Accredited Versus Non-Accredited Beauty Schools

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Accredited Versus Non-Accredited Beauty Schools

Published: November 09, 2007
by Rosanne Ullman

You may notice that some beauty schools include the word accredited on their advertising materials. This word gives you important information about those beauty schools.

All colleges, universities and, yes, cosmetology schools are eligible to seek accreditation by a government-approved agency. Beauty schools that are accredited aren’t necessarily better than those that are not accredited. But they do meet the standards set by the agency, which most often is NACCAS, the National Accrediting Commission of Cosmetology Arts and Sciences (naccas.org). NACCAS accreditation ensures that the cosmetology school’s facilities, programs and graduate stats are at adequate levels and that the beauty schools deliver what they promise.

Accreditation is not the same as cosmetology licensing. You should make sure the beauty school you choose is licensed by your state.

To receive NACCAS accreditation, beauty schools have to pay an application fee and go through a lot of paperwork and in-house visits. Some cosmetology school owners do not feel it’s worth the time and money even though they would be able to meet the required standards. One benefit of accreditation is that it allows beauty schools to offer federally funded money like Pell grants and Stanford loans. However, both accredited and non-accredited cosmetology schools can offer private scholarships and bank loans. When you compare the tuition at various beauty schools, keep in mind that the additional scholarship opportunities at accredited schools often can offset their typically higher price.

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1 Comments

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Rosanne Ullman, January 24, 2008 11:20

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Dana, that's quite an observation for someone interested in hair and makeup! What I love about the salon industry is that when hair and makeup are done well, they help the person's inside to shine through to the outside. But I have to agree that today people tend to forget that; they often want their appearance to be the whole package. I'd like to hear more opinions on whether appearance is getting to be too much of the focus today.