A woman taking her chances on pursuing a new career wishes she'd known the decision was a bigger gamble than she thought.

That's because her school, Harrison College in Elkhart, is still trying to obtain an accreditation for her program.

She‘s going to school to be a medical assistant, a program started at Harrison’s Elkhart campus in 2007.

But the student, who asked to remain anonymous since she still attends Harrison College, says the school wasn't clear with students that it was still applying for accreditation for the program.

She's concerned that her future success, as well as her classmates', partially relies on the decision of an accreditation board.

“It wasn't explained clearly, and if I would have known (they didn’t have the accreditation) I would have went to another school,” the student told WNDU Thursday.

The student says she was told that the school was accredited when she applied last June.

What she didn't realize was while all the programs at the school are accredited through ACICS, the program she was going to school for was not yet accredited by the CAAHEP.

The CAAHEP accreditation is required for students to take an exam to become a Certified Medical Assistant.

“Nobody will even look at me if I don't have that certification; I have to be backed up by that if I want a job, unless I want to go entry level,” the student said.

Justin Elliott, the president of the Elkhart campus, says they are in the process of getting that accreditation.

“All the indicators from the survey are that it is going well. Their comments to us are that we do have a strong program, which we are very happy about, and it’s just a matter of going through their process,” Elliott said.

The student we talked to said she didn't find out about that process until the accreditation surveyors stopped by last week.

But Elliott says it's in the documentation given to new students about the school's 15 campuses.

“Which of those campuses are accredited through CAAHEP for the medical assistant program, and our schools not listed as one who has it as of yet. So there's a variety of ways it can be communicated to them,” Elliott said.

Until the school gets the accreditation, no students in the program can take that test. That unknown is something this student wishes she had known when she went back to school after being laid off.

“It was a big risk for me to do this now as it stands, and now it seems there's another brick on my shoulders so yea that’s extremely scary,” the student said.

Elliot points out that seeking this accreditation is voluntary from the school’s perspective, and he sees it as an extra benefit to students that will only make the program stronger. Students in the program are currently eligible to take an exam to be a Registered Medical Assistant, through the schools ACICS accreditation. He also says that students that have already graduated from the program have been able to be successful without becoming a CMA up to this point.

Elliott says part of the confusion here is that there has to be a graduate of the program before the accreditation process can start. So inevitably, the first students will be in limbo at any school applying for the accreditation.

The student we talked to just wishes that would have been made clear when she was deciding where to go to school.

Elliott says the review board’s decision on the accreditation could come as early as three months from now, but that time table is uncertain. He says all indications are they’re well on their way to accreditation.

Students will not be able to register for the certification test until that accreditation is approved, but if it is, it will be retroactive to past graduates.

There are currently three graduates of the 2-year program from the Elkhart campus, and Elliott says there are 119 students currently enrolled in the program, which accounts for about one third of the campus’ student body.

After this story aired, Elliot announced the school will be holding two student meetings at 11:20 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Monday March 15th to address questions and concerns about this issue.