life experience degree

Of all the frauds out there, Lexington may be the most dangerous of all to try to get away with, since a great many major newspapers, including USA Today, used the picture of Senator Collins of Maine holding up the Lexington diploma her staff bought her, to dramatize the ease of getting a fake degree.

 

Levels of analysis!

It really is essential that we look at 'levels of analysis' when using terms/phrases such as 'life experience degree'. In fact, Nottingham Trent University in the UK has awarded a bachelor's degree to several people based solely on a portfolio of achievement of prior learning/experience. It can also be argued that people who submit for a PhD by published works are asking for their prior achievements to be assessed. Likewise, people awarded a DLitt are required to do no extra work but have an assessment made of their already published works - a degree by experience?
AJJ

 

AJJ is perfectly correct and, as I've previously posted, very few learned societies in the UK (and none in NZ) operate their own examinations these days - Institutions of Mechanical, Civil, Electrical Engineering, RIBA, IED, etc.
To achieve any level of membership requires a portfolio of 'life experiences', which includes - examinations passed (a degree is needed to get you passed 'go'), years of industrial experience at an appropriate level, managerial and supervision experience,
level of CAD experience, age, etc., etc. And then, if thought suitable, a professional interview is usually carried out. In Europe full membership of such institutions is ranked far higher in a particular profession than any level of university degree.
Whilst this may not be entirely relevant to this thread, it is a fact the 'life experience' qualifications system has been around for a long time.
Dr Anatidae

 

I have been reading this thread and my advise on this to winstonwolf is to earn an accredited degree. I see what you mean about utilizing a degree for your experience and how good it looks on paper, let me explain it differently. Have you ever heard of a pyramid scheme? They always say bring in some friends and if you get to the top of the pyramid, you get the money, the problem is nobody ever gets to the top. That's what one of these degrees is like. It looks good on paper, but actually it ends up being not what you bargained for.

Understand also that it is illegal to use any unaccredited degrees in some states, even from legitimate schools. By earning an accredited degree, you will have a degree that is recognized by all institutions as legitimate in the US and abroad. Also, if you choose to go the Master's route down the road, you'll qualify with the accredited degree. I guess it seems unfair when you have experience, yet nobody gives you a second glance because of the lack of a degree. My father for example does not have a degree and I think of him as smarter than some with a degree and yet the person with the degree would win for the job over Dad, but that's the way of the world.

Don't short-change yourself, walk into that interview confident with the fact that you have a diploma that in the US is accepted, go accredited. Check out the big 3 schools in our forum. These schools accept and will offer credit for experience, however you will never achieve a full degree based upon experience alone, but maybe a least get a quarter of the way there. I hope I have helped and good luck!!!!!!

 

To The Cat: Thank you for reading my posts and the thread. First of all I need to say that I do not intend to give the diploma mill any money or print my own bogus degree. I have decided to pursue an accredited pathway. Cat, in reading what you had said about your father, I would like to ask you what he may have said, if you had discussed his getting a degree through one of these methods? Speaking for myself, as you get older, it can be very difficult to find the time to get as serious as you need to and accomplish all the tasks involved with obtaining a degree. At this point in life, I am not beginning a career or mid-career, I have 6 to 10 work years to do. Right now my goal is to get a job, it's very competitive now and I will have to present my experience, skills and accomplishments and hope employeers will consider a great many years of practical experience to be somewhat equivalent to a BS. Thank you, to all here that offered good advice and understanding. To those that were looking for a fight, I hope you get well and do not wind up in a spider hole. Does anyone have an opinion of Kennedy-Western University? It seems to offer a legitimate program, but I may be wrong. I'm sure someone here knows something about them. Any advice?

 

Moving up the evolutionary scale...

Winston,
By your suggestion of Kennedy-Western, you are moving up the evolutionary scale of diploma mills and less-than-wonderful institutions. First life experience, now Kennedy-Western. Hopefully you'll get to DETC soon, and then on to RA.

 

Kennedy Western is not an accredited university. Degrees there are useless and illegal in many states.

As mentioned many times in this thread, start with the Big Three universities. Re-read Mr. Nixon's post as it was perfect advice and you will be on the right track.

 

Yes. Do a search on this board for more than sufficient information about Kennedy-Western and any other organization of its ilk that you might be interested in.

 

Kennedy-Western University is a most insidious degree mill. It requires some real work which convinces many of their victims that they are a real school. KWU degrees are illegal in a number of states. KWU has been classified as a degree mill by the Council on Higher Education. It is very possible that you could get a real degree from one of the "big three" already mentioned faster, easier, cheaper, and for less work than KWU.

