Columbia Southern University

It is a bit of artful wording to say "haven't formed an opinion" while at the same time admitting that people aren't aware of the DETC. In this case, "no opinion formed" and "unaware" mean the same thing. Why do I care with no stake? People do many things without a stake in the outcome: read novels, support sports teams (Duke should beat the snot out of every BB team in the nation in the next couple of weeks), blah blah blah. Why do you care why I care?

 

I don't think that's entirely true. Apart from higher education specialists, most people simply think in terms of "accreditation". They don't know who those accreditors are exactly, but they intend the word to imply the same kind of recognition enjoyed by schools that they are already familiar with. Here in Northern California, that's the UC and CSU systems, Stanford, Santa Clara, USF and the like. That's regional accreditation and its the only accreditation that they know.

It's not that they don't care or that they don't have an opinion. Just ask them what they think of "non-accredited" schools. They have strong opinions, but they are thinking of regional accreditation as being accreditation by default. They have no idea that there are non-standard kinds of accreditation, or how to go about evaluating them.

I am sure that you could talk a lot of them into accepting DETC or TRACS. The Department of Education thing might convince many people.

But the problem is that you would have to do it at all.

 

I'm don't think the problem really exists on a widespread basis at all. (Just my opinion..no hard facts) But, it has become very clear to me that a few people (mainly senior members) here would be happy if one did exist. One would think that a forum dedicated to the "Distance Learning Community" would want wider acceptance of DETC accredited programs. Instead most here seem to be overjoyed in their belief that DETC accredited degrees are not as portable and (in their words) terminal degrees.

I'm also pretty sure that Dr. Bear is either ill-informed or is deliberately misleading people into believing that CSU and other ACE member universities need to have their individual courses evaluated under a seperate program, the College Credit Recommendation Service, in order for those college credit courses to have greater acceptance at RA schools. Based on what I've read on the ACE site this evaluation is for non-college credit courses. Not college credit courses.

Either way, it seems to me there is a negative NA agenda being pushed here.

 

The anonymous former martial artist (I deduce) suggests that I am more negative about DETC schools on fora than in my book.

In a word: maybe. Let me explain.

As I have said/written many times, I see my books as tools to help people make the best school decision for them, now and for their future.

For many people, the reason one school or degree is better (now or in the future) has to do with acceptance, whether by another school, an employer or potential employer, and so on.

Until about 18 months ago, neither I nor anyone else had a clear picture regarding the acceptance of degrees from recognized accreditors other than the six regionals. There was lots of anecdotal data (this school does; that school doesn't).

So I put about $4,000 of my own money into doing a portion of the research that I felt needed to be done: a survey of registrars and admissions officers, on the acceptability (on a seven-point scale, from always to never) of thirteen categories of schools (from regionally accredited residential to licensed in states with minimal laws).

The data were analyzed (a terrific statistical tour de force by Rich Douglas) after the 14th edition of Bears' Guide went to press.

The very clear results will be reflected in the next edition.

But these are academic acceptances only. It would be extremely valuable to know about acceptance in the worlds of business and government. Some of that information will be learned if Rich Douglas does the Ph.D. research project that he has planned.

And it will also be valuable to know if ACE-evaluated courses from DETC-accredited schools have greater acceptance than those without ACE evaluation. Informal talks with registrars at their convention suggest to me that they do, but these are not hard data.

Finally, it is my belief that one of the reasons the family that owns Columbia Southern is annoyed with me because I write about the fact that they formerly claimed accreditation from two really dreadful (my opinion, of course) unrecognized accreditors, Accrediting Commission International and APICS. Before their DETC accreditation, that seemed like the sort of thing my readers would want to know. Also, I suspect annoyance at my mentioning their name change, and their several moves (Silverhill, Pensacola, now Orange Beach).

Finally, Mr. or Ms. X-Kempo justifies his/her decision, in part, by stating that he/she has no plan to apply to Harvard. Actually Harvard was, I recall, one of the schools that would consider a DETC-accredited degree, while more than 3 out of 5 state universities, community colleges, and so forth, would not.

(25 years ago, when I first considered doing consulting for Columbia Pacific University, I wrote to about 50 major universities to ask if they would accept degrees or credits from that (then) California-authorized school. I recall clearly that Harvard, Yale, and Princeton all replied "Maybe," while the Universities of Nebraska, Montana, and Texas all said, "No.")

