a long presentation about one guy's quest to hunt down and destroy degree mills, those nasty places that pass out advanced degrees (in medicine, law, psychology, etc.) for a few grand in greenbacks. Try to imagine someone cutting you open who had a fake degree, or counseling you after a tragic accident and had no real training in grief counseling...

http://www.hep.uiuc.edu/home/g-gollin/diploma_mills.pdf

He makes tracking them down look so easy (and in many ways, it apparently is).

 

Interesting find. While a ficticous advanced "degree" may look nice on a wall, for those who require state licensure, it wouldn't even come close. Sure, some may get away with the scam for a while, but it would have to be in a field that does not interact with other disciplines. For example...in medicine, there are several checks to ensure that the provider is legit. Not to mention that if one were to pose as say a physician, it would be nearly impossible to fully carry out some of the most basic functions such as prescription writing.

But heck, I could use another diploma on the wall. Where do I sign up? NOT!

 

One of the longer examples provided in the presentation was on a "Dr." who worked for an organization that was "dedicated to aiding Law Enforcement and victims of heinous crimes." One of his duties included "crisis management and counseling for those effected by violent crime". No training, but he was helping victims... talk about scarring someone for life!

There's a nice list of people actually working looking for work (or actually working) in the medical field (i.e., presecription time).

 

Somewhat related question... can someone receive a college degree solely based on "life experiences"?

I know someone who claims that he received an BS degree from one of those online universities (accredited) solely based on life experiences.

 

Mav yes that BS would stand for a "Bull Sh*t" degree based on life experiences

 

A few years back, the school board was about to hire some guy for a six-figure position as one of the deputy superintendents (of construction, I think). He had gone through a bunch of interviews and was pretty much assured of the job.....until someone checked up on where he got his advanced degree. Turns out, it came from some unaccredited Caribbean college. At first he tried to play it off as "yeah, I really did do work to earn it" and when he was asked to show this work, he finally admitted that he had just payed the $$$ to get it.



Boy, I bet that sucked!

 

That's some of the exact wording these "universities" use when providing you with the degree... they call it "life experience". They even provide written references from your "professors" (they don't exist, either). since few companies do much checking, they get away with it time and time again.

 

After that whole hoopla w/ the school board deputy superintendent a few years back, they now list this message on their employment webpage:

Required degrees must be earned from an institution accredited by an organization that is recognized by the Council for Higher Education (CHEA), the United States Department of Education, a regional accreditation agency or other recognized agency of state or federal government in the United States.

To determine if your higher education degree meets the minimum qualification linked to accreditation, please view the list of schools on the CHEA website, http://www.chea.org .

PLEASE NOTE:
In submitting a resume of application for employment with The School Board of Broward County, Florida, any inaccurate or misrepresentation of information included on your resume of application is considered fraudulent and will result in immediate termination of employment.

 

BTW Happy Thanksgiving... you never texted me back.

 

At freaking 11:45 PM!!!!!! A little late there!! Plus i was sleeping had to wake up at 4:30 am the next day! so to you!