Archive for the ‘Online Degree Scam’ Category

Online Colleges

I met an old friend of mine yesterday at the coffee shop. Her name is Sophia. A very good friend of mine whom I lost contact with some years ago. But yes she is one those most studious girls in the class. Her eye for detail astonishes me greatly. Given her a job she does it extremely well and finds out what it takes to do it better. It was only on a chat with her that I learned about Online Degree Colleges. She had to quit her college studies to support her family and has made it big in her job with online degrees that allowed her to work and study as well. It was an unexpectedly long chat. She was telling me about how online colleges enables a person to study at any time of the day and from anywhere in the world. The study by capacity concept that allowed students complete their courses at their own pace supported with Online Lectures delivered by eminent professors. Interactive forum for the benefit of students to clarify their doubts and seek clarifications. It was wonderful solution for anybody who wishes to study when they are way past their college days.

Fraudulent Colleges

As she was telling me she also spoke about the need to verify the legitimacy of the colleges under review. I believe with the emergence of a number of illegitimate online course providers, whose aim is to offer a degree for money has become a serious threat to those students who are genuinely looking forward to make a career. It is both waste of time and money where your real need is cashed and you are ditched with a lifeless degree certification which has neither meaning nor recognition. She was talking about a term called Diploma Mills. She said those colleges which offer degree for money or those that which offer a affordable course curriculum, which can be completed at a ridiculous time frame are normally classified as Diploma Mills. If I can recollect well she was talking about a check list that will help you save falling prey to such fraudulent colleges.

Check points to avoid falling prey to imposters

Sophia was simply fabulous the way she jotted down the points in a lightening speed, let me try and put them down

• Be clear on the course of education you wish to take up and focus your search on colleges offering them.
• Check for the accreditation from the US department of education and other regional council, in their respective list published every year.
• Get opinions from the past pupil who had been through the course curriculum.
• Always go for reputed colleges.
• Age old colleges always have a name in the industry.
• Study the curriculum to check for a genuine and feasible course structure
• Check for the basis on which such degrees are offered, if it is based on your experience or any other consideration other than studying and passing exams, be sure they are diploma mills.

The discussion ended as she had to leave to catch up for an appointment for a client. Don’t you think my friend was fabulous? Are there any more friends in the forum who have better details and experience, please do share it? May be we can catch with another episode of coffee shop.

Online Degrees

Students who are willing to pursue their graduation and post graduation courses but are not in a position to study in a regular college due to various other commitments, consider online education as a boon to achieve their goal of completing college education. These are distance learning education which help them attend to classes at the time and place of their convenience. The earning capacity of an individual who has completed graduation is much more than the one who has completed his high school. Hence those who wish to study their graduation can right away do it with the help of accredited institutions and universities over the net. A number of variety courses are offered over the net offering wide choice of learning to aspiring students.

Best Accredited Online Degrees

Before choosing to join any real time educational course it is important to verify the reliability of the institution and the courses offered by them. There are a number of predatory agencies who make money out of the genuine need of students to study, where both time and money is wasted for no reason what so ever. Appropriate steps should be taken to ensure the institution is accredited with either a state or central organization.

A search over the net will let you know whether the institution or university of your choice is accredited and the courses offered have a valid recognition. In order to avoid scams and diploma mills from spoiling your educational dream, it is important that you conduct in depth research before investing any money.

The US department of education provides a list of accredited institutions that provide distance graduate and post graduate learning over the net. In addition to this a number of state organizations recognize certain online colleges and universities and certified by them for recognition and validity.

Below you will find must avoid list of Online Degree Blunders.

