Diploma Mills or Accredited Program?

Can you tell diploma mills from accredited degree programs? Before you sign up for a degree program whether on campus or online, spend hours, years and hard earned money on a degree, you want to be sure that it is accredited. An accreditation program means that it has undergone a self-evaluation process, been reviewed by peers, and other accrediting bodies. Accrediting organizations evaluate programs on the conformity to standards, which address mission, goals, and objectives, curriculum, faculty, students, administration and financial support, and physical resources and facilities.

On the other hand, diploma mills are actually for-profit organizations or businesses that pose as legitimate enterprises. Basically, they are fraudulent and only after making money yet not providing quality programming for students. Some will even print fake transcripts, write fake letters of recommendation and diplomas for a fee. What is my take on this? What's the point of getting that piece of paper if you can't do the job? Other diploma mills will fool students who genuinely want to get a real degree but sign up for programs that low quality only to later realize they are not legitimate, or accredited. My advise? Always do thorough research before registering for any classes or programs. As the Internet and online distance education took off, so did the instances of tricksters and scam artists. Be on the lookout for telling signs for example:

1. Some will have legitimate sounding names that sound like popular institutions.
2. The address changes constantly, uses a P.O. Box, or suite address
3. The website has many grammatical errors
4. The advertising uses a high sales pitch. For example it might say, "register today to receive a discount"
5. Limited interaction with instructors
6. No required homework, assignments etc
7. Promise of completing the degree in abnormally short period of time
8. Asking for banking information to withdraw funds for fees

The list is endless as new tricks emerge all the time. It is hard to keep track of all programs as they shut down and reopen all the time under different names. In addition it these tricksters are virtual and it is easy for them to trick people in different countries but hard to catch them because they do not use legitimate address. It is best to check with officials in government, and departments/ministries of education and official accrediting bodies.

It is risky to buy a degree or fake that you are qualified. For example, would you want to be treated by a doctor who is not legitimately qualified? There are also legal ramifications taking on some jobs without being fully qualified.

So before you enroll, or have doubts. Do the following:

• Be sure is it accredited by a real accrediting body.
• Many diploma mills will claim to be accredited by a fake body so watch out for those too.
• Check with licensing boards and professional associations under which they claim to offer programs.

As mentioned, it is difficult to keep up with a comprehensive list of all unaccredited program. The Oregon Student Assistance Commission website provides further information on accreditation pointers for spotting diploma mills and a list of United States accredited institutions. It lets you do a search for universities and accrediting bodies. Wikipedia also has a listing of of unrecognized accreditation associations of higher learning and list of those that are recognized. As noted, these are ever changing, so always check before you proceed.