UPDATE 03/31/2025 Penn Foster college classes (ACE only) are no longer approved. We will purge this record if they are not renewed for college credit within the next 6 months.
Penn Foster College is “the” originator of the nontraditional education model. They started in 1890 (that’s not a typo) as the International Correspondence Schools (ICS) and worked mainly with coal miners. So far, they have had over 13 million students! In 2006, they stopped doing correspondence education by mail and went online. They offer about 100 certificate, diploma, and degree programs.
Penn Foster holds 2 accreditations, but this is where parents need to pay attention. Their high school is regionally accredited while their career school is nationally accredited. For college credit earned in high school to transfer well, it should come from a college that is regionally accredited (RA). Since Penn Foster’s college classes are NOT regionally accredited (RA), this would normally exclude them from appearing here for our community.
PRO TIP: lack of regional accreditation (RA) doesn’t rule out a college for adults, but since career and vocational schools almost never qualify for regional accreditation (RA), a higher level of caution and wisdom must be used for teens.
Penn Foster did something special that bumps up the likelihood of credit transfer. They sought ACE evaluation for many of their courses. By obtaining ACE evaluation, that list of courses are now acceptable at a number of RA colleges that normally wouldn’t consider college credits from a nationally accredited college.
Penn Foster courses are self-paced. You have six months to complete the 5-6 exams (generally multiple choice). Some courses are starting to require homework, but at the time of this writing, I can not locate a way to search this out in advance. Some of the courses have proctored exams,;For high school students, consider only courses from this list (ACE evaluated)
Career Diplomas, Certificates, Degrees
Penn Foster specializes in trade occupations. Before pursuing a full credential, double check if your state requires a license to practice the occupation (not all do). If they do, be sure a nationally accredited credential can meet your state’s requirements for licensure. This extra due diligence is required for credentials like these, but if they’ll work for your state, these are an affordable and flexible option! Consider the option of using a program that includes ACE evaluated courses as part of the curriculum so you’ll retain some credit transfer if a higher degree is needed later.
Admissions requirements for specific programs (not individual classes) CLICK HERE