Not the Degree you thought it was.
jrzgrl
70 Posts
One of our funding sources requires us to verify degrees by simply making a copy of the original and writing "original seen" on that copy. We go one step further and actually call the school to verify it and, as we are finding out, there are "Universities" online that will issue degrees within 14 days for a fee. So far we have found Suffield University and Trinity College to be two of these places you can go for a really good-looking degree. Does anyone else have any that I can add to my list?
Comments
I have a friend who is a news producer for CBS in ATL and they were doing a story on how easy it was to get a degree over the internet. So, they wanted to see if they could get one for a dog. The dog just happened to be my Charlie.
I will have to find the degree and look at it and let you know.
By the way, he is a Nurse Practioner and an Ordained Minister. Reverend Charlie Brown!
Suffield University even has a Student Store link on their website. We're looking into getting T-shirts for the lacrosse team for everyone.
In any event, there are TONS of diploma mills out on the web. You can get up to a PhD and JD online and never set foot in a class room. My suggestion is to check the school's accreditation.
CHEA maintains a searchable database of accredited colleges/universities, and indicates who provided the accreditation. For most BA/BA-level, non-professional degrees you are looking for the regional college/university accrediting body. Not, e.g., the National Association of Bible Colleges. See [url]http://www.chea.org/[/url]
There are, for instance, not one, not two, but SIX Trinity Colleges listed, three of whom appear to have their regional accreditation (TN: this your cousin's school in CT). But note: there could be numerous places with this name who have no accreditation at all and so aren't on CHEA, perhaps including one mentioned by jrzgrl. If you are not sure which accrediting institution you should find(e.g., WASC out here in the west), a simple way to find out is to search for a well-recognized college nearby and see who accredits them. They should generally reference the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities (which, of course, should make clear that junior colleges have their own separate system and I know nothing about that).
And you can (nee, should) go one step further. Most graduate and professional schools have additional accreditation for their particular programs, such as AACSB for business schools. This is a much more stringent screen.
I was T&E Director for a company with a generous tuition program, and I instituted this requirement. One of the "life-experience" MBA programs we were cutting off cajoled, berated and paraded before me. Their last move was to "offer" me an adjunct professor role, to which I responded by throwing them out of our buildings, and off our dole, forevermore.
Regards,
Steve Mac
Steve McElfresh, PhD
Principal & Founder
HR Futures
408.605.1870
My transcript indicates every course taken, the grade, the semester, the date it was printed, and the date my degree was conferred.
We have a new one in town named Virginia College. I think they're a diploma mill, although they do have a physical plant and a couple of trees and require that people show up for at least 'some' classroom time. And, I've never asked for a copy of a diploma. It's transcript or nothing. I can crank out diplomas on my printer. In fact I have given three associates a suitable for framing multi-colored photo of Otis on a mule, with the heading, Otis Campbell Lifetime Achievement Award.
Don: my other degrees are too embarassing to list, fry calculus notwithstanding.
Regards,
Steve Mac
Steve McElfresh, PhD
Principal & Founder
HR Futures
408.605.1870