Let's see. "Accredited" by the notorious WAUC. No listed faculty. Degrees in all areas, including law (but the law degree doesn't make you a lawyer). No physical address. Nothing on the website to indicate curricula, time-in-program requirements, or just about anything else one might expect from an institution of higher learning. A degree mill? Who knows? But it isn't a university. BTW, here is the correct link: http://www.madisonu.com/ Rich Douglas
The correct url is: http://www.madisonu.com They appear out of nowhere. They offer Ph.D.s in every imaginable subject. They are "accredited" by Maxine Asher's WAUC. Interestingly, like Ms. Asher's American World University, this is apparently operating out of the Mississippi gulf coast. It has a Gulfport address, aboout 30 miles (I think) from Pascagoula. I also note the Middle Eastern sounding name on the administrative e-mail address. WHOIS information for madisonu.com: Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC. Organization: Madison University address: 424 Pass Road #105 Gulfport, MS 39507 US Admin contact: Director of Marketing email: [email protected] phone: 713 9624727
Another way to tell this is more a paper mill is the way they proce their 'degrees'. Rather than a per unit charge or a per course charge, or even a per semster/quarter charge, thet charge by the degree. So, if you want an Accociates, it's going to set you back $1600, a Bachelors $1800, a Masters $1900, and a doctorate, a mere $2000. Imagine if this were an infomercial: "If you order right now, you can DOUBLE your degree! Instead of paying $3700 for a Bachelors and a Masters, you can get both not for $3500, not for $3000, not even for $2500. If you order today, you can get both for only $2400! Wait, that's not all. Want to call yourself "doctor" (because no one else will), then order the combined Masters and Doctoral program for even greater savings. You can get both for only $2500! That's right, only $2500! And if you pay in full during this special promotional program, we'll take an additional $100 off your tuition! THAT'S AMAZING!" However, unlike Earl Scheib the auto painter (I'll paint any car for $199.95- no ups, no overs), there are some additional fees. Remember, if it seems to good to be true, it usually is. Ask yourself if you're willing to part with several thousand bucks for a piece of paper that will likely not provide you much in the way of return, and something you'll spend the rest of your career trying to defend.
Reminds me of the Masters Divinity School advertised on Trinity Seminary's (Newburgh) web site. Not only the handy non degree degree titles but wait you can also buy a ring to display your non degree degree title (Doctor of P.... Ministry). The add said tacky all over it and was very surprising considering their attempt to look professional with their "accreditation" by U of Liverpool. This add smacked of Earl Scheib. To me it came across as "hey don't want to do our other thing", "want a title with less work and less money invested", try MDS. North
A decent university normally has a website address of xxxxx.edu (or edu.au, ac.uk, ac.za, etc.). I have not encountered an UNIVERSITY's website with xxxx.com (except a degree mill!).
Welllll.... actually this isn't completely true. For some reason that only Network Solutions understands, community colleges aren't eligible to get .edu domain names, and there are plenty of fraudulent schools (Monticello comes to mind) with .edu TLDs. Likewise, I know that I've seen at least one legitimate (probably proprietary) university with a .com TLD. In general, a school with a .com TLD is immediately more suspect, but that alone would not (IMHO) be reason to declare it a fraud.
I would like to supplement the above post, a website with xxxx.edu does not necessarily represent a decent university. However, those educational institutions with ac.uk (UK) and edu.au (Australia) always represent genuine ones.
For the ac.uk extension, that wasn't always the case. Ashington University, a diploma mill run by the Trinity C&U people, obtained an ac.uk extension and used it for a short time before their game was discovered. This was about two years ago. ------------------ Bill Gossett
I don't find information on the phone number with reverse searches (naturally) or with other searches, nor do I find other information about "mousighi," although I feel certain that I have found similar middle-eastern names associated with Asher institutions and her former Iowa City internet provider, avalon.net. But at the very least, perhaps it would be useful for me to point out: (1) The 713 area code is in Houston, and Houston has been the source of spams offering diplomas and other schemes, all from a single number--although it seems not to be this particular number. (2) It is unsettling for "officers" with any business or university to be using free yahoo email addresses. I've noted a lot of email addresses for officers of Asher's AWU in Brazil, etc., using yahoo addresses. Less usefully (?), but perhaps comically, looking at some of my old AWU printouts from February, I see that Asher has been claiming middle eastern royalty as her students. Perhaps it's Saudi Arabia--that country has thousands of underoccupied royals twiddling their thumbs. Wherever they are, perhaps they're royal enough that they don't have to care about valid degrees. I'm sure Madison is every bit as distinguished.
At switchboard.com, the only "Mousighis" I find in the United States of America are Kourosh and Nahid Mousighi, both of Los Angeles, where Asher lives. Not that that means anything, of course.
I've looked up the corporate info. for this company, Madison University-A Correspondence Education Company, L.L. (Business ID #686006), and I find basically none of the information required by the State of Mississippi. A registered agent for service of process and that agent's address are required, but this is not shown. There is, in fact, no address of any kind.
The registered agent is: Marvin B. Speed 2120 Front Street Meridian, MS 39301 ------------------ Bill Gossett
Oh, jeez -- not another one! See the AWU thread for contact information for the Mississippi Secretary of State's office, where you can request certified copies of the registration forms, etc. Peace, ------------------ Tom Head www.tomhead.net
Tom Head, thank you for your assistance, but it has evidently been my (perhaps incorrect) belief that the information, if filed with the Mississippi Secretary of State, would be available through the search on their Web site, and viewing the search results would make further inquiry pointless. In any case, bgossett has previously in this thread given the name and address of the pertinent registered agent.
Which he obtained from the Mississippi Secretary of State's web site. ------------------ Bill Gossett
I have once again checked the "CorpSnap" database at the MS SOS site and do not find any information given for the Madison University registered agent. There is only one Madison University listed, Business ID 686006. If you're finding this information elsewhere on the site, I'd be curious to know where it comes from. Otherwise, I wonder if it is indeed correct.
http://www.sos.state.ms.us/busserv/corpsnap/BusServSnap.asp?txtCorpID=686006 At the bottom of the page, under filing history, you can view the document in Adobe Acrobat format or with Net Vue, an applet loadable on the site. ------------------ Bill Gossett
