DL Reviews Website

Degree Mills

Short answer: Degree Mills will not be listed on the website.

However, I'm open to suggestions or advice on how to handle them. Originally, my view was to list them and have people comment/review them so their true nature as a Degree Mill would be revealed. People would also be able to find out about the school, rather than have no information at all. The down-side to listing such schools are:

1. OnlineDegreeReviews.org would be giving them a way to promote themselves

2. There may not be any reviews/comments to warn people, especially if for new degree mills

3. It just encourage similar sites to "spam" the directory and get listed, eventually drowning out the legitimate schools

4. It could lead to a lawsuit

For now, schools that are clearly degree mills and offer no educational value will not be listed.

Unaccredited Schools
I will list an unaccredited school if it legitimate and offers valuable DL education or training. It will be clearly labeled as unaccredited so people know. One suggestion is to put these schools in a separate category, which may make it clearer to people.

I will be a lot more careful about listing unaccredited schools and will examine them a lot more closely then I do accredited schools. Such "grey" schools will probably benefit greatly from reviews as they will indicate whether they are legitimate or not.

"Unbiased"
I thought I should explain what I mean by "unbiased." Basically, I see the website and myself as inpartial and not influenced by any third-parties. The website does not "feature" schools or advertise any school so there is no incentive to promote one over the other. If a school is legitimate (not necessarily accredited), offers value to students, and is DL, then it will be listed. So the listing and displaying of schools is not biased, although there are criteria schools need to meet to get listed. I will make the criteria more clear on the website.

The reviews provided by students may be slightly biased, but I think people understand that when they read them. To the extent that I am able to verify and judge the reviews, they are all written by real students and not faked. I hope that students can try to be as objective as possible when evaluating their programs, but after several year and thousands of dollars I know that is difficult.

Overall, my goal is to create a website that provides trustworthy information about online degrees. As the website develops and I gain more experience with these issues some of the policies may need adjusting. I'm open to criticism and helpful suggestions. The current policies may not be perfect, but you have to start somewhere, give it a try, then fix them as you go.

Thanks again to everyone here, and those that have emailed me directly, for your comments and the discussion. Hopefully, it will help the website start off on the right track and avoid some of the potential pitfalls. I really appreciate all your efforts.

 

No, it's just "certificates." To be honest, I didn't even realize there were different types, such as undergraduate or graduate.

 

Seems to be some misunderstanding I had 90 college credits at the undergraduate level and the great books verification granted 30 undergraduate credits and 10 graduate level credits at Rushmore. I completed projects and a dissertation for the doctorate and that took four years it was hardly fast or easy. But I recieved it for PERSONAL reasons not for a credential and for that the less expensive program they offered was ideal. I deem my doctorate to be very acceptable for that. Its not like the school has no quality its business degrees are actually fairly strong. I point to the school now and if you use the quality of the work and graduates now its very good for the value.

I feel its lack of accreditation has little bearing on my being very content with my degree.

 

Of course you feel that way; you're the phoney who has a vested interest in how the school is perceived.

I've just printed myself a doctorate from the C.D. Robb College of Health Administration and Science Fiction Trivia. I did it all in color with my ink-jet printer and it has just as much utility, academic meaning and external validation as your two "doctorates".

The difference between your phoney "doctorates" and mine? Nothing.

 

Thomas, what in the world do your "Doctorates" have to do with this thread? They've been amply covered in others, and I can state that I sincerely HOPE that neither of your "Alma Mater's" ever appears on Steve's fine web site, but why focus this on yourself?

If you can present these to the world with a straight face, then more power to you, but it goes well beyond defending them when you thrust the issue out front.

Dave

 

thomaskolter,

PLEASE don't correct the spelling of 'unaccredited' in your signature. It would be criminal to destroy such a beautiful illustration of res ipsa loquitur.

Regards,
Mark

 

It would be interesting to hear about the process by which doctoral proposals and completed dissertations are approved at Rushmore. Would you be willing to share that information? Thanks.

Dave

 

I noticed it would not allow me to add Ashworth College. Any idea why?

Pug

 

Someone else had already submitted Ashworth College before you but I hadn't approved it yet. The website prevents duplicate names, but the error message needs to be improved to explain the problem. To be honest, I didn't think it would happen very often (or ever).

Ashworth College is now approved and you can see it at: http://www.onlinedegreereviews.org/college/ashworth-college/

 

Speaking of which, insofar as colleges being entered only once, American Military University is in there twice: once as American Military University and once as American Public University/American Military University.

 

And as for programs within a school, Regent University has duplicate entries of "Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)" and "Regent University, Doctor of Education."

 

Besides, I'm getting kind of old and senile here. When it takes so long between submission and approval, I oft-times forget which schools/programs I've already suggested.

 

Ted: Thanks for alerting me to the duplicate schools and programs. I'll get that corrected.

Ideally, I would like to be able to approve submission within one day. Over the past week there has been a huge number of submissions due to publicity and I haven't been able to keep up. I could probably approve them faster, but I want to make sure I spend the time to thoroughly check things over. I don't want to sacrifice quantity for quality. I expect things will slow down a bit now that the initial "rush" is over and I'll be able to approve submissions faster.

 

Over the past week there has been a huge number of submissions due to publicity and I haven't been able to keep up.

Congrats!

 

Congratulations! You're providing a service that's in demand!

 

Thanks!

Thanks Ted and recruiting.

It would not have happened without the contributions, feedback, discussions, and support from members of this board. I have no doubts that it is because of all your submisison and reviews that the website is quickly becoming a useful resource for everyone.

Thanks!

 

Re: Thanks!

Steve,

Bravo. It's a great site. I have a few suggestions. If you would like to hear them all, please PM me with an email account to which I can send them.

Thanks,

Dave

 

Congrats Steve, very nice job and a help to DL.

 

Have you thought of appointing a few moderators to help approve submissions?

 

Indeed. Find a need and fill it.