Accreditation & Student Outcomes

Accreditation & Student Outcomes

The American College of Financial Services is accredited by:

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education
3624 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

267-284-5000

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) is recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education to conduct accreditation activities for institutions of higher education in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, including distance education and correspondence education programs offered at those institutions. MSCHE is also recognized by the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) to accredit degree-granting institutions which offer one or more post-secondary educational programs of at least one academic year in length.

The Commission is a voluntary, non-governmental, membership association that defines, maintains, and promotes educational excellence across institutions with diverse missions, student populations, and resources. It examines each institution as a whole, rather than specific programs within institutions. The Commission assures students and the public of the educational quality of higher education. The Commission's accreditation process ensures institutional accountability, self-appraisal, improvement, and innovation through peer review and the rigorous application of standards within the context of institutional mission.

The American College of Financial Services has been accredited by the Middle States Commission since 1978.

Student outcomes for the period January 2009 - December 2016

The American College of Financial Services has offered professional designations in the financial services field since it first began offering the Chartered Life Underwriter® (CLU®) designation in 1927. The College has offered graduate degree programs since 1974 and began offering a PhD in Financial and Retirement Planning in 2013.

Solomon S. Huebner School (Undergraduate Studies)

The Huebner School offers five professional designations for agents and advisors working in the financial services industry and an educational program qualifying students to sit for CFP Board’s national certification exam. Students may take a single course, a full program, or multiple programs. Program completion rates reflect those student preferences as well as the rigorous nature of the coursework.

  • Huebner School designation programs range in scope from 3 to 9 courses. Aggregate first-designation completion rates vary by designation from 28.4 percent to 63.1 percent for students who entered The College between 2009 and 2011.*
  • The overall first-designation completion rate for all Huebner School programs is 32.8 percent.
  • Over the past five years, the CFP® certification exam pass rate for students who have completed The College’s CFP® education program has consistently exceeded the national average for all providers by between 8 and 12 percentage points annually.

Irwin Graduate School

Admission to The College’s graduate programs requires advanced professional experience. Graduation rates (and program completion rates for the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® designation) reflect the expertise of students accepted into these programs as well as the level of College support provided.

  • The Master of Science in Management (MSM) is a cohort-based program and has an aggregate graduation rate of 96.5 percent for students who enrolled in the program between 2012 and 2014.
  • The Master of Science in Financial Services (MSFS) has an aggregate graduation rate of 77.9 percent for students who enrolled between 2007 and 2009.*
  • The completion rate for the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® (CAP®) designation is 76.4 percent for students who enrolled between 2010 and 2012.*
  • Outcomes data for The College’s PhD program are not yet available.

General College Information

  • Since its founding in 1927, The College has awarded 249,777 designations and 3,505 master’s degrees. The College recently approved conferral of PhD degrees to the first class of graduates of that program.
  • From 2012 through 2016, 26.2 percent of designations and 27.7 percent of graduate degrees were awarded to women.
  • 20,413 students were enrolled in graduate and undergraduate programs at The College in the 12-month period from July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016.
  • Nearly 100 percent of The College’s students are employed in the financial services industry at the time they enroll.


*Designation program completion rates are calculated annually based on a five-year period from the year of enrollment. MSFS graduation rates are calculated based on a seven-year period from the year of enrollment. The American College of Financial Services reserves the right to revise the data shown as new data are generated. Information on this page was revised March 2017.