Nice work, Dr. Bear

It was nice to see you on 60 Minutes II last night. If my experience with the media serves as a guide, they probably condensed 20 minutes of taped interview with you down to your 90 seconds or so. Sure wish you could have talked more. Still, it was interesting and you came across as very authoritative. Your anecdote about chortling salespeople had ME laughing. My only criticism of the whole segment was that I think the typical viewer might have thought that Hamilton University was an anomaly. CBS failed, in my opinion, to communicate the magnitude of bogus online degree programs. I also found it interesting how Hamilton U. was able to exploit their bogus "chapel" for tax purposes. As I'm sure you know, some of the bogus "accrediting agencies" are set up ostensibly to circumvent the government agencies which they imply are somehow sinister enablers of evil secularism. Although they don't say as much in their advertising, the infamous ACI comes to mind.

http://www.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/dm3.html

Isn't it interesting that Dr. John Schell is President of Lighthouse Christian Academy which is accredited by ACI?

http://www.lighthouse.edu/Church/pastor.html

http://www.lighthouse.edu/college/acceditation.html


And who is PRESIDENT of ACI?

http://www.accreditnow.com/

I have to wonder if the president of ACI wrote the president of Lighthouse Christian Academy commending him for pasing his latest accreditation review with flying colors! The Bible colleges have to be the very hardest to regulate because of the separation of church and state issue. Sadly, it seems to me like the Oregon folks really have to tread carefully there, and are doing so.

There are a many of these fascinating threads easily discoverable with even the most basic of Internet searches. But then, you've done far more of these than I.

Another point: I must say that after seeing Callahan on TV, I now have some semblance of pity for her. I no longer consider her so much a shyster as an ignorant victim. It's too bad she lost her job, but like the ex-secretary of the diploma mill said, "How can anybody seriously believe you can earn a legitimate PhD degree in a few weeks?" Callahan seems to me a completely broken woman who will be marked and embarrassed for life by her poor judgment. Diploma mills create so many victims -- the employers, the legitimate colleges, taxpayers, the naive "students" and society as a whole. Continued best wishes in your war against these rip-off artists. It is a noble calling.

 

Jugador: If my experience with the media serves as a guide, they probably condensed 20 minutes of taped interview with you down to your 90 seconds or so

John: First they flew Allen Ezell and me to NY, met us with limos at the airport, and put us up for two nights at a good midtown hotel. We spent about two hours being taped in the interview, and another half hour outside walking up and down the street looking serious. That's show biz.

My first Hollywood experience was going on the set where a film my father wrote was being made. Dan Dailey, a would-be juggler in the story, had to do a simple routine juggling three balls. After about three hours, he finally got it right -- and that sequence occupied perhaps 10 seconds in the film. I was bored out of my 11-year-old skull, and didn't return to the set for many months.

 

I felt they did a good job of explaining the magnitude of bigus online degrees. They said it was a million, billion, zillion or whatever dollar per year money maker. They pointed out how Hamilton disappears and Richardson University appeared.

I don't think they did a good job of explaining the positive schools and telling the consumer how to protect themselves or what questions to ask. They should have finished the piece by saying, "if you do not want to end up like Laura Callahan, AA not PhD, buy John Bear's book!!!!"

 

Request from Dr. Bear!

Sir, I just bought your most recent book and it fails to address the following institution. Would you please give me your opinion of the Robert de Sorbon University.

http://www.sorbonedu.com/sorbonengl.html.

I value your opinion and I have an ongoing discussion on another thread.

http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?threadid=13336

Thank you very much for your consideration and answer in advance.

Sincerely and Respectfully,

Reverend Robert Ray Hill
Ordained Minister
http://www.CivilAirpatrol.biz/Resume.pdf

 

Even when I was involved in writing and researching Bears' Guide (which I stopped doing two years ago when the 15th edition went to press), I could not do in-depth research on the more-than-3,000 schools in our data base. I relied, and still rely on the opinions of people whom I implicitly trust. One of these is the person who posts here as "Galanga," and when he writes, as he did on the other thread:
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Milotach might not be interested in "The University Francophone Robert de Sorbon" but our friends in the inland northwest are. Take a look at the large black-on-black field at the bottom of http://www.advancedu.org/. If you select the apparently empty region you'll find a large amount of text hidden there. For example:

quote:
"... L'Université Francophone Robert de Sorbon (non profit) is not a "Diploma Mill" but an educational entity managed by scholars, which delivers recognized Higher education Degrees following strict rules.

But that's not all-- there is text related to Concordia College and University, as well as Almeda College.
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that's really all I need to know. There is nothing there that I would find even remotely recommendable.