My Kennedy Western Student Status is expiring!

Disclaimer, I applied to a Doctoral program as background research for an academic fraud audit. Received this email today

"There are many positive academic changes occuring at Warren National University. You are currently accepted into our program and are required to take "X" classes. The academic changes on the horizon would change that to approximatley 8 additional courses. I wanted to make sure you were aware of these changes prior to closing your file.

Please reply and let me know if you would like to move forward or if you would like me to close your file.

You have until April 30, 2007 to respond to this e-mail .

 

What happens after April 30th?

 

Not sure if that is the switch over to the new "curriculum" or if my personal applicant status expires at that point.

I have sent a follow up.

 

Was "X" equal to 5? I would be very interested in the conclusions to your investigation. Perhaps that can't be revealed? If not then feel free to say so.

 

I'm actually interested in seeing what they do with accreditation...

You know, they have really good advertising and an excellent set of marketers. These guys are good!

Just see the following conversation I had with one of their sales reps below.

The first response I got was:
"Hi Jacob ~
I truly apologize for not replying sooner. I wanted to address your concerns. I had a chance to revisit our discussion and I see that it is truly necessary for you to earn a degree from an accredited institution since you plan to use the degree publicly to enhance your consulting business. Because of Oregon State statures, it would be illegal for you to use a degree from Kennedy-Western University to advance your career in the State of Oregon.

I do apologize that we are not able to assist you but I do have some links that may prove to be useful in your search:

www.classesusa.com

www.edconnect.com

I wish you the best of luck in your academic endeavors.

Take care,
Jennifer"

Then my email client got the retract command and a new one came through:
"Hi Jacob ~
I truly apologize for not replying sooner. I wanted to address your concerns. The statute that you mentioned is based on a recent law in the State of Oregon that applies to ALL unaccredited universities. For residents in the state of Oregon, unless the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization approves a college, a resident of Oregon cannot legally use a degree earned from a non-accredited school. The degree and the University are both credible and have a solid reputation. As I mentioned in our initial conversation, Kennedy-Western has been around for over 22 years and has graduated well over 35,000 students so we are not new to higher education. Fortunately, the State of Maryland does not have such a law in place and because of that, we have many MD graduates. In fact, our Maryland graduates have received tuition assistance from employers such as Baltimore Gas & Electric Co., Capital Technology Information Services, Inc., Clorox Company, Northrop Grunman, Noxell Corporation, to name a few.

I would strongly encourage you to rethink your decision to withdraw your application. I understand your concerns; however, I also understand your immediate need to strengthen your credentials so that you can grow your consulting business.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to seeing your application and helping you complete your degree so that you can be well on your way to building your consulting practice. Talk to you soon!

Jennifer"

Personally the intelligence of the second response was almost enough to make me forget that they are unaccredited and choose to spend some money earning my next degree through them. Then I heard that they were attempting to earn regional accreditation because of some law that was going into effect in their home state. And I was surprised.

Hopefully, they will fix whatever might be wrong with their programs and become accredited. I liked the price they quoted and the detail of the curriculum was very impressive. I almost believe they are a "well-meaning" but unaccredited school.

Anyway, it would be interested to see what happens.

Jacob

 

How do you retract an email after it has been read?

 

I was a bit surprised at her first e-mail. I thought it was genuine.

"Fortunately, the State of Maryland does not have such a law in place and because of that, we have many MD graduates"

That does not sound good. Is she trying to say, " thank goodness Maryland does not restrict unaccredited schools, or KW would be out of luck . Well, KW may be out luck if accreditation is not gained, they may have to close their virtual doors. Well, they could move to California and get state approved. If they change things around, KW can go for DETC. Can they?

Jmetro. For fun, you could e-mail a copy of both messages to jennifer and emphasize the contradiction. It would be interesting to see what she says.

 

Hey Bill, yes it was 5, now 13 courses for my KWU degree. What does that mean to you?

Are you an enrollment counselor?????

The additional info wasn't very helpful, just a link to some marketing-type information. So for April 30th, I am guessing they have to switch over the curriculum in an effort to meet the Wyoming rule change deadline? Just speculating wildly here.

Here is the actual message:

"With regard to your concern about academic integrity and regulatory oversight, please review the link below. I believe this will provide you with the information you need to make a more informed decision.

To confirm our registration status, go to http://www.k12.wy.us/F/psl/degree.html

In addition, click here to review the recent Wyoming State legislation. ("Here" refers to the Wyoming Private school statutes)

 

Based on the past history of people posting about their KWU experiences and my research on the KWU forum (when it was open to the public), 5 was the normal number of courses for all KWU degrees, Bachelor through doctorate no matter what the life or academic experience level of the applicant. It seemed that with a small amount of negotiation 4 was pretty easy to get an agreement to. You must not have tried to negotiate?

 

I could have got it for 4 classes! Now I am mad that my pseudo-application to a semi-university was only partially correct.

I thought this part was interesting. I didn't think that all agencies revealed applicant status, but this is coming from the state, I assume in response to a status request. HLC = NorthCentral Regional:

*******************************************************
American Central University- in the process of seeking accreditation from DETC
American City University- in the process of seeking accreditation from DETC
American Global University- in the process of seeking accreditation from DETC
College America- Accredited by ACCSCT
Columbia Commonwealth University- in the process of seeking accreditation from HLC
DeVry University- Accredited by HLC
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University- Accredited by SACS
Institute of Business and Medical Careers- Accredited by ACICS
Grand Canyon University- Accredited by HLC
Halifax University - in the process of seeking accreditation from DETC
Lesley University- Accredited by NEAS&C
Park University- Accredited by HLC
Paramount University- in the process of seeking accreditation from DETC
College- Accredited by HLC
The Art Institute of Colorado- Accredited by ACICS
University of Phoenix- Accredited by HLC
Warren National University - in the process of seeking accreditation from HLC
Wyoming Technical Institute- Accredited by ACCSCT

 

Too funny... However, I think you should only be somewhat mad. ;-)

Dave

 

You don't if I'm POP'ing the message down from a server...

Well I know that in some groupware applications it is possible to recall a message after it has been sent. All I know is that it doesn't work too well with OE and POP.

Jacob

 

I don't know if I'm that mean. Just because there is an inconsistancy doesn't mean I have to dig at it. I'm sure that she is just as much a human being as I am and therefore quite flummaxed when a inconsistancy arises. You could do it though if you wanted...

Jennifer Petite - [email protected]

I agree though that is sounds like her initial reaction (before her supervisor caught it) was to admit that her program may have some problems which Maryland wasn't testing for.

Jacob