Accredidation to some means that the "State" USDE (U S DEPT EDU) recognizes the accrediting organization.
To others accredidation means an organization made of a group of accrediters has reviewed the school and accredited them, however the organization is not recognized by the USDE or a State Dept. of Education.
Some very good schools are affiliated with but not accredited by accrediting organizations that a recognized by the Governemtn agency.
So you really need to define what you mean by accredited.
SATS is very reasonable, compared to other accredited institutions. And while "some local churches" will find issue, certainly, pulpit committees that do their homework will see the difference between SATS and an institution such as Andersonville.
? My BTh was CHEAPER than Andersonville would have been...I think it cost me less than 2,000 dollars, total! Unless their rates have went up substantially...
Slidell Baptist Seminary is very reasonable:
They send out CD's for you to take notes and then a final.
Here is what they say about accredidation:
"On October 9, 1997, after being examined educationally, ethically, and spiritually, SBS qualified for accreditation by the American Accrediting Association of Theological Institutions, Inc. of Rocky Mount, North Carolina."
Here is what wiki says about the accrediting organization:
"American Accrediting Association of Theological Institutions (AAATI) is a Christian nonprofit accreditation mill, based in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.[1] It was formed in 1983.[citation needed] It is operated by Cecil Johnson, president of Christian Bible College, a distance education Bible college based in Rocky Mount that Levicoff identifies as a diploma mill.[2]
AAATI is not recognized as an accreditor by either the United States Department of Education and Council for Higher Education Accreditation"
So you judge accredited or not?
They have many pastors shown online with degrees so churches do hire men with their degree's from SBS.
If I had to choose between Slidell or Andersonville I'd go with Andersonville. At least you might be able to get into Liberty with a degree from there and their web site isn't a joke like Slidell's.
I don't think either's degree would transfer to an accredited school.
I know a man who received several degrees from SBS and one just received His Associates they say it is a great school.
So define degree mill, is it one which requires no actual work, or one that issues a degree for money.
Or is it any school that isn't accredited by a proper approved accrediting agency?
Define what you consider work and course selection.
Then we need to define the accrediting agency does it need to be approved by the US Dept of Education or a regional group?
I mean some folks see a colege where you work hard to get a degree in bible or theology and yet the school chooses not to apply for accrediatation, for several reasons.
For instance Louisiana Baptist Universty is well recognized even by Liberty but they are not accredited would you consider them a degree mill?
What makes a school a degree mill in your opinion?
I'll create a new thread for this question, I had read it and see a guy had a problem but I have a Pastor that is recommending them and a man who is his associate pastor taking classes from them that highly recommend Slidel so based on the one guys experience and reading their website you judge them a diploma mill.
So I asked how do you determine a diploma mill.
I'll make it a new thread though.
If you do a search on Andersonville and Liberty, you will find several mentions of an Andersonville Bachelors being used for at least conditional acceptance into LBTS's MDiv program. I've thought about trying to take that route myself, but would prefer a degree that would get me into one of the SBC seminaries.