass rate on the licensing exam is one of the most useful numbers you can get. Many state licensing boards publish pass rates by school; programs also often report them on their own sites. Ask for the most recent year and how many students took the exam, since a high rate on a handful of test-takers says less.

   Also ask whether the program meets licensure requirements in the state where you’ll live. Under federal rules, schools must disclose whether programs that lead to a license meet the educational requirements in each state, and must tell a prospective student directly if the program doesn’t meet, or hasn’t been checked against, the rules where that student is located. This matters most for online programs; see our guide on online vs in-person learning.

5. Confirm the state lets the school operate, and look for complaints

   Accreditation and state approval are separate. Schools generally need authorization from the state where they operate, and private career schools in many states are licensed by a state agency. Your state’s higher education agency or attorney general’s office can tell you whether a school is approved and whether there is a pattern of complaints. The FTC specifically suggests asking your attorney general whether a school is operating legally.

   While you’re at it, search the school’s name along with words like “lawsuit,” “settlement” or “closure.” A past problem isn’t automatically disqualifying, but you want to know about it before you enroll, not after.

6. Find out whether credits will transfer, in both directions

   Two questions here. Will the school accept credit you already have? And if you leave or move on, will other schools accept this school’s credits?

   Schools are required to publish their transfer-of-credit policies and, on request, a list of schools they have articulation agreements with, under the federal consumer-information rules for schools that take federal aid. The test the FTC suggests is blunt and effective: call the registrar at a local public college and ask whether it would accept credits from the school you’re considering.

7. Price the whole program, not the first term

   Get the total for the entire program in writing: tuition, fees, books, tools, uniforms, lab or clinical fees, exam and licensing fees, and living costs if you’ll work less. Then use the school’s net price calculator, which estimates what you’d pay after grants. Our guide to net price vs sticker price walks through it.

   If borrowing is part of the plan, compare likely debt to likely earnings before you sign anything. These questions before borrowing help.

8. Read the refund and withdrawal policy before you pay

   Ask what happens to your money if you withdraw after one week, one month and halfway through. Refund rules come from the school’s own policy, sometimes state law, and, if you use federal aid, federal rules about returning aid that can leave you owing the school. Get the policy in writing and know the dates that matter.

9. Run the red-flag check

   Drawing on the FTC’s guidance on degree scams and common sense, walk away from any of these:

   • Pressure to enroll or sign today, or a “discount” that expires this week
   • Promises of a guaranteed job, guaranteed salary or guaranteed admission
   • A degree based only on “life experience,” with no real coursework
   • A degree in days or weeks, or tuition charged per degree instead of per credit or course
   • Accreditors you can’t find in DAPIP or the CHEA directory
   • Vague or missing answers about completion rates, job placement or refunds
   • Reluctance to put costs and promises in writing

   If you suspect a diploma mill, the FTC accepts complaints at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and your state attorney general’s office can tell you whether a school is operating legally.

When you’ve narrowed it to two or three programs, put the answers next to each other in the program comparison worksheet. Differences that seemed small in a sales conversation tend to look larger in a grid.