Even if you aren't sure which college you're going to attend, there's one thing you can be sure of. You want to attend an accredited college. Why's that? Because it is only accredited colleges and universities that grant degrees which are guaranteed to be recognized by future employers and/or other schools (in the event you wish to transfer).

Accreditation means that the school is recognized by an authority as having a certain educational quality. The accreditation can be revoked in the event the school's educational quality drops, so your research as to whether or not your college or university is accredited should take its current status into consideration, as well as its historical status.

Attending college or university costs a lot of money, and many people apply for student loans to make ends meet. Another reason why attending accredited colleges is so important is because getting a loan to attend a school without that stamp of approval is next to impossible.

It's worth the expense of going to an accredited school in the long run (according to a report from the US Census Bureau). Graduates with advanced degrees make three times more than someone who joins the workforce directly from high school, and at least four times more than high school dropouts.

The most recent figures used to back up this information were that dropouts can expect to earn less than $20,000 per annum, while someone with a Master's Degree or Doctorate will pull in at least $80,000 annually.

If you come across an institution that claims to have accreditation, there is a way you can verify this claim for yourself. There are organizations like CHEA (the Council for Higher Education Accreditation) whose members are degree-granting educational institutions.

Some red flags you should certainly watch for to determine whether a school is actually a "diploma mill" is if they make degrees available too easily: through direct purchase certainly or in an extremely short time period -- or even by issuing a diploma based solely on your resume.

You need to treat your search for colleges as any consumer might search for a specific service, always with "buyer beware" in mind, and never be afraid to ask all the right questions. Do not accept unsubstantiated responses: it's very easy to make the claim that an organization has accreditation, and fool students into believing it's a valuable degree program.

Also remember that not all states require accreditation nor do all schools seek out that designation. As long as you are told the truth upfront, and you realize that future employers must be made aware by you in the event your degree was issued by a non-accredited school, you are operating under full disclosure.