In the United States, certification is not compulsory for theology schools to award religious AA, BA, MA, or Ph.D degrees. A religious academic degree (AA, BA, MA, or Ph.D) is valid in America. Institutions offering purely spiritual degrees are exempt from licencing requisites in many regions, subject to specific conventions in each state.Some seminaries choose to get certification in order to be accepted to award academic degrees vs. religious degrees. There are many major authorization organizations that particularize in orthodox religious schools. These are the Association of Advanced Rabbinical and Talmudic Schools, the Association for Biblical Higher Education, the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada, Online Seminary and the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools, and the American Board of Theological Institutions (ABTI).