Letter to Graduating High School Seniors

This letter was sent in from a concerned mother who wanted me to pass along the letter. 

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Letter to a High School Senior

Congratulations on your graduation! It's a proud moment when you have accomplished the goal of finishing high school. Your life is ahead of you and you've been making some important decisions like choosing a college, which will have a profound impact on your future.

So you have decided to attend Bob Jones University! You may have chosen this school to please your parents and pastor or perhaps you want to attend a Christian college. Do you understand that they have an issue with accreditation? Do you even understand what accreditation is and how it could affect you? Should you even care?

Well, it's time to Google! Up until 2005, BJU had no accreditation, but in the fall of that year they became accredited with TRACS,a Christian National accreditation association. Most people thought that this was a good move for the university and its students. Unfortunately, most didn't know that there was a big difference between Regional and National accreditation. Here is a website describing those differences. You can easily check on any school's website to find out more about their accreditation.

Since that time, there have been many stories of BJU graduates having issues with getting jobs and into graduate school. You can read some stories here or watch this short video. 

Last December, BJU made the announcement that they were going to look into becoming regionally accredited with SACS, tacitly implying that their TRACS accreditation has been a problem. As stated in the Collegian article, once gained, Regional accreditation is not retroactive and the process can take up to 5 years. As of today, BJU isn't listed as an “applicant” school.

I share these facts with you because it has influenced my decision when choosing a college. I personally know BJU grads who have had job and graduate school enrollment issues.Others have lost credits transferring and this has caused great financial burdens. I would hate for this to affect your education or future. Older graduates may not have had many issues, but with the onset of the computer with its online classes and diploma mills, the fact is that accreditation has become very important in the academic world during the last decade. A college degree should open up the world to you, not limit it in any way.