My Personal Experience With An Unaccredited (Degree Mill) Degree

Yes Karlos:

Only 32 hours were unaccredited, the last 32, which of course made 75% of the degree accredited course work. However, the degree was not accredited.

Actually, I am 100% happier, because no one ever asked me what percent of my degree was accredited. It was always, is the degree accredited!

Russell

 

Sounds good in theory. The reality is, though, that whether it's accredited or unaccredited has to do with where he graduated from. It hasn't been said that his coursework is unaccredited. What has been said (and the way such things work) is that the degree is unaccredited.


Tom Nixon

 

Dear Russell,

Hey, good logic! Thus, I congratulate you again!

Best wishes,


Karlos Alberto Lacaye
[email protected]

 

Dear Tom,

Thank you for your response.

Remember that Russell completed an accredited associate's prior to entering his bachelor's. Thus, his associate's degree (75% of his bachelor's in his case) is legitimate. But you are right that his bachelor's (25% on top of his associate's) is not. In any case, I have the impression that Russel would have had a very different experience if he hadn't completed an accredited associate's first.

Cordially yours,


Karlos Alberto Lacaye
[email protected]

 

Dear Tom,

Thank you for your response.

Remember that Russell completed an accredited associate's prior to entering his bachelor's. Thus, his associate's degree (75% of his bachelor's in his case) is legitimate. But you are right that his bachelor's (25% on top of his associate's) is not. In any case, I have the impression that Russel would have had a very different experience if he hadn't completed an accredited associate's first.

Cordially yours,


Karlos Alberto Lacaye
[email protected]

 

I agree with Tom. What people are looking at is the final product (name of the institution on the degree). Not what percentage of it was transfered in from accredited sources. In fact if the school is a mill the asssumption will be that the whole/most of the degree was questionable.

Russell's solution certainly eliminates the need to explain. I mentioned the example earlier of a Liberty U professor with terrific accredited credentials & academic honors who still felt it necessary to explain the unaccredited B.A.

P.S. I would luv to know the name of the school Russell first graduated from. I understand if he chooses not to reveal this and assume that had he wanted to he would have already.

North

 

Hello, North!

I think, North, that you are missing my point. I agree that his bachelor's was unacredited, but his associate's wasn't. Remember than an associate's is also a degree, not just half of a bachelor's. Otherwise, am I correct to surmise that you are saying that having an accredited associate's plus and unacredited bachelor's is the same as having an unacredited associate's and plus an unacredited bachelor's? For me, there is a difference, but you are welcome to think in another way.

Best regards,


Karlos Alberto "Caballero" Lacaye
[email protected]

 

Karlos:

I did not have an accredited associate's degree. What I stated was that I had two years of community college. All the work was regionally accredited, but I did not have the actual degree.

Russell

 

And this is indeed the reason, North, that I removed the time bomb. I eliminated the need to explain an unaccredited degree, which like the Liberty professor, I would have personally felt the need to do. Others may not have experienced this stigma, however, I did. So, with a little extra effort the problem is gone.

Russell

 

Hey, Russell!

Then my point is not valid. Of course, if you have an unaccredited bachelor's without having an accredited associate's first, then it doesn't matter how many credits you transfer in to your bachelor's, for the whole bachelor's will be unaccredited.

On a side note, with two years of junior college work, it should be easy to get an associate's in liberal studies or general studies. The only exceptions I know are some engineering associate's which require almost three years. Otherwise, you can transfer your two years of junior college work to TESC, COSC, or EXC and get an associate's at once. Of course, the scenario is now different because you have graduate degrees.

All the best,


Karlos Alberto Lacaye
[email protected]

 

Good morning!

This thread was started by a thought-provoking post, and it was followed by an interesting series of back-and-forth exchanges. When people disagreed, they did so in a respectful fashion. The retraction (quoted above) was done in Mr. Lacaye's usual intelligent and polite manner.

DegreeInfo has become a place where distance education topics can be debated, discussed, and dissected without the incivility that can occur in any forum. I would like to offer my congratulations to the participants, moderators, and related parties.

 

Thank you J., and I concur with you. DegreeInfo.com, since its inception, has been a kinder gentler forum than most. Chip, the administrators, and posters are to be commended for making this forum informative for the DL community.

 

For you North!

Covington Theological Seminary!

CTS is a small Baptist school, operating from a tiny building in Rossville, Georgia, which is 20 miles south of Chattanooga. CTS has no website. I was on staff with a guy (1987) who had graduated from there, and he spoke highly of the school, which was one of the main reasons I chose CTS to complete the Th.B. After my initiation into the field of distance education and learning the nuances of accreditation and its ramifications, I realzed what a foolish decision I had made.

Type CTS into Google.com and you will find several pastors, and some faculty at unaccredited schools, who hold degrees from there. Now there is one less, because I mailed my diploma back to them. Ironically, I have never received a reply from CTS.

Russell

 

I realize that you are not looking for a pat on the back but I will give you one anyway. You analyzed your situation and felt the need to obtain an accredited undergraduate degree, this was not only practical but in my opinion a good Christian witness since you questioned the quality of the degree. So you went ahead and did extra work even though you already had a doctorate. But... not only that you actually returned the diploma. I think the temptation for many would be to continue to use the credential in some form or another. You replaced one with the other.

North

 

Dear J. Ayers,

Good afternoon!

Thank you for your encouraging words. They are really appreciated.

Very best wishes,


Karlos Alberto Lacaye
[email protected]