How to choose an UNACCREDITED school?

I agree. This is not what I'd call an inexpensive deal, though, but I still like it. The Signum program is a luxury item - maybe the price of a lower-end Cartier watch. And I think it's worth it.

I, too, learned Modern German - many years ago in school, and more recently went through a couple of books and a whole bunch of free* lectures on Anglo-Saxon. I was surprised to see so much correlation in vocabulary between the two. The modern language helps a lot in learning the older one. I've seen a page or two of Gothic and I think Modern German would help somewhat there, too - but not as much. Any Germanic roots you can get come in handy for Scandinavian languages of course. And Dutch. Old Norse, too, and Icelandic, both of which might be important at Signum.

* The lectures were put up on YouTube - so I made use of them. They were originally made for one of the big Course Companies - The Great Courses etc. by a professor who - you guessed it - teaches for Signum. (He also has a day-gig at an RA College). He's a terrific instructor - his name is Michael Drout. If his work is a sample of what you get at Signum - then it's pretty darn good.

 

When it comes to unaccredited schools, YMMV. Personally, I think that people who use them as a substitute for accredited schools are making a mistake. But I also feel there are good arguments to be involved with an unaccredited school if other factors preponderate.

In the 1970s, an argument could be made for working professionals to pursue a doctorate at an unaccredited school. The accredited options were so few, and we really didn't know what would happen to all those innovative universities. The ones with substance, we now know, went on to become accredited. (For the most part.) But it seemed like such an uphill climb at the time. There were seriously legitimate reasons to consider that path. Back then.

Now? Not so much. But let's not wave our hands and dismiss the notion entirely. But....even an innovative, niche school should pursue and obtain accreditation. The standards--especially around finances--are high, but it can be done.

California is the last frontier for unaccredited-yet-legitimate schools, and that state is shutting down its approval process. (Mostly.) It's move up or move out; get accredited or get gone. I suspect we'll see the last of the original niche schools either get it or go. The end of an era.

 

Nice review, Johann. Such a hobby degree would certainly be expensive, admittedly. I may start out with some free learning materials (as you have suggested)!

It's funny that you mention Scandinavian languages as I've recently been watching a series on Netflix called "The Rain", which comes from Denmark. Even without subtitles, I find that I catch quite a few keywords, which sound remarkably similar to modern standard German. Have you had similar successes with Nordic tongues?

 

I did watch one popular subtitled Danish series a few years ago - it was mostly about (fictional) Danish politicians, their work and rivalries and their involved and sometimes convoluted love lives. I forget the name. Turned off my TV for good several years ago. My experience was similar re: word recognition through German. I also learned they were quite profane - just as we are - and they use the English "F" word quite a lot. I'm not really surprised that there's a correlation. The Danes claimed quite a slice of England from the Anglo-Saxon kings (The Danelaw) and we had two Danish Kings of England - Sven Forkbeard and his son Cnut (Knut - Canute). They left their mark.

I've read that the closest Germanic relative to English is Friesian Dutch. There was even an English (or was it Friesian) proverb about it in late medieval times - "Good butter and good cheese is good English and good Fries." There are a couple of English-Friesian conversations on YouTube to prove that the correlation still exists. I think they were put up for the edification and enjoyment of people interested in either or both of Anglo-Saxon or Middle English.

Norwegian and Swedish - I've never had any experience with. I know there are two distinct Norwegian languages - I'm pretty sure they're mutually intelligible. Swedish -
Jag vet ingenting. (I know nothing.)

I've had a look at Icelandic, which I'm told is little different from Old Norse. It's not completely unintelligible to me (only about 97%) but there seems to be less I can glean from Modern German. I'll get back to it, because it fascinates me. Any Icelander who can read his daily newspaper (And that's all of them - 100% literacy) can read his country's 12th-Century literature. That's rare! If I ever get to Signum, I'm sure I'll have lots of Icelandic and Old Norse there - all the Myths!

One of the best things about learning German - it's a passport to Yiddish - the mamaloshen. Now there's a language! I still remember 60 years back - as a teenager, with a year or two of German, going into a Jewish-owned store and hearing a couple of guys talking --- and hey, I could understand maybe about half! That really turned the light on!

 

Chicago’s English Department is pretty clearly on one side of the political spectrum, but their decision is such an intellectual disgrace that it really transcends left/right distinctions. Drawing attention to the matter has nothing to do with one’s own convictions - I learned it about from the website of Brian Leiter, a Chicago faculty member in another department, who is committed to the political left but even more so to free speech and free thought in academia.

https://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2020/09/english-department-at-university-of-chicago-embarrasses-itself.html

I don’t see what in Heirophant’s post justifies an attack on his honesty.

 

What you're saying heirophant could have advanced an honest argument for his point - but chose to compare an announcement to a catalog instead. That's habitual dishonesty.

