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Article Series: Online Degrees
Is An Online
Degree Program For Me?
Watch
Out For Fake Online Degree Programs
More and more online degree programs are being
designed not to help you learn, but instead to take the money
out of your pocket. Every year these schools take hundreds
of thousands of dollars from students who are just looking
to learn, leaving them with nothing but a pretty piece of paper
that has no real value. Obviously this can be devastating to
the well-meaning student, and to ensure that you aren’t the
person that gets taken advantage of, there are a few things
to watch for. Most of these things all diploma mills will have
in common, but if even two or three of these crop up you should
run the other way screaming bloody murder.
The
first and most common method a school will use is that
of a fake accreditation site. Any online degree program can
boast that it offers a fully accredited program. However, it
doesn’t matter if the degree program is accredited – what matters
is who the program is accredited by. A lot of diploma mills
will have an accreditation mill working behind them that will
likely have a slick looking website that is all style and very
little substance. To make sure you don’t get taken advantage
of be sure to check with the regional association before handing
over your information and losing thousands of dollars.
Most
fake programs won’t give you a lot of contact information. If there is no phone number or address you should probably
begin to look somewhere else. Sure, email can be very convenient,
however any legitimate school will allow you access to someone
over the phone. If you can’t get a hold of anyone, than it
probably isn’t a legitimate school.
As mentioned above, most
diploma mills are all style and no substance. This goes for their website as well. They will likely
have a very impressive website with all kinds of links and
information on it, but don’t believe that just because there
are tons of testimonials and links that the school is for real.
Diploma mills are capable of hiring people to make very nice
looking websites – what else are they going to do with all
their ill-gotten money but look for ways to make more?
A
lot of fake schools (and real ones) have a website that
ends in .edu. Keep in mind that anyone can purchase these domains,
a real school, a fake school or Johnny from down the street.
The .edu ending looks official, and that’s why many diploma
mills will purchase it. Don’t be fooled though, just because
it says .edu doesn’t mean that the program is in any way affiliated
with an educational organization.
Many fake schools have an FAQ somewhere on their website because
they know that questions are going to pop up in your head.
Usually they will answer the questions that are most common,
but they won’t get too in depth, or different answers will
contradict each other. Half of the diploma mills will flat
out lie to you in order to separate you from your money. The
more funding the diploma mill has the better the FAQ will seem
– but you should never believe everything you read on the Internet.
The best way to get past this problem is to phone or visit
the school.
Lastly
if you think that something sounds too good to be true
than it usually is. This applies to everything in life – including
online schools. It’s ok for the school to make a good deal
– after all, they do have competition – but watch out for the
schools that try to make you think that you can finish your
master’s degree in two weeks. The other major lie they use
in this scenario is that they say you won’t have to do that
much work. Getting a degree takes work, it doesn’t matter whether
it’s online or not – so don’t be fooled.
If you watch out for all the above signs when you’re looking
at an online program you’ll be able to keep your money out
of the hands of some of the internet con artists. The best
advice is to either find out information through a third party
(such as a message board) or try to contact the school itself.
If you do both of these you should be able to separate the
legitimate schools from the diploma mills.
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by SolveYourProblem.com
: 2007
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