• To start with, earn Online Degree in a subject which you are comfortable with, rather than choosing subject on the basis of present trends.
• Check the accreditation of the online university first before taking admission in any online degree program. Some students do not give much importance to accreditation, thinking that it’s all about earning a degree. This is a wrong way of thinking because non accredited online degrees are just a waste of your time and money especially with the fact that number of top class universities and employers do not accept non-accredited degrees.
• The syllabus of Online Degree Program generally decides how much knowledge you are going to gain. Number of students takes the syllabus thing very lightly. Don’t do this because if you are not careful it can have a negative impact on your career. If possible, analyze the syllabus details first before enrolling in any program.
• Lots of students believe that earning online degree is much simpler in nature as compared to earning a degree from a traditional college or university. This is ridiculous to say the least because the course structure of both these degree programs is quite identical. If you do not study on a regular basis, there is a strong possibility that you are going to struggle in earning an online degree. Instead of just studying on weekends, make sure that you study daily for at least three to four hours.
• In order to get a job quickly, some students go for an accelerated degree program. They do not take into consideration their time table. Stay away from accelerated degree program when your schedule is tight because accelerated degree program will require plenty of your time and effort.
• There is a wrong notion among majority of students that online degree program is not that costly. Although, this is true to some extent but when it comes to getting education from top class online universities, you need to pay more. Therefore, before taking admission in any online university, make sure that you do some research first and see which online universities are costly and which are affordable. Generally speaking, go for a degree program that suits your financial condition. Taking student loans at high interest rates is definitely not the way to go. The repayment schedule of student loans is also quite tight so you may face some issues in repaying the loan amount. Instead of taking risk on student loans, apply for scholarships.
• Don’t just learn from the study material that is being provided by your Online University. Quite a number of times, study material are not that comprehensive and therefore you may miss some important points. To get rid of this situation, it is of paramount importance that you also study from textbooks and reference books. By following this route, you increase your chances of earning an online degree.

A diploma mill can be termed as a business where people makes money by calling themselves as a legitimate university or a college. These fraudulent degree providers will give all kinds of degrees to students, right from associate degree to master’s degree without taking into consideration their academic performances. In some cases, they also offer doctoral degrees, which is the highest education level one can achieve. Diploma mills sell printed degrees and offer academic references to students who are interested in buying degrees. What’s more, some of them also allow students to buy academic honors.

Customers:

A diploma mill normally has two kinds of customers:

• First one in the list is customers that are looking for a genuine academic degree but do not know anything about the fact that they are registering.
• Secondly, there are customers who know fully well that they are doing fraud. These kinds of customers are interested in building their academic profile quickly so that they can get a new job and go for a more advanced degree program.

Diploma mills routines:

Online education is quite a new thing to number of educational organizations, with most of them constantly developing and modifying its syllabus in order to make sure that students do not miss anything important. With new degree programs coming into fray on a regular basis, it’s very easy for someone to come up with a website that gives an impression of a legitimate college.
Unfortunately, the World Wide Web can be an ideal location where scams can target students. If the website of a diploma mill is designed properly with a right kind of writing and good images, students will not be able to detect that the degrees they are offering is fake. After all, registering a website with .edu extension is quite a straightforward affair. Establishing such mill is quite easy. You just need a decent quality color printer, e-mail address, phone number and a properly designed website to accomplish this task.

Kinds of Diploma Mills:

They are of two kinds. The one that provide below standard, specious courses and another that just sell you a degree copy with your name and address on it.

Identifying the scam:

• Nine out of ten times, diploma mills have names identical to famous universities. Only difference being that you will not find accreditation details.
• They changes addresses on a regular basis. In some cases, they also relocate from one state to another.
• The written material will have plenty of grammatical errors. Surprisingly, you will find spelling and grammatical errors in diploma too.
• Mostly they will give students a promise of earning degree more quickly. Sometimes they will offer you degree in less than 27 days. In some cases, they will provide degree with specific backdate printed.
• When it comes to admission in diploma mills, you do not need to give any sort of entrance examination or interviews.

With modern technology, the internet offers all possible information needed to students regarding online learning. This includes course details, financial aid and course material. Online Degrees are usually targeted for working adults who want to get higher education without discontinuing their jobs.

Buyer Beware

Students need to be cautious when selecting an online college as, with the popularity of Online Colleges, there is an increase in online degree scams. You need to research the college you have chosen to be sure it is legitimate. There are scores of unaccredited online distance education colleges which are known as “degree mills”. There are also many fake agencies that claim to accredit any organization that pays for it without being legally approved. Degree mills claim to offer degrees in short time frame and some offer courses which do not require any studying or exams. Students need to just pay money to earn their phony online degree.

Accreditation

An accredited degree has multifold benefits as it indicates that the course is recognized and follows certain educational standards and the credits earned can be transferred to another accredited college for continuing education. Financial aid in the form of student loans is only offered to Online Colleges that are fully accredited by authorized educational accrediting agencies. To be sure that the college and the online degree you choose has legitimate accreditation, you can check out their accreditation with the US Department of Education or CHEA. This way your degree has the weight you need to get the job you want.