Is it Worth Getting an Unaccredited Degree

Not all the degrees have to be for career development. Some can be for fun and personal interest. There was a Masters degree in Beatles from an accredited British school at some point.
Thomas Francis University offers programs in Cryptozoology, UFO, paranormal, etc. I was tempting in taking parapsychology. There are some accredited universities that offer parapsychology but as a subject with little career prospects, I don't think is worth spending 50K for a legit parapsychology degree so unaccredited is ok as you still get no job at the end but not broken.
The same for Religion, unless you follow a program that is recognized by an orthodox church (judaism, protestant), the career prospects are very low and limited to volunteer jobs at your local non denominational church. I think in this case, a bible free unaccredited college from the hundreds available online will do. The issue here is abuse, if you get a diploma in Bible studies for your 6 months of work is fine but not so ethical to get a PhD or ThD for your 1000 words dissertation than then is used to provide psychological services.

I think the ENEB masters was evaluated as an RA US Bachelors degree by ECE. You can get a Masters from this school is business and IT fields for 100 dlls so really there is no need for unaccredited in professional business and IT fields.

 

If you want to study cryptozoology as a human/social/cultural phenomenon, there are programs in fields like folklore studies that could be happy to work with you.

 

I was at one time intrigued by Signum University's Master's in early Germanic languages. This school is the one we once knew as the "Harry Potter" school, but they have some other interesting, non-fantasy-based programs. Disadvantages: Unaccredited, quite high cost and strangely, for this type of school, they require an accredited Bachelor's. As I said once before, "Der Nerv!"

Signum appears to have revamped its programs. Only one degree - MA in Language and Literature, and a Graduate Diploma with several concentrations, including Germanic Philology. Both require an accredited Bachelor's. Many individual courses available. https://signumuniversity.org/

For what it's worth - I would definitely respect a degree or grad diploma from this school, but YMMV.

 

Nice contribution, thanks. I personally think that the unaccredited degrees in these areas are of interest to folks that are planning a career as speakers in conferences and shows. It does sound more impressive "PhD in Cryptozoology from Thomas Francis University" than a PhD in Folklore studies from Accredited university. As these degrees are not really meant to be practitioners but just to dress a CV for speakers, I think the general public cannot differentiate between unaccredited or no name accredited schools for subjects that are very niche and narrow for a specific audience. I can think also about those folks that go to talk shows and GAIA tv claiming to be Doctors in Angels, UFO, etc. It is a very niche market but let them be. I personally have been in talks about these subjects and most speakers claim a PhD but hardly disclose the school name and nobody really asks.

 

I think this is a good example. The work looks legit and it is a niche market. People joining mainly do it for personal interest and I doubt that students might think about an academic career in this subject at Harvard but who knows.

 

Well, if I could get away with it.....

 

umm...animals investing in Bitcoin?

 

They might be onto something, (or not), if they are. I just looked at Bitcoin - over $66,000. Our prophecies of a crash were wrong --- so far. Last I looked, before today, it had just hauled itself back from 19K+ to 26K+. that was a few months ago, I think - or maybe a year.

 

I think it is safe to say that a Master's in early Germanic languages from an unaccredited school would be fine.

 

They were wrong because no one knows. Period. It's utterly random.

I would imagine it correlates somewhat with the stock market or the gold market--either it goes up and down with consumer confidence or a lack thereof. And I'm not willing to do the math. But I would not be surprised if even those correlations are both near zero.

When the economy began to fluctuate badly in 2006-7, I moved my meager IRA and 401K to cash. I kept them both there until late 2009 when my investment company literally called me on the phone to ask why I was still doing it. So I changed it. My point: you can adjust your investment risk and aggressiveness with the market. Things sort of make sense. But crypto? No.

 

Yes. Probably at the corner bar. Or in your book club. Or maybe teaching an online course. But Harvard -- not a chance. They check.
I DID once see a dude with an unaccredited degree in Egyptology teaching extension courses in archaeology at a major Uni - not Harvard - Not an Ivy - but that was a couple of decades ago - he's probably mummified by now.

 

Tut-tut.

 

Exactly. I've never tried to make sense of crypto. I sensed the futility of that early on. It's a financial "theatre of the absurd."
I'm disappointed to read that Muslims are now working on ways to deal with crypto. It's heretofore been forbidden as gharar - speculation and gambling. Their authorities will make workarounds somehow. I shudder to think of the possible effects.

 

An example of Islamic "workarounds" are sukuk, (sing. sak) i.e. Islamic bonds. They are a very popular investment with billions and billions outstanding. They pay roughly between 2% and 8% annually, depending on the company -- but that pay-out is deemed not to be (forbidden) interest, by the religious authorities. They declare the payments to be "a percentage of the profits made by the underlying assets." Hmmm...

 

Yes. I saw Thomas Francis University when I was looking to see if there were any cryptozoology programs. From the site:

"Thomas Francis University (TFU) is an educational program of the International Church of Metaphysical Humanism, Inc. (ICMH) a global, online metaphysical ministry based in North Port, Florida, USA. The Church teaches a human-centered spiritual philosophy called Metaphysical Humanism that is designed to build up and empower people by focusing on and reminding them of the indomitable power of their human spirit."

The listing of degrees is quite extensive. This is one of the best-stocked "Woo-degrees" University I've seen. I'm not against this for people who are interested. Some of these degrees, however, are too often a vehicle for unscrupulous people to profit from unqualified "counselling" or sometimes even "treatment" of people with serious problems, who really require qualified professionals - thereby profiting from human misery and doing potential harm.

That's my beef - and it really isn't about the degrees - it's about some opportunistic rogues and rogue-esses (?) who hold them and use the degrees improperly in pursuit of money - with no regard to the harm they do.

Some (many) say "Guns don't kill people - people do." I dunno about the complete validity of that; it's an over-simplification, considering the ramifications. But I'm OK saying "Degrees don't harm or kill people - people who misuse some degrees do."

 

Right. Mh + m = Woo! I'm NOT being suspicious -- just skeptical.... today.

 

I think some of the US loopholes for degree granting institutions baffle our UK and Canadian friends. Especially when in some cases they can call themselves a university and issue PhDs. There is an argument to be made for start-ups but then there are those granting PhDs in what could be hardly called an academic field and or "staffed" by people with diploma mill degrees.