Blog#5 - Diploma Mills

Blog #5 - Ivory Tower Rip Offs - How Online Degree Mills Work

Stacy Schreiber

http://www.elearners.com/resources/diploma-mills.asp

SUMMARY

Diploma mills are apparently a new industry in today’s world. Since the growth of the internet, money hoarders now have a nearly free way to advertise a bogus campus, classes and student population. Our system supposedly lacks regulation in the “university” area. The rules are not specified as to what defines an institution and what doesn’t so people who would probably make better lawyers than crooks, find the loop holes and pull them to their maximum.

There are two types of diploma mills. The first type involves the student attending low quality, disorganized online classes. The other type basically sells the student a degree with his or her name on it.

A diligent student named Margaret Chester found a degree that seemed too good to be true…because it was. She enrolled in a program at Columbia Pacific University. She created her curriculum, her pace and her own assignments. In the beginning she wrote numerous papers and received good grades from her mystery teachers. Eight thousand dollars later, she was up to the point in her degree where she had to write a dissertation. She sent proposals to her fictitious support staff and they were rejected many times. Margaret did a little bit of digging and found out that her school was operating without the appropriate state approval, she withdrew.

Columbia State University was “busted”. The alumni who had received bogus degrees were informed. Some included people who worked in the White House…isn’t that comforting. More than one million dollars per month was being stolen from the student population.

Of the many survival tactics these school use to proliferate, the most popular tactic is the use of religion. Separation of church and state allow the schools to remain unchallenged. Bogus schools claim religious affiliation that often put any questions to rest.

Students can protect themselves from this by conducting thorough research before enrolling in any programs that sound too good to be true. Schools should be accredited by the appropriate officials. Asking lots of questions is also another great way to sniff out any inconsistencies.

REVIEW

For the amount of work I have put into my undergraduate degree and my masters, I think I would have a coronary if someone told me that my degree was bogus. I am still old fashioned in the respect that I do not trust these so called online classes.

I want to see my teachers and know that they are real people. I want to see my classmates as well. Though socially, these aspects can be challenging at times (given that I am a complete introvert), it is still worth it to know that I am working with real people.

Finally, if something seems too good to be true it probably is. I have better faith in the human senses. People know when they are being conned. They just need to be more confident and trust their instincts.

As for those people who claimed to not know that their degree was fake, I don’t believe them. I am sure that at some point, these people were the slightest bit suspicious of what was really going on. Getting a phony degree was just the easy way out,