My Norwich University Experience : Diploma Mills

The Latest Diploma Mill News

WheelCipher — Tue, 19 May 2009 09:55:00 GMT

The latest diploma mill news involves a key leader at the U.S. Army's Aviation and Missile Command. It seems that he used his fake degree to get a pay raise and promotion. A local news station caught him in the act. This guy‘s resume lists that he got that bachelor's degree in 2001 (from the diploma mill). The next year, he got a promotion, to Senior Command Representative in Korea. Two years later, he was reassigned to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville as the Deputy Director of Readiness. He was later promoted to Director of Readiness.

(Read the story here. It's three pages)

(Here is a link to the fake university)

The diploma mill in question is The Trinity College and University. The name even sounds hokey. Any institution I have ever heard of is either a college or a university. Not both. The slogan for the school is “providing degrees based on your previous life experience”, but I am sure you can just buy the one that meets your needs. They even let you order a cap and gown for a pretend graduation.

What is really funny is their section about accreditation.

At Trinity, we believe that by having an Accreditation Association, the Correspondence Accreditation Association (CAA), the awards are stimulated, strengthened and substantiated. So we formed the association, the Correspondence Accreditation Association, which will confirm your awards to any enquirer. Upon written request, we confirm the degree awarded, its date and subject, this is normally all that is required from any inquirer.

They needed to be accredited so they started their own agency. How neat.

We can also supply Transcript of Studies at a cost of £30 (US$50) and Legal Declarations of the authenticity of your degree certificates at a cost of £30 (US$50) each. Not everyone needs transcripts since most european (sic) institutions do not supply them, but we will supply them on the basis of your degree and your experience where required.

This “school” is in Spain. I am not sure what (if anything) American agencies can do to them. But I wanted to make you aware of it.

Diploma mills have been outed.

In my next post, I will write about what I think of people who get “degrees” from diploma mills and use them for promotions and other self-interest.

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Is It Real?

WheelCipher — Sat, 16 May 2009 11:30:00 GMT

I received an e-mail the other day from a fan who evidently reads my blog. The email was short and to the point. It simply asked if my degree from Kaplan University was real, or were they a diploma mill.

I was not sure what to think. In one of those rare moments where I was not sure what to say to such as question, I just replied, “It’s real. It got me into a very good graduate school.” What this tells me is that (1) people are not doing their homework and (2) there is some stigma out there regarding online degrees. I think that if someone had any questions about a certain school being a diploma mill, there would be enough information out there that would confirm or deny any suspicions that might exist. This is especially true here at e-Learners.

Second, I have personally witnessed what has been a tremendous (and legitimate) fear of online education subside to almost nothing over the past six years. The proliferation of diploma mills “back in the day” was a real fear and to some extent, is still a fear for some people.

What has transitioned over the past six years or so since I started my college career at Kaplan is a flood of credible accounts of people like myself taking the leap into online education. Sites like e-Learners, the media, and traditional brick-and-mortar schools adopting distance learning has done so much toward reducing the fear of diploma mills.

Furthermore, many people have been “outed” for listing diploma mills in their credentials. Every once in a while we see the article that talks about people in government and other high-ranking positions who took the easy way out. Awareness of the impact of diploma mills has caused the truth to float to the top. This is good for us.

The bottom line is that people need to do their homework. Do not be afraid to ask others who have been there. People need to understand accreditation. Define your dreams and go for it.

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Diploma Mill Humor

WheelCipher — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:00:00 GMT

I try to keep up with diploma mill action around the country. If for no other reason than the hysterical chuckle it gives me when I read their misguided e-mail. I received one recently that was quite humorous.

Subject: You are nominated for the MBA

Bacheelor, MasteerMBA, and Doctoraate diplomas available in the field of your choice that's right, you can even become a Doctor and receive all the benefits that comes with it!

Our Diplomas/Certificates are recognised in most countries

No required examination, tests, classes, books, or interviews.

