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Dodge Degree-Mill Scams
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Dodge Degree-Mill Scams
— Susan Aaron, The Learning Coach
The Learning Coach knows you've gotten spam mail about this, but can you really earn a college degree based on your work and life experience?
For instance, one MonsterLearning reader asked: "I've been working in the same field for several years, but I don't hold a bachelor's degree. I've inquired about earning a degree for life experience from an accredited school, and I've been told I don't even have to take any classes. Is this degree a legitimate tool for advancement?"
If you've been working for several years in your field, you obviously have skills. You sound like a great candidate for earning college credits for life experience, and a lot of good colleges offer these. For example, Fordham University offers up to 32 credits for life experience.
But an entire degree sounds like a sham. Examine the Fordham program, and you'll see how strict it is about accepting life experience. The program administrators want to make sure your work and experiences are truly transferable. They want to be sure that if you obtain a degree with their institution's name on it, you won't ruin its reputation.
The Degree Mills
So why would a learning institution grant a complete degree without requiring students to attend classes? Chances are, it is not a learning institution at all. It is a degree mill.
Degree mills purport to evaluate your work and history, and usually there is no serious review. George Gollin, professor of physics at the University of Illinois, took a test for one such "university" while conducting independent research. After purposely failing to answer three-quarters of a test correctly, Gollin was told he qualified for an associate of arts degree.
An honest person looking to translate experience into a degree could easily believe this type of business is legitimate. Although one mill's Web site cited a degree as a way to attract women, most mill Web sites make their schools seem like long-established institutions. The sites will cite their legitimacy in the eyes of the law and their accreditation.
So how does a consumer determine if a school's claims are valid, or if they're based on legal loopholes or an accrediting body that is not, in fact, legitimate? How do you find a program that will reward your experience with a respected degree and avoid one that will waste time, money and your own hard-earned reputation?
Spotting Degree Mills
Watch out for the following scenarios:
- You don't need to do any work to earn a degree.
- You only need to take a few easy courses to complete a degree.
- The school's accreditation can't be verified. Check that the accrediting body is, itself, accredited. In the US, that means the accrediting agency is recognized by either the US Department of Education or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
The Risks Are Real
You can get a degree wholly through life experience and maybe an employer won't know the difference and you'll be more employable. But the risks are real. An interviewer asking about your days on campus, or an employer or HR department learning you never took the engineering courses you put on your resume can stop your job search in its tracks. Even if you get hired, you may have to confess later, and while you may not have wanted to be deceptive, it will look that way later.
The Internet has been a boon for degree mills. The worsening problem has not gone unnoticed by state and federal governments. Some states now consider the use of one of these degrees to be a misdemeanor offense. The main worry is that a worker may be able to obtain a position of extreme responsibility, such as becoming a doctor or teacher, without proper training, imperiling the health, safety or progress of others.
So be cautious. Even if you have the experience, deserve the corner office and are always helping out the guy who went to Ivy U, trust that feeling in the pit of your stomach, the one that says, "This seems too good to be true." There is no free ride on this campus shuttle.
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