Accreditation for Christian colleges and Universities is very similar to accreditation for any college. Think of Accreditation as quality control; the purpose is to confirm that the university or program at the university meets a specific standard and will prepare students effectively for careers and life after college. Christian colleges, like other colleges, can acquire regional, national, or program accreditation through the same process that secular colleges do, which can take anywhere from one year to over ten years. Accreditation, in order to be considered valid by the government, must be done using a private accreditor approved by the United States Department of Education. A list of approved accreditors and accreditor programs can be found on the ED website. The regional accreditation is considered to be the most prestigious and strict of the accreditations, and also the most sought after.
Most Christian colleges will also acquire a Faith-based accreditation, through the Department of Education, such as the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS). The faith-based accreditation ensures that a college identifying as religious or Christian meets certain secular and religious standards.
It is important to know if the schools you are looking into are accredited and with what accreditation before you commit to attending. Accreditation plays a big role in financial aid and can greatly impact the sort of jobs you can be considered for post-graduation. If a school is not accredited by a government-approved accreditor, students attending that school will not qualify for government financial aid. That includes Pell grants, state grants, and federal loans. Additionally, many private scholarships will not be able to be used at schools that are not accredited. Attending schools that are not accredited significantly limits the types of financial aid that a student can qualify for, making college a much more expensive endeavor.
Knowing the accreditation of a school also plays a big role in transferring colleges. It is not guaranteed that your credits will transfer from an unaccredited university to an accredited one. Typically, regionally accredited universities accept credits transferred from other regionally accredited universities, but not always from nationally accredited universities, because the standards are higher for regionally accredited universities. This can make transferring from universities of different accreditation status difficult and can result in students having to back-track in their education.
Additionally, some jobs will pass over applicants with degrees from unaccredited universities; especially jobs that require some sort of license or certification, such as nurses or lawyers. If the career that you want to go into requires a license or certification, do the research to determine if the university and the program the degree is acquired from need to be accredited for a future in that career field; it is likely that accreditation is a requirement.