Answer 1: Yes, according to their website Columbia Southern University is accredited. It is always a good idea, before accepting admissions at any University, to make sure t
…hey are accredited. Answer 2: To the first answerer I respond, "yes, but, fortheloveofgod, don't believe what any school says on its own website about it! Degree/diploma mill websites lie about it every single day!" The quick and short answer to the question is "yes, Coumbia Southern University is accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC), which is a "national" accreditor, approved by the US Department of Education (USDE), and the USDE-sanctioned Council for Higher Educational Accreditation (CHEA)." It is not, however, "regionally" accredited, by one of the six big USDE- and CHEA-approved "regional" accreditors; which "regional" accreditation many argue is superior to "national" accreditation. The jury's still out on that, as far as I'm concerned; but I will concede that there is a definite prejudice against "national" accreditation in the minds of some employers, colleges/universities, and governmental agencies. And so, if one wants to ensure that his/her degree will positively be accepted by everyone, then one should probably stick with only schools that are "regionally" (and not "nationally") accredited. The only reliable way, in any case, to determin whether a school is accredited is not to look on the school's website. Again, if it's a degree mill, then it will most assuredly lie; it might even create its own fake accreditor, build an impressive-looking website for it, and then claim to be accredited by it. Never believe what a school's website says about its own accreditation.Always, always, always independently verify! Always! And the fastest way to do that is to interrogate the USDE and/or CHEA websites. They both have look-up systems where one may look-up a given school and see, in just seconds, if it's accredited. If the school's not in at least one of those two databases, then it's not accredited, no matter what it claims on its website! I've placed links to both the USDE and CHEA databases down in the "sources and related links" section of this web page. Any time you want to know if a post-secondary school is accredited, just look it up in either or both of those databases. It seriously only takes seconds! (MORE) 
