DEAC Masters for 900 dollars

https://www.elmwoodinstitute.org/

Master's degree in Leadership and Management for 900 dollars - what's the catch? 25 dollars a graduate credit

Accredited: Elmwood Institute, a division of Patten University, is DEAC accredited. The Distance Education Accrediting Commission is listed by the U.S. Department of Education as a recognized accrediting agency.

What does this mean?

State Authorization
Elmwood Institute is licensed, authorized, or exempt in the following states:
Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington.

 

So I am trying to figure out what does state authorization mean ? Also if my state is not on the list , what does that mean for me ? I am in New York State which is not on the list

 

pretty sure that means you will not be able to participate at this time. I found this link from Ohio State where they talk about state authorization. https://online.osu.edu/resources/plan/what-does-state-authorization-mean-online-programs

 

Appears that only counts when “programs that are designed to lead to licensure or certification in a professional field”
This program doesn’t lead to a license or certification in a professional field (example project management certificate )

 

I am not really sure, but I know I have heard of other schools that New York residents can’t attend, such as Rasmussen and Walden for similar reasons.

 

There is already another thread about this school.

DEAC schools have run into this: a need to be authorized in each state in which they operate. RA schools seem to have avoided this.

 

State Authorization
Elmwood Institute is licensed, authorized, or exempt in the following states:
Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington.

So people in the licensed, authorized or exempt states could enroll and use the degree?

 

Enroll yes, use... suppose that depends on the employer. The point is this: if your state is not on the list, legally you cannot enroll, and your state Dept of Ed will not recognize the credits.

 

What does this mean? Please elaborate.

 

Merely that if your state is not on the list, the state board of education in your state has the option of prohibiting a school in your state from accepting credits from this program for transfer.

Such an event is /was common a few years back with regard to for-profit "technical" correspondence schools.

 

So I am assuming you can still apply even if your state is not on this list just you will have possible problems with credit transfer in the future if I understand correctly ?

 

Not eligible for Fed financial aid so of limited use to many.

 

$900 out of pocket is not so bad

 

The 900 dollars include all books and learning materials.

 

Sorry if I wasn't clear Sir.

Illinois has something called the IAI - Illinois Articulation Agreement.

The IL Board of Higher Education lays out EXACTLY which schools in Illinois gets to accept credit from whom, at what level, and what the criteria are... So what class A counts for at school B. It is NOT up to the individual schools.

As an example: even within the state itself not every four year school is required to accept associates degrees from every community college in the state.

The state actually says which 2 year schools each 4 year college gets to accept credit from.

It is mostly regional, with the caveat that all 4 year schools have to accept Chicago students, because...politics.

Using myself as an example, I grew up in the eastern part, and got both an AAS and AS before going to get my BS. I had almost 100 credits completed. I wanted a 4 year degree in emergency management and at the time only one 4 year school on IL offered that. When I went there, because my community college was not on "their" list, I was not considered a "transfer" student despite having two associates degrees and nearly 100 credits done. So I was forced to spend four years there instead of two, and had to repeat my "gen-eds"

Meanwhile another student who has attended the community college right down the road was guaranteed to come in as a first semester junior, because the school was on that universities approved list.

The same policy hold true with out of state schools.

I linked the IBHE list below. If your school is not on this list, the State of IL says that no IL college or university is required to accept your credits. Furthermore the state forbids any school not on this list from offering "online" or "Distance Ed" classes to IL residents. . . Which is why for example the IL Attorney Generals office sued the shit out of U of Phoenix and ITT for millions a few years back.

Here is the list of "approved" schools... It gets updated annually from what I understand.

https://www.ibhe.org/institutionsByL.asp

To the best of my understanding, if your school is not on this list, IBHE says you are a degree mill as far as they are concerned.

 

I will admit I do not work for IBHE and am not a lawyer, so if I am wrong or if I misunderstood something in the terminology of the rule, I accept full responsibility for the error.

 

The list you linked to is a list of institutions in Illinois. That's...it. I see nothing on there about acceptability (or lack thereof) of credits.

You'll notice that the list does not include Harvard, Cornell, Dartmouth, the University of Pennsylvania or any other school outside of Illinois.

The only exceptions where it includes an out of state school is where that school seems to be offering online programs to residents of Illinois and has been approved to do so.

To believe otherwise would indicate that your Cornell College degree would go further than your Cornell University degree. YMMV and all. But it just doesn't make a claim about credit transfer and the implications of what you say, especially absent an actual source, seem ludicrous to think that an Illinois School can accept credits from American InterContinental but not PennState.

 

State authorization means that they're authorized to offer distance learning courses to residents of that state. Elmwood asks for a copy of your state ID/DL to confirm that you live in a state where they are authorized to offer courses.

https://www.untdallas.edu/dlit/state-authorization.php