Just got a resume from a graduate of a school I know is a scam (I prefer not to give the name). I am so tempted to ask him why he got his BS when the Masters cost the same amount! I am sure I am not the first person to encounter this. How can you avoid the temptation to call the candidate and ask questions about their degree. "So tell me Mr. Smith, I see your school offers college credit for hobbies, travel, and volunteer activities. Why did your vacation to the Niagara Falls only count as undergraduate level and not graduate level. Didn't you go on the Maid of the Mist?"
Besides the entertainment value, it might give the person a hint that people are on to fake degree scams.
I have served on a number of hiring boards for academic faculty and administrators. Although I have had candidates with non-accredited (state approved) schools, I have never had a candidate with a mill degree. You can determine the best action for your situation. Sometimes we have offered feedback to an unsuccessful candidate as to why he/she was dropped from consideration. If it was me, I would not ask any questions about the degree (you probably know the answers anyway). If your institution that has a policy that would exclude diploma mill degrees, I might send a simple message that the candidate's degree was found not to meet the minimum requirement for the position. Just my 1 1/2 cents.... Tony Pina Faculty, Cal State U. San Bernardino
Based on that quote, it sounds like you're referring to University of Berkley. As taken from their website below: Some Examples: Self-taught computer skills Job Experience Movies you've seen Books you've read Volunteer work Dance Study Hobbies Attending Seminars Acting in a play Travel Military experience Learning or speaking a foreign language Tax preparation Community service Formal educational experience Starting a business Continuing adult education Officer of a club/organization Travel
Tell him that you need original transcripts to be sent from the university to you. And then tell us what they look like.
sounds like a good idea "me again" Degree mills dillute the legimacy of all college degrees, whether they be on line or B&M. I would call for the immediate termination of all civil employees that are found using one to further their careers.
By Berkley standards I'd have my Ph.D in Crime Scence Investigation, Criminal Justice, Jim Carrey Studies, Canadian Tourism Management & I could have my microfsoft certification due to my "self-taught" computer skills.
' BArinter Appreciation - Kinko's State University ? Your signature gave me a much needed chuckle esp since I just returned from there and am thinking of using my printer as part of a new artificial reef for fish. Just my opinion
Randell, Before you toss his/her resume, I would ask to see a transcript. I am one course away from getting a BA from a 'degree mill'. I have 36 credits from 'that' school, the rest are all credits from R/A-Clep-Dantes. I worked hard for those 36 credits... I didn't just pay, and got the credits. Would this make me a poor/bad candidate for a position because I didn't know until a few weeks ago about school accreditation? Perhaps this person doesn't know either. I am so glad I found this forum and learned about accreditation before I go look for work and claim to have my BA. This is just my opinion but, I would contact that person and get some answers or a copy of the transcript. Perhaps you would do this person a great service if he/she doesn't know about accreditation. Daisy
Randell, Since you list an MBA from CCU, I am assuming the school in question is not state-approved (i.e., not on par with CCU, etc.), but rather something like www.americancollege.com. Is this a correct assumption?
I did speak to this person because they were otherwise qualified and maybe they did not know. I had a feeling they knew because the format for their work experience was different from their education. My resume lists- Position Held - Company - Date Degree - School - Date Their resume was not consistant. They said they earned their degree "o-o-o-on-on-on-online...yeah...yeah" and said it very fast. We could not agree on certain conditions of the position. It is too bad because they would have been qualified if it was not for their bogus degree.
Re: Re: Just got a resume from a graduate of a degree mill You are correct, I think it is at or below K-W and it is not University of Berkley.
I had an application ...from somebody with a diploma mill doctorate for a faculty position at my community college. Everybody on the committee said "interview" until I explained to them that the guy had a fraud doctorate. I can't remember the exact name of the place, but it was one of the familiar fraud schools. I'll tell you, if I hadn't been paying attention this guy would have at least gotten an interview. The problem is unawareness and sloppiness (laziness?) I think and not outright fraud by the hiring institutions.
A different way of thinking about it I'm decidedly with the vast majority of forum members here in believing that diploma mills should all be shut down or at least exposed in such a way that all persons -- students, college admission personnel, hiring authorities, etc. -- will all know who they are and will not be duped by them. I needed to say that up front because I don't want anyone to think I'm a "mill shill" when I say that I think the notion that degree mills and their "degrees" dilute the legitimacy of all college degrees is just a fundamentally inaccurate statement or belief. And, by the way, I'm not singling-out Mr. Engineer, here. I've seen it written seemingly hundreds of times in these forums by all sorts of people. I'm merely finally taking this opportunity to challenge it on its face. To say that the "credentials" of diploma mills somehow cheapen the inherent worth and value of the credentials issued by legitimate, accredited institutions is about the same as saying that the existence of Chevy Novas cheapens BMW 320i's. Think about it. It's just flawed logic. In a stack of resumes, the "one bad apple" priinciple simply doesn't apply. John Doe's resume bearing a diploma mill degree sitting in a stack atop Jane Smith's resume bearing a degree from an accredited institution doesn't somehow, by its presence, devalue Jane Smith's resume or the degree listed thereon. They're two completely different things that have nothing whatsoever to do with one another. Diploma mill degrees are a lie, plain and simple. They're nothing less and, most importantly, nothing more. Listing them on a resume or CV is no different than listing a job or job title one never actually had in the past. It's simply a question of educating the public. Every HR degree program should have a one hour credit required course teaching HR studies students how the entire accreditation system works, how state licensing/approval works, and how diploma mills work... and how to tell the difference. Every college admissions person should be required to audit that same course (and, believe, me, there are tons of college admissions staff who don't exactly know how it all works). State legislatures should require high schools -- both public and private -- to create programs that cover basically the same content mentioned in the HR course, above... and all students should be both required to attend and should have to pass a short test demonstrating that they get it. It's just like the drug problem or prostitution or any of the other things in our society that we wish didn't exist: Remove the market for diploma mills and they will disappear. And the simplest way to do that is to educate current and future generations so that they avoid diploma mills like the plague. Just my .02 worth -- which my ex-wife will tell you is all it's worth! By the way, were I the person who received that resume I would definitely let the candidate know precisely why he/she was not considered. You do them no favors by not helping them understand what's wrong. And you risk some other hiring authority elsewhere going ahead and hiring him/her because they didn't know as much about diploma mills as you do. We know that diplmoma mills dupe people all the time; that not every diploma mill "degree" holder had malice aforethought and that some of them are just as much a victim as potential employers and educational institutions. The ones who don't realize that they have a diploma mill degree should be alerted so they'll do the right thing and remove it from their resumes. Those who do know precisely what they've done by using diploma mill "credentials" need to know that they've been busted and that everyone's not stupid so that maybe... just maybe (no one hold their breaths, please)... they, too, will stop using it.
