Harcourt/California Coast, DETC/State-Approval

Dear Collegues,

I've always felt that some degree granting institutions, such as California Coast University, California Pacific University, or WISR, do provide more than just self development.

I find it very entertaining to see that one particular poster in this newsgroup was able to draw conclusions that State-approved graduates are ignorant, lazy...etc. I'm so very surprised that the poster has such an useful capability that he's able to judge a candidate on his academic credentials alone. I find that, of course, an inapproriate generalization and as a business owner myself, the academic credential of an individual is only a small part of the candicate's qualification. If he/she has the desire to learn and to upgrade, I don't see (any human but morons would) on earth can say that the candicate is lazy and ignorant, as well as speculating that he/she is trying to "cheat" his/her way through, simply because he/she wants a state-approved degree to advance themselves.

This leads to my humble opinion. If one has a Harcourt DETC degree, and the other job candicate has a calcoast degree, in this case I'd think a Calcoast degree is a much more legitmate choice given Harcourt seems to be a joke with all their outrageous marketing junk mail cards and their reputation. Likewise, a school like Andrew Jackson with only DETC accreditation is unlikely of much advantage to the candicate when compared with a state-approved degrees.

A RA degree is the best choice of course.

A legitmate state-approved degree, in many cases, business especially, is an asset. It is legal, and legitmate.

John

 

No comment on the post above, other than my list now stands at 19 - I'm just one short of hitting my guess of 20.

Instead, I'd like to comment on another post...

Originally posted by Chip at AED:
The reports done on vo-tech correspondence
schools some years ago revealed that many individuals who were shafted made
no complaints at all, because they didn't want anyone to know that they (a)
had been taken in or (b) weren't "smart enough" to complete the curriculum.

In a salute to all those who have been shafted by the Harcourt scam machine, especially you vo-techies and my #1 fan EQ, I give you an encore presentation of Harcourt Bites, which can be found by clicking the link in my signature.


------------------
H. Piper
http://harcourtbites.esmartguy.com

 

Originally posted by H. Piper:
I give you an encore presentation of Harcourt Bites, which can be found by clicking the link in my signature.

OOPS! I don't have the HTML set up right in my sig file. So click on this instead:

http://harcourtbites.esmartguy.com

 

While I think that it is wrong to dismiss them entirely, I am skeptical of them offering degrees.

"Self development" is ultimately what education is, after all, and the better state approved schools may be good at that, for people that already have or don't need degrees. But their academic certifications are suspect unless they meet a standard that is recognized by the academic and professional communities.

I think that there is a lot of talent and potential in that sector, but I am still not sure about how to best utilize it.

Perhaps some are and some aren't. It's hard to generalize. But nevertheless, if I were an employer and had the choice between a person with a CA-approved degree and a person with an RA degree, I would weight the latter much more heavily. The first applicant would need a significantly better resume to overcome the differential.

So if a student is comtemplating what school to choose, I see little reason to choose the state approved school if it would contribute significantly less to his or her career. And that raises the question about why some students choose them anyway, knowing that.

I think that any education is an asset. It's an asset to have spent a lot of time in the library and to have read up on something on your own. But a degree is a certification by your school that your education has met a particular standard. If there is no credible reason to believe that your school maintains that standard, then the degree loses its point.

I have no problem with Harcourt or Andrew Jackson. They might give me decent education in some subject that I was interested in. And their DETC accreditation gives their degrees and certificatons a credibility that they would have lacked without it. But personally, if my goal was a university degree, I'd probably seek out the most widely accepted standard.

But in real life, this is a case-by-case thing. There will probably always be individual examples that break the general rules.

Some DETC degrees have good reps, like those from American Military University. A specialized degree from them might carry considerably more weight in a military context than creating a self-designed independent study major in a military subject at an RA general studies program would.

If I were contemplating admission to the California bar, the residential CA-approved San Francisco Law School would be a much better choice than any DETC distance law program (there's only one that I know of). Of course SF Law is accredited by the CA State Bar Association. While that's not the ABA, it is an indicator of credibility, as is their students' success rate at the bar exam and the prominence of some of their graduates.

My point is that DETC and regional accreditation are credibility indicators. Not perfect ones by any means, but valuable ones. RA much more so than DETC. State approved schools don't have that. If they can find some other way of demonstrating their credibility, their reputations may rise, at least in certain limited contexts. We actually see that a lot, which is why I won't dismiss the state approved schools outright.

But those are the special cases.

In the great majority of cases, I see no reason to accept a less credible and less widely recognized degree if a better recognized and more credible degree is available.