Hoyer seeks a piece of Bear's action; new edition slated for early 2006

Somehow, in my travels, I've missed Hoyer's web site on which he offers, for sale, his book, "A College Degree in Your Spare Time: The 20 Top Colleges and Universities which offer Distance Learning College Degrees." It talks of the 2004 edition, but when one clicks on the "Order Here" link, one is unable to purchase anything and is told, simply: "The newest edition of the book is being completed and will be available in early 2006."

Worthy of note on the site, though, is the following:

• This book only contains the colleges and universities offering distance learning which fall under the following criteria:
  
  [*]reasonable tuition costs
  
  [*]least amount of time to complete (average from one month to one year)
  
  [*]award college credit for what you have already learned in life
  
  [*]most fields of study
  
  [*]accepted by the most employers
  
  [*]reputation of the college or university
  
  [*]overall acceptance of the degree
  
  [*]don't have you take college courses you could teach

Makes it sound downright wonderful, doesn't he? I sure would like to see that list. Whatd'ya bet it's mostly made-up of institutions that aren't accredited by any agency that's approved by the US Department of Education (USDE) and/or its Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA); or are "schools" we routinely trounce around here; or are even outright diploma mills!

I wonder what the book will cost. Money well-spent, I'll wager!
(Man... we really need a vB Code [sarcasm][/sarcasm] tag around here!)

I notice Hoyer's breaking Google's rules against loading the page with text that the site owner doesn't necessarily want site visitors to read; but which text he still wants there -- sort of hidden, by making the color of the text only a shade or two different from the background -- so the site will be returned in search results which include the words in the "hidden" text. Google (and most other search engines) thwarts that sort of trick with an algorithm in its search engine programming that analyizes the HEX values of the text-versus-background colors and rejects pages that are clearly trying to pull the "hidden text" stunt. No wonder I missed Hoyer's site in the past.

Click here to see Hoyer's site. Ick!

ADVICE TO THE READER: Stick with Bears Guides -- or most any of Steve Levicoff's books, if you can find them -- by which you simply cannot (and will not) be misled!


ADDENDUM (EDIT): Wait... upon further examination, I see there's reason for hope! From the FAQ on the site:

• 9. Are all of the distance learning programs in this book accredited?
  
  No! About half of the programs in this book are either regionally accredited or nationally accredited through DETC. Additionally, those who use non-recognized accrediting agencies are not listed in this book. The other colleges and universities listed were selected based on the criteria mentioned on the home page of this web site.

Well... I have to admit, that part, at least, makes it sounds better than I at first thought it would.

Couldn't help but notice, though, the little swipe at Bear's books, in keeping with the oft-made (and false) accusation by his critics that schools can buy their way into (and get a favorable review in) Bears Guides, with this FAQ item:

• 8. Do You Get Paid to List Schools in This Book, I heard others Do?
  
  No! I never have nor would I except a fee to list a college or university in this book. They must meet the criteria I have outlined in order to be placed in this book or new editions.

Nice touch.

Also, for a guy who calls himself "Dr.", you'd think he'd know the difference between "except" and "accept." [sigh]

So, now I amend my previous speculative wonder to interest in seeing which unaccredited schools will make-up the roughly one-half of his list.

 

You know... I just got an email from someone who kinda' made that same, quite excellent point. So I should probably now add, by way of explanation, that I'm so presumptively critical of the book only because of the essentially good-for-nothing reputation (or so it is my opinion thereof) which precedes its author, just generally...

...and also because I'm trying to get him to start attacking me in public, too... as I'm sure he'll now do.

I was feeling... you know... left out.

If it turns out that I've pre-misjudged his book; and if it ends-up containing really good and useful information, earning it a place on the bookshelf of most any thoughtful distance-learning-degree-interested person -- right alongside Bears Guides and/or Levicoff's books -- then I'll happily come back to this very thread and publicly eat my words so fast that Hoyer won't know what hit him!

But I don't expect I'll have to do that. We'll see, I suppose.

[pause for consideration]

Hmm. Given what I know of Hoyer's personality... er... well... maybe the phrase "apparent sensibilities" would be more appropriate... I wonder to what degree this thread has now influenced what he will end-up putting in his book; whether it will cause him to make sure that his list of unaccredited schools really is fairly impressive and contains no questionable (other than their being unaccredited) institutions... just so he can make me come back here and eat those words.

If so, then good! At least that would keep yet another misleading, potentially-harmful (to the degree-seeking consumer) tome from getting out there. A little word-eating on my part, here, would be a small price to pay for something like that!

 

RH

Still only 20 after 15 years? And half are unaccredited? Silly nonsense.

 

The earlier edition of Hoyer's book devoted a lot of space to American Coastline University, which he either owned or was deeply involved with at the time.

He also thanked me for all my good work, in his introduction . . . but at the same time sent out literature stating that he didn't take any money from schools to say good things about them, the way I did.

(I never took anything from any school, other than a very rare lunch.)

 

Several red flags here:

least amount of time to complete (average from one month to one year)
To complete what? an AA, BA, MA or PhD. A doctorate in an "average from one month to one year" smacks of a mill.

award college credit for what you have already learned in life

Big red flag here. If it is credit by examination (CLEP, DANTES, etc.) or by legit portfolio, OK. However, if it awards huge amounts of credit for undocumented "life experience," then we are dealing with mills.

accepted by the most employers

Why would any of these degrees NOT be accepted by all employers?

reputation of the college or university

As determined by whom?

don't have you take college courses you could teach

Most people who can pass college courses could not teach them. This sounds like mill propaganda here.

It will be interesting to see what the publication looks like when it hits the streets. Perhaps it will be a legitimate list of legitimate schools. Unfortunately, the pre-publication propaganda uses language similar to that used by diploma mills.

 

Tony

1-Richard Hoyer
2-Richard Hoyer
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My understanding is he is selling it by Ebook right now..most likely because any publisher with a half a brain wont touch it!

 

Someone please educate me about Richard Hoyer. Never heard of him.

 

information sources

Here are links to extracts from some news stories:

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