I don't know why you closed my thread simply inquiring into the statements of that odd-ball website but OK whatever. Nonetheless, I think I may have found your culprit?! Guess who... Scroll to the very bottom and have a looksee Seems a bit "coincidental"
Can you imagine a REAL university posting something like that on its website. Have you ever seen such a thing at a real school? Something even close? NO way. Knightsbridge is a 1-person operation run from a guy's house. It has no legal authority to award degrees, its degrees are not recognized by any educational or legal authority, it has "moved" its operation on more than one occasion, it offers no courses (don't believe that military studies stuff, that's another 1-person operation affiliating itself with Knightsbridge), it lied about an endorsement of its military studies program, and it sold a degree to a guy who wrote a book, then changed the major of that degree after the fact! Whatever beef they have with Contreras could be settled easily if Knightsbridge was a real school.
This never ceases to be one of your more excellent points, Rich... and one, as I recall, you also made (and rightly so) about the godawful things about Alan Contreras that the millster John Dovelos put on his good-for-nothing, diploma mill Athenaeum University International web site. No legitimate institution is going to put such things on its web site under any circumstances.
Actually, I believe that what Knightsbridge has done is one of the Levicoff criteria and is also mentioned in our list of "signs of an unwonderful school" Unwonderful schools seem unable to resist having a "why we don't have accreditation" page, almost always filled with millspeak. The longest, most rambling and nonsensical one I can remember was the "accreditation" page from Rushmore U, though I think Knightsbridge is probably in competition for that title.
No, Chip, you're right. Rushmore's was worse. The one from Garage University was so pompous as to be self-deflating.
Sorry for the long absence. I finished and passed the CFP exam, then for celebration had a splenectomy. It's a whole new way to vent one's spleen, and a great weight loss aide. Rushmore has certainly had an 'interesting' history with its attempts to explain accreditation. The current website, though rambling, is shorter and focuses on the differences between 'self accreditation' and 'independent accreditation.' Self accreditation is what Cox calls the RA/DETC type accreditations. Independent, of course, what he currently pushes. The effort extended by these schools to explain away their lack of credentials does illustrate a discipline these schools can teach- fictional prose writing. A minor could be 'governmental obfuscation.'
Welcome back, Russ, and congratulations on achieving the California Fig Producer certification. I hope you donated your spleen to an appropriate charity. John Bear, proud possessor of Russ Blahetka's hat (a long and not very interesting story)
Hey, Russ, good to see you again! Some of the rest of us have enough spleen to cover any needs around here. Congrats on feeling better and on your CFP qual. Janko
Wow! A spleenectomy! ICK! I hope your recovery is going well. I had not heard of Knightsbridge before I started posting here, so there was enough info here to know not to look as it was suspect (an understatement I know ). BUT I'd found Rushmore in some search -- bloated with no info. I don't remember the accreditation page, but I do remember the worthlessness of the site as a whole and thinking, "surely NO one will buy into this! surely . . ."
That is absolutely hilarious. Thanks for posting this -- it made my day. This sort of sounds like the lame argument I get from unlicensed contractors - (and why I NEVER hire them)
Ahhhh, yes.... the hat. I do need to pay you a visit and pick it up. Perhaps once I am back in full swing I can play hooky and take you to lunch for back storage fees I often wonder what proportion of foreign students to domestic students schools such as Rushmore or Knightsbridge have. Someone not familiar with a country's particular education system may make decisions based on costs rather than value, as the other side of the value equation is unclear. Assuming a school's manglement can put together a cogent sounding argument of why accreditation (or something equivalent in a particular jurisdiction) is not important, a person from outside said jurisdiction may dismiss accreditation (or equivalent) as an important factor. Also, I must agree with the comments made re: Rushmore's website. A number of years ago, when I worked at an ISP, Rushmore was making statements on how their students learned the proper way to design web pages based on some expert's book, and held the Rushmore site out as an example of proper design. Several designers I showed the site were less than impressed. I am not surprised, however, that these schools stay in existence. As long as it is profitable for these schools to continue to do what they do, they will continue to operate. And let's face it, the cost to do business in a virtual environment is quite low. For less then $100/year, one can obtain a decent size web host setup with shopping cart and database capabilities. The costs associated with web design and management are also not that extravagant. I still contend the real money is in selling trinkets- class rings, mugs, and sweatshirts. ;-)
