THECOLLEGEDEGREES.COM BLOG

I have a friend who has been teaching for about two years. He decided to go back to school to finish a graduate degree program in teaching. After considering his options, he chose an online degree program that would allow him to finish his degree in about two years. I asked him what made him choose a distance learning degree program over a traditional college degree program, and he shared his answers with me.

His spouse has a job that requires mobility, so he couldn’t be certain that he would be in the same city a year or two years from the time he started school. In addition, he would be working full time and wanted to be able to maintain the flexibility that distance learning could offer. He was also planning to start a family, and did not want to be away from home at college several days a week.

He’s finished the first year of his program, and tells me that he is very satisfied with his experience so far. He chose an accredited university degree program, and told me that his school system had no issues with the crediblity of his degree. He is just glad to be able to complete the requirements for his job without putting the rest of his life on hold.

His wife is happy, too, that he is able to meet his career goals without losing family time. He tells me that he doesn’t have any trouble completing the course work, because he always knows when his next paper will be due, and he is the only one responsible for making his learning experience successful. It certainly seems to be working well for him!

For years, online degree schools have been warning people against diploma mills and fake degrees from online universities. Educators and site sponsors such as www.thecollegedegrees.com have been warning people to check to make sure the colleges are accredited. Now, however, these fake college degree programs have added a new twist to their masquerade.

Some of these schools are now urging students to get an accredited graduate degree online. Others are claiming to offer accredited undergraduate programs. They proudly post accreditations on their websites or offer information about their accreditation with their brochures and advertisement mailings.

The only problem with these online degree schools, however, is that they are NOT ACCREDITED AT ALL! They are posting false information about the status of their programs. Furthermore, some schools are failing to list the fact that not all of their online degree course offerings are accredited.

If you are considering a distance degree, check reputable websites such as www.degree.com, wwwthedegree.com, or www.thecollegedegrees.com to find schools that are actually accredited. Don’t waste your money and your time falling for someone else’s scam.

Because this is a relatively new phenomenon, it remains to be seen how the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will handle complaints concerning this problem. Fake accreditation does constitute false advertising, and these diploma mills may find out that they have bit off considerably more than they can chew with their latest ploy.