As for defending free thought in academia - hierophant is the one who stated the government must "do something" with Hungary's Central European University because he disapproved of what its faculty wrote in books.

If one interprets Signum's catalog as a political statement, following hierophant's argument, then their decision on focusing on Anglo-Saxon roots of modern English literature can be interpreted as horribly racist. Of course, Signum is not making a political statement, so it's nothing of the sort.

 

You caught me there, Johann. I hadn't looked closely enough at the tuition rates. For their MA program, a hobbyist would be spending nearly 24,000 USD. For nerdy fun and games, just imagine the wealth of resources one could purchase in any given topic for that price!

 

Holy cow! I should have said "maybe the price of the highest-end Cartier watch!" Or a mid-range Vacheron-Constantin. (To go with your Bentley Mulsanne.)

I thought it was around $10K: Twelve 3-credit courses (not per credit-hour) at $675 = $8,100 and maybe 1,500+ in incidentals and expenses, fancy thesis-binding etc. - no? Did I miss something?

 

Indeed. the opportunities for zero cost alone are staggering. Harvard, Yale and other schools of highest repute have opened up Literature and many other courses - downloadable at NO CHARGE. I have a whole shelf of these on CDs and DVDs - music, literature, history, languages... plus tech stuff, programming etc from first-rate schools including MIT and Harvard. Some Oxford lectures and non-English schools e.g. Collège de France (est. 1530) as well. If I had to pay for my freebies...I shudder to think!

 

No, you didn't miss something. I was the one to read the finance page incorrectly before my morning coffee. I read it at as $650 per credit hour, not per course! Your maths are, indeed, more accurate.

Even at 1/3 of the cost I imagined earlier today, one could still get a wealth of materials on said topic...and a load of Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter collectibles to boot!

 

Oh, indeed! I'd get so much stuff I'd have to move to a larger, less humble abode. I'd go the Germanic languages route, though. Maybe I could buy the original Gram - the sword that was used to kill the dragon, Fafnir. I think Wikipedia owns it now. It's here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gram_(mythology)

The stuff that dreams are made of!

 

I think this discussion adequately covered the way one would choose an unaccredited school (good faculty, rigorous curriculum, low[er] price, state-licensure.)

These and other schools seem to fit this criteria (or any 3 out of 4 at least) and have come up in the thread:

Institute of Buddhist Studies

• MDiv in Buddhist Studies
• Master of Buddhist Studies (MBS)
• MA in Buddhist Studies

Morris Brown College

• BS in Organizational Management and Leadership, Global Management and Applied Leadership, Hospitality Management, Psychology
  
• BA in Music

Newlane University

• AA in General Studies
• BA in Philosophy

Signum University

• MA in Language and Literature

WorldQuant University

• MS in Financial Engineering

I think Quantic (formerly Smart.ly) and University of the People were both unaccredited when they started a few years ago, but now have DEAC. I wonder if any of this list will eventually pursue accreditation.

 

Maybe Newlane University. In another thread, I said

"Well, "Newlane has been registered as a proprietary postsecondary school in Utah since 2017, which is the first step toward accreditation". I interpreted this as intention to become accredited."

Hopefully, they will!

 

Morris Brown College, Atlanta GA (on Dustin's list) has recently had its TRACS application approved. It hopes to achieve candidate status in the New Year. The Morris Brown story (140 year-old HBCU rebuilds after losing RA in 2002) is told fully in another thread. The story is here: https://morrisbrown.edu/another-major-win-for-morris-brown-college-accreditation-application-approved/
Good to see! Go, Wolverines!

 

Maybe add Domuni University to the list?

https://www.domuni.eu/en/university/accreditation/

 

Also, maybe add Unite for Sight:

https://www.uniteforsight.org/global-health-university/certificate-programs

 

Listing ECOSOC under accreditation gives me pause. I'll admit, I haven't read the thread on Domuni University and am going to do so now, but that status is essentially like applying to be on the mailing list for the UN's Economic and Social Council. Virtually all applications are approved.

Reading the thread now, I see it's awarding mostly religious degrees. Might be good for that narrow niche.

 

Now this is cool. These are more like professional development programs but they seem to have a good reputation. I might give their Monitoring and Evaluation certificate a try as soon as I finish the IBM Data Science Professional Certificate through Coursera.

 

It's a ministry of the veritable Dominican Order of the Roman Catholic Church, so the degree will be quite widely respected on that basis. Not that you'd find a lot of employment opportunities with degrees in Philosophy and Theology...

 

Keeping to the theme of this thread, Knoxville College in Tennessee Home - Knoxville College offers tuition-free Associate's degrees. The school is in the same boat as Morris Brown: an HBCU that had lost accreditation over financial struggles. They went through several schemes to try to recover; what's the current status in their journey is anyone's guess. For now, they have a handful of students in online Associate's programs, evidently to have some continuity as they continue to scramble.