I'm looking for an online college that will give me an accredited paralegal certificate.?

Question:

I'm looking for an accredited online college that will allow me to get a paralegal certificate. I was looking at "Canyon College", which seemed to be a pretty good choice, but when I did a little more research, I found that they're not really accredited by the U.S. Dept. of Education. Is this true? And does anyone have any suggestions for a good online college that won't give my parents heart attacks when they see the bills?

Answer:
You are correct, Canyon College is not accredited.

An interesting paralegal certificate program is at the University of Florida. http://www.correspondencestudy.ufl.edu/l...

Paralegal is out of my area of expertise, but I don't think you could go wrong with University of Florida.

Call some attorneys in your area and before you waste your time with an on line program, be sure they'll accept that degree plan. Two of my daughters and my older sister are paralegals. One of my daughters got her degree at University and has done nothing with it. She's an IT manager. My other daughter got her paralegal certificate through an accredited on line program. When she began applying for jobs, she constantly got beat out by the candidates who had gotten their certification through normal channels. My sister has no certification. She worked her way up in a legal practice and then began being hired away by more and more successful law practices who recognized the value of her years of experience. Finally, are you certain you want to be a paralegal? About 90% of your job will be research. If you don't like research, this may not be the profession for you!

I agree with SteviJan, except that the "research" I do as a paralegal is mainly factual (i.e. investigations). Duties vary widely from firm to firm.

To complicate issues, there are different agencies that accredit or license schools. In NY, the Department of Education does this, and there are paralegal schools advertising this credential. However, in NY, the schools regulated by the DOE are voc-tech types: bartending, hairdressing, etc. - not academic types of programs.

The ABA approves paralegal programs, but 100% online programs are not approved. However, there are some "limited residency" programs that are approved.

AAfPE (paralegal education association) has some member schools with online programs...check out those programs, since they have to meet some standards to join AAfPE.

I'm looking for an online college that will give me an accredited paralegal certificate.?

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