It's like Debeers and their practice of hoarding diamonds to artificially inflate their value. "If the college isn't accredited it's no good" is such "common k

It's like Debeers and their practice of hoarding diamonds to artificially inflate their value. "If the college isn't accredited it's no good" is such "common knowledge" that even saying it out loud feels foolish, but overlooks that the education is what's most important, followed by the social contacts that you make along the way. If a non-accredited college offered more rigorous education and produced superior students at a fraction of the cost than the average state college, then why should a handful of fuddie-duddies with no incentive to investigate get to decide that the college is worthless? Of course, it's easy to envision a competent college, where hard science, math, history and arts are taught by talented educators adhering to a rigorous syllabus, but implementing it and preventing students from cheating their way through and mucking the whole system up is a different story altogether.