What makes KWU a degree mill is that they'll apparently require anyone to pass 5-7 classes (and a report) for each degree whether they have 20 years experience and 100 previous credits or 5 years experience and 0 previous credits. There's also been some reports that they will accept people into their Ph.D. program even if the person has had no previous education and it is still 5-7 classes and a report for the degree.

Other things that indicate that KWU is a degree mill is that they have fled 3 states, apparently to avoid prosecution (California, Hawaii, and Idaho) and they don't accept students from the state that they actually operate from.

 

a reference?

Hi Bill,

Interesting about CHE(A??) and K-W. Is there a statement available on the web concerning their evaluation of K-W as a diploma mill?

thanks-
G

 

BillH
It may well be "faster, easier, cheaper, and less work" to get a degree from one of the "big three" than it is to get a KWU degree, yet in your eyes KWU is a degree mill and the "big three" are God's gift to DL and are not degree mills! I assume they are not degree mills because they have some form of bureaucratic accreditation? I find your interpretation of the situation quite difficult to comprehend. In addition I believe your other hearsay and speculative auguments against KWU are seriously flawed.
Dr Anatidae

 

Re: a reference?

I don't subscribe to the Council on Higher Education so I can't access their archives. I read the article when their articles were publicly available. It was also an amusing topic (for some) on the KWU forum when that forum was public. Anyway, it was not an article about KWU specifically. The article was about degree mills in general and they listed a small set of examples of degree mills and Kennedy-Western was in the list. IIRC, they might have also included a couple of sentences specifically on KWU.

 

I am happy my post has sunk in!!! As you can see degree mills and purchased degrees are a hotbed topic being that 99% of us here are interested in achieving a worthwhile degree. The mention of interest in purchasing a degree can get you flamed more than BBQ chicken wings!!!!The reason? Degree mills are ruining the legitimacy of distance education. Since most degree mills are selling their schools as distance learning, the bad apples spoil the bunch as some employers frown upon real distance learning as inferior to brick and mortar schools, which is in fact not the case. You can achieve a good education from good distance learning schools. But that view of inferiority in DL is not good for those who work hard for a real degree.

As for my father, he would have told you the same thing I said, probably word for word as some of him has rubbed off on me. Like I said earlier, my father is a bright man. He does not have his degree and has done very well for himself in his career. When my father was younger he tried college in 1964 and found it wasn't for him. He trained and became a Licensed Air Conditioning and Heating specialist soon after. I guess he had options that today may not be applicable as salaries and job opportunities were more available for high school educated people.

My Dad always told me whatever you really want in this life won't come easy. He always said if you try your best and work hard, nobody can take that away from you. My father would probably say this regarding mills "what seems too good to be true "is" too good to be true!!!!!" Just think of the amount of stress that will be reduced by knowing your degree is 100% legit. If you were to purchase one of those degrees, here are some difficulties you could encounter:
1. Someone may find out you bought it and fire you!!
2. What of the graduation verification services they offer, will they deliver and if not, how do you fight that?
3. What if they even don't deliver you anything, who do you call to complain about your "purchased" degree not being sent, the police?
4. Imagine you get a job and then they find out about your degree in the future, do you need to have that thought in your head? Also imagine how embarassing it would be if your co-workers found out you bought you diploma as work is a gossipy place!!! I have to admit, I would even have a good laugh over that if it happened to someone on my job.
5. In some states it's illegal to even have one of these degrees so there are a couple of states you would have to avoid if moving.

As you can see, with an accredited degree from a reputable school, all the above problems and more would not exist, like I said "your worth it, go accredited"!!!!!!

 

Do you mean "Chronicle" rather than "Council" ??

 

Oops, thank you

 

Life experience degree?

More often you see the degree mills are using this ploy to legitimize the worthless "degrees" sold. They have taken a positive concept of a portfolio assesment that ensures proof of college level learning for a course and created the " life experience degree".

I guess in the old days it was a "buy the fraudulent degree" scheme. Now we get fake accreditation, fake schools giving "life experience degrees".

It seems a shame that a great concept and methodology is cheapened by these mills. People are also taken in along the way.

 

1) Bill's "you" was a not a generic "you" (= "one"), but was addressed to a specific individual who claimed to have "decades" of experience and to "have accomplished quite a lot of independent study".

2) Bill said "very possible", not "a given". It really does depend on the individual's knowledge.

3) In this thread: http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11396, FNHayes is misrepresenting Bill's "easier" above as "far easier".

4) The Big 3 offer (among other degrees) Liberal Arts degrees with humanities concentrations. These are often easier for people to fulfill with their general knowledge than the subjects that Kennedy-Western offers (Engineering, Computer Science, Business).

 

Not sure what Mark's post is doing in this arena, but good to see him agreeing with Bill Huffman that it is more difficult to get a degree from KWU than from 'the big three'!
Dr Anatidae