Are there any accredited colleges for DL that award degrees for life/work/educational experiences? My room mate seems to have obtained one of these degrees from an accredited college with minimal application and a couple of thousand dollars. I am in touch with this Glencullen university and it appears to be a degree mill. I appreciate all feedback on either subject before I waste my money. I do have some college and tons of CEU's from courses as well as being employed in the psychiatric field in a degreed position which is becoming increasingly harder to maintain and further career without degree. Please advise.
There are hundreds (thousands?) of colleges that award credits for life experience, which can then be applied towards a degree. But an entire degree? While it might be hypothetically possible at the big three--Excelsior, TESC, and COSC (with Excelsior accepting, but not granting, the credit)--it is highly unlikely. What is much more likely is that your friend has contracted with a diploma mill with spurious "accreditation." Glencullen is not accredited nor properly recognized in any country around the world. ll leave it to others to say whether or not it is a degree mill. But it certainly isn't a university. And that's what you really want to know, right? Check out the big three; you'll learn a lot about your field. If you want to share the name of the program from which your friend took his/her degree, I'm sure you will receive a copious amount of feedback from the members of this forum. Good luck. www.excelsior.edu www.tesc.edu www.cosc.edu Rich Douglas
What these degree mill frauds frequently do is to start up a bogus accrediting agency to accredit their bogus school. It is even easier to start up a bogus accrediting agency than it is to start up a bogus degree mill and it is very easy to start up a bogus degree mill. There's a good chance your friend sent his hard earned money off to a con-artist. If it is true then using that degree is just as bogus as if he printed up the diploma himself.
There are many ways to get college credit for prior learning -- see http://distancelearn.about.com/cs/creditalternative/ for links to info. But no legitimate institution will award a degree just for your statement that you have experience (and your check). As mentioned by Rich, Excelsior, Thomas Edison State College, and Charter Oak State College seem to be the "big three" that are most flexible about awarding credit for prior learning. ------------------ Kristin Evenson Hirst DistanceLearn.About.com