** No one is turned down
** Confidentiality assured

CALL US 24 HOURS A DAY, 7 DAYS A WEEK

For US: 1-781-634-7970
Outside US: +1-781-634-7970

"Just leave your NAME & PHONE NO. (with CountryCode)" in the voicemail

our staff will get back to you in next few days

Now if I were going to send out a spam message trying to lure unsuspecting people into giving me money, the first thing I would do is run a spell-checker. Another good way to detect if this is a scam is to plug in the phone numbers into Google. That will tell you the story.

The reason we have spam at all is because a small percentage of people will reply to them. If nobody replied, spam would disappear. Unfortunately, there are probably still some people out there that will take advantage of this tremendous offer for a doctorate degree. No tests, no books, no interviews? Wow! How can anyone pass that up?

The Chicago Tribune has a good article on diploma mills and a first-hand documentary of how a reporter got a $699 “Life Experience” degree.

If you are new to distance learning, please don’t fall for these scams. The best way to avoid them is to delete the mail and come to legit sites like eLearners. The information is out there.

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Fan Mail From Lee

WheelCipher — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:24:00 GMT

I recently received a great question from Lee.

I'm attending Kaplan University for my MBA. I've read that you got your BS degree from there. I want to know how good this school is. Is it hard to graduate from here? Is it very well-known by most employers? If I got my MBA degree from here, do you think I can get a good job in the east coast somewhere? I hope they're not 'diploma-mill' like some people have posted online!

All of these are good concerns. First of all, if you are attending Kaplan for your MBA, I would change schools immediately before you spend more money and time. This is NOT a knock on Kaplan, but their MBA program is not accredited by one of the two primary agencies that oversee this type of program. Those agencies are the AACSB and ACBSP. I have posted extensively about these agencies.

What employers will generally look for is the school you attend for your MBA, but it does matter if they’ve heard of the school or not. There are tons of colleges of all different sizes that people have not heard of. What they are looking for is their accreditation status. Unless the program is accredited by one of the aforementioned agencies, the employer might not look too highly on your efforts.

Finding a good job is relevant. There are a lot of factors. Is the job you are training for in high demand? Is the economy good? Are you willing to relocate to find a good job? This is a question that I can’t answer directly because of those factors.

Finally, Kaplan is not a diploma mill. Their undergraduate programs are accredited by a recognized regional agency. I have no problem recommending Kaplan to anyone looking for an accredited undergrad degree. For a graduate degree (especially the MBA) I would suggest that you find a school that is accredited. Perhaps Kaplan will achieve this milestone in the future. But my opinion is that you could be spinning your wheels by going to a school that is not accredited by AACSB or ACBSP.

Do you have any questions about distance education or anything in this post? Feel free to contact Scott anytime!

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Mississippi Cracking Down on Diploma Mills

WheelCipher — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:00:00 GMT

If you live in Mississippi and operate a diploma mill or other unaccredited “college”, you might want to find shelter. It appears that the state of Mississippi is going to start cracking down on people doing just that. What really caught my attention is the quote which pretty much acknowledges that Mississippi is a haven for such operations, and “virtually anyone who wanted to set up a college could…”

What’s more shocking is that the owner of the school in question in the article is unrepentant. She claims that “the University of Oxford isn’t accredited.” She conveniently leaves out that not only does Oxford not exist in the USA, Oxford is 912 years old and doesn’t operate from a mail drop in Mississippi. Do these people have no shame?

I am very glad to see the state government cracking down on these people. The subjects of this article seem to make a habit of moving from state to state until they aren’t hassled. Now it appears that Mississippi (with some of the most lax laws in this area) is coming around.

In other diploma mill news, it looks like there may be some focus being placed on high schools that operate in the same way college diploma mills do. Some college athletes are going to be affected by a crackdown in one particular high school diploma mill. I certainly hope this is an isolated case. It would be sad to see a “new breed” of diploma mill.

The bottom line is that it is going to take some real effort on the part of state governments to help eradicate our domain of these “institutions” that give a bad name to distance learning. I am thrilled to see Mississippi doing just that.

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