 

Well, you might need to edit your article then. I just spoke with a counselor named Afaf at the Germantown, MD campus for Strayer University. I asked if Strayer would accept a DETC accredited degree for transfer to their graduate programs. She said they would. I then explained in further detail that DETC is not a regional accreditor but they are a national accreditor recognized by the Department of Education. I asked her if this is still acceptable. She again said YES. That clearly wasn't a flat refusal and it sounded rather emphatic but that would be my opinion I guess.

So now you have a second school you can add to your list. After all, you wouldn't want anyone to think you were trying to be misleading would you?

 

Qoute from X-Kempo
"I'm also pretty sure that Dr. Bear is either ill-informed or is deliberately misleading people into believing that CSU and other ACE member universities need to have their individual courses evaluated under a seperate program, the College Credit Recommendation Service, in order for those college credit courses to have greater acceptance at RA schools. Based on what I've read on the ACE site this evaluation is for non-college credit courses. Not college credit courses.

Either way, it seems to me there is a negative NA agenda being pushed here."

Both of these comments are so far off the mark that they seem dellusional. This is what I was speaking of when I said slanderous. Perhaps too strong a word but not totally inaccurate.

 

You should have also included about me that in addition to being "dellusional," I obviously CAN'T READ. But before you include that you may want to visit ACE's website to read up on the purpose of the College Credit Recommendation Service.

I'm done with this debate. It's impossible to fairly debate with people who continue to twist and distort the truth. You all can have this forum back now.

 

On that we agree. I truly believe you are an earnest student and debater but some of positions you are taking are clearly biased. I hope your degree works out as well as you believe it will.

 

Okay. That's one data point (plus Capella, which makes two). And this one contridicts both what I found in my conversation with Strayer and their stated policy. (Which is fine. I don't mean to suggest you are not truthful or accurate.) Bear's survey includes more than 300 data points. I checked with several for my article, and published the results. You?

Rich Douglas (my real name)

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Let's Troll!

 

Disagreeing isn't the same as distorting. This behavior (whining, then retreating in the face of opposition) is very common with anonymous posters. Your agenda unfulfilled, you are left with exiting and re-entering in another guise.

Gee, I thought feeding trolls kept them around. My error.

Rich Douglas


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Let's Troll!

 

Why? Why would anyone have such an "agenda"? Geez, Bear has been kind in the past to the notion of legitimate, unaccredited schools and he gets labled a tout for degree mills. He suggests some real limitations to the usefulness of DETC accreditation and the pendulum swings entirely in the other direction! These issues are complicated, perhaps more so than some people are capable of seeing. (Or willing to see.)


Rich Douglas


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Let's Bowl!

 

First, note that the designation “senior member” is essentially meaningless – it just reflects the number of posts. There is no implication that the “senior members” have any exalted standing.

Second, as someone who is still searching for that perfect program, I personally would be overjoyed if DETC had widespread acceptance. This would broaden my possibilities – to include institutions accredited by an accreditor without the prejudices of WASC et al. But the information presented here (and on that other forum) shows that this is not the case. And the DETC accreditation during the last two years of at least three disgraceful organizations doesn’t give me much hope.

Third, AMU, Global U., Catholic Distance U. and other DETC-accredited degree-granting institutions have had courses evaluated by the ACE credit recommendation service. If you look at their websites you’ll see that they state that this is to improve chances of successful credit transfer.

 

Isn’t DETC meant to be a US government approved “club”.

This means that either:

RA unis are a discriminatory, jealous, finicky, bunch of pseudo-elitists.

Or

DETC institutions are indeed so inferior that totally undermine the entire accreditation system.

CFr

 

What does that mean?

If your first language is not English it doesn’t mean you can not genuinely earn an A-class advance degree in an English, American or Australian university

I can show you a million Asian students whom have graduated with top-notch science degrees with only a modest knowledge of the English language.

CFr

 

That explains it! I was just getting ready to write Chip a nasty gram because I have been awaiting the arrival of my offical fez only to return from the mail box disappointed day after day.

North

 

You didn't get your fez???!!?? I got mine -- with bells.