Hello there, I am just polling opinions out there. If one is to choose from among the non-accredited legal schools/entities (whatever you wish to call them), which would be at the top of the list and why. To name a few: CULA, Fairfax, Akamai, Century, the Wyoming bunch (e.g. Preston). What do you think? Kenneth
University of California at Merced. http://www.ucmerced.edu Why? It's a new University of California campus, the first (at least the first real) American full-scale general research university of the 21'st century. I like the new University of the West. See (this thread). This school is still just a candidate for RA, but it already shows some potential to become one of America's better programs in its field. Several of the California law and psychology schools have pretty good pass percentages on the exams. Northwest California Law and Ryokan College are examples of that breed (and both have DL programs). Eewww! I don't like any of those very much.
So, then, from among the ones you suggested, you're asking which pile-o-crap stinks the least, right? Just checking.
I suppose that my most honest answer would be to reject the premise that these are my only choices. What good would any of these be? Unaccredited, won't transfer anywhere. Not eligible for the bar. Why bother? That being said, what mechanisms exist to compare one unaccredited school with another? I suppose that if I had total access to all the information I wanted then I might feel that I could make a decision. Short of that, what criteria might one use in the decision making process? There's another thread in "Off-Topics" about graduation regalia. Maybe you could choose according to the best looking gown. Do unaccredited schools have graduation ceremonies? Jack
What I do is Google schools and look at the kind of results that I get. It's impossible to predict what you will find. Each school presents its own unique picture. I don't think that it's possible to quantify this stuff and the weight that you decide to give each item is up to you. That's why I don't think that this can be reduced to an algorithm and prefer to call it educational aesthetics. But you get a good idea about what a school is up to, of who is talking about it and about what they are saying. I'll use University of the West/Hsi Lai University as my example and provide some examples of the kind of hits that come up for what, in my opinion, is a superior state-approved school (albeit a WASC candidate). Attract an international-class scholar to be your university President: http://www.uwest.edu/uwest1/president.html Get involved in scholarly collaborations: http://cess.fas.harvard.edu/cesr/html/CESR_02_3.html Have people off doing fellowships at Harvard: http://www.hds.harvard.edu/cswr/research/ecology/bio_kjellberg.html Have real physical facilities: http://www.uwest.edu/Photo_Documentary/Campus_Picture/CampusPics.htm Have the Vice President of the United States drop by and get embroiled in a fundraising scandal: http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Reln260/HsiLai.htm Have several of your faculty also teaching classes at California State University Fullerton and have that university list some of your classes (scroll down to CPRL 301 Sanskrit) in their own class schedule as joint offerings: http://hss.fullerton.edu/comparative/2004_class_sched_fall.htm Provide an advisor to an interreligious dialogue project at Harvard: http://www.pluralism.org/about/yifa/index.php Officiate at major international events: http://www.wfn.org/2000/12/msg00077.html Host conferences: http://www.monasticdialog.com/bulletins/71/nunsinthewest.htm Appear at conferences: http://www.unesco.org/culture/dialogue/religion/html_eng/uzbekistan4.shtml Have an impressive faculty: http://www.uwest.edu/academics/religion/faculty.html Offer a course lineup as comprehensive as anything offered by the ivy league: http://www.uwest.edu/academics/religion/course_description.html Write books: http://www.human.toyogakuen-u.ac.jp/~acmuller/articles/patterns.htm Attract interesting students from around the world: http://www.myanmar.gov.mm/myanmartimes/no85/Timeouts/3a.htm Become a candidate for regional accreditation: http://www.wascweb.org/senior/directories.htm Or you could do that.
