Westbrook University - Is it Legit?

Re: Hahahahahahhaa

Yeah, yeah, yeah - and dinosaurs walked the earth at one time too.

Fact of the matter is, our universities are the better ones now. Ask anyone about German education, and the life-time careers most students spend there filching tuition and living expenses off the government, never to get a degree, never to actually even have to do anything beyond string it along for as long as possible.

That doesn't happen in the good universities in America. You work hard, you get rewarded, or you fail - period.

 

Warning!

New Mexico's Psychology Board changes its licensure requirements from time to time. Do NOT rely on the representations of any school rep; contact the Board DIRECTLY to learn what degrees and schools are acceptable!

 

I happen to know that Westbrook had in fact applied for regional accreditation and did not complete the process. Westbrook was in fact accredited in New Mexico until 2007. I verified this through the accreditation board in the State of Oregon. Individuals who received degrees prior to 2007 are able to use their degrees.

 

Use them for what? To line their birdcages?

Sorry, but first, New Mexico doesn't grant accreditation; it granted "approval" or "authorization" or whatever they called it, and New Mexico's process was a joke; lots of unwonderful schools were based there specifically because it was one of the many states with lax laws.

Also, if you're talking about the Oregon ODA (they have no "accreditation board"), that office only lists degrees that are legal under state law in Oregon. "legal" and "accredited" or even "useful" are completely different terms.

Westbrook used to claim accreditation from two fake accreditors; one was operated out of the back of a health food store in Virginia which (conveniently) was owned by one of the members of Westbrook's board of directors. The other was operated out of the home of... another of Westbrook's board of directors. Oh, and the language on the accreditation letters from the two organizations which were ostensibly entirely separate and independent was word-for-word the same.

Lastly, a Westbrook ND would not qualify one to practice naturopathic medicine in any of the states that license naturopaths. In the states that do not license naturopaths, a Westbrook grad could "practice" but could not diagnose, treat, or prescribe. (The same would go for anyone graduating from any other unwonderful, including Clayton College, or even anyone with no degree at all and a verifiable pulse.)

As for its attempts at regional accreditation... I'd be interested to know the facts on this. I seriously doubt they actually applied. What they might have done is asked for the application packet, which is completely different, and anyone could do that.

Oh and... If I didn't say it before, the school has historically been based in a half-dozen states, the most recent of which is West Virginia, though you'd never know it from their website; nowhere on their website that I can find is their location listed. A school that moves from one state to another repeatedly as states tighten their regulations is never a sign of a quality program. I would suspect that West Virginia officials do not even realize the school is domiciled there.

This is and always has been an unwonderful school. It has been deceptively marketing itself for ages. I'm unaware of anything positive about this program at all.

 

I'm also a little confused, because a little bit of web research reveals that BarbaraJ358 seems to have made some slight misrepresentations.

First, she reports herself on linkedin as being enrolled at Westbrook University (which she conveniently failed to mention in posting here.) Shilling for a school you have a connection with, and failing to disclose such affiliation, is disingenuous (and also against our TOS.)

Secondly, I just checked the Oregon ODA site and Westbrook is not listed as an approved school.

But perhaps more problematically, BarbaraJ358 represents herself on mendeley.com (a community of legitimately credentialed researchers focused on online publication of research) as enrolled at Westbrook College in Portland, ME. She says she's been a student since 1998. Only problem is, Westbrook College closed in 1996, and merged with University of New England. As far as I can tell, no degrees are offered under the Westbrook name, and the school does not appear to offer distance-based programs. (BarbaraJ358 lives in Oregon.)

One of the things that's important at least to most people in academia is integrity. If one chooses to go to an unwonderful school (or, even, if one gets hoodwinked and doesn't realize at the time that the school is unwonderful) that's certainly one's one choice. But misrepresenting which school one went to on an academic website, as well as misrepresenting one's affiliation with said school is not appropriate.

 

Weird administrator

I had the same experience where information could not be verified. How are these places allowed to exist and take money from people...seems illegal and wrong.