After 2.333 long, stressful years, going to school, working full-time, turning 50 in the first semester, marrying and burying family members...
They announced tonight that the Appalachian State University MSW program is ACCREDITED!
Even though we will be graduating as the most annoying cohort ever (a bunch of 50 year olds do not take academic silliness real well and are pretty open about stating our opinions) we will be graduating from a fully accredited program. Oh, man...we are a happy cohort tonight :-)

Congrats! That's great news!

congratulations! Having also graduated from a program that was "only in candidacy," and then 25 years later having been hired to build and seek accreditiation of a brand new social work program, I can appreciate the courage and committment that you and your classmates must have had to maintain through a long period of uncertainty.

Certainly the faculty worked hard, but it is the students in such circumstances that are really taking on the lions share of risk.

What you may not yet see, is that there is a tendancy in programs seeking initial accreditation: to perhaps be a little bit "over the top" in the development of curriculum. Another common benefit of being there "in the beginning" is that there is an increased liklihood that the course content, exercises, assignments, texts and faculty are more likely to be really up to date and relevant to TODAYS issues.

I'm very happy for you. Welcome aboard.
Gary Bachman

Congratulations! My program gained accreditation while I was in it, and it was definitely a cause for celebration. Don't let any of your cohort downplay his/her contribution to this awesome event!