Pacific Western University

He's lucky he got me. Imagine what Steve would have done....

 

Ted, I have great respect for Rich. He is far more knowledgeable on the topic than I. He hasn't posted in a while and I was just excited to see his posts. Sorry, if that bothered you.

However, if you were insulted by the fact that PWU was and is considered a degree mill by most informed folks, I'm not sorry for that. I think it best for you to just face the facts. If you've been using your degree mill degree successfully then fine and congrats. You may want to keep a low profile though because that kind of thing can blow up in one's face.

Anyway, thank you for the laughs, I sincerely do appreciate it.

 

Since you and Bill Huffman are apparently joined at the hip, my comment about his opinion applies to yours as well...

My 3rd paragraph quote was in direct response to your 6th paragraph statement !!@!! You have a way of avoiding responses to statements you've made. Another example was your overbroad statement about graduate schools and credit for work experience.

You imply for some reason that you've trashed (your words) PWU because of supposed misleading statements. My statements are merely my opinion and we now all know what I think about opinions.

For the record I am not from California, have multiple degrees and am not on LinkedIn because I prefer not to use the social media. Good Night and Good Luck with your watchdog duties biased as they are !!

 

Are you most proud of your PWU degree? Where are your other degrees from?

 

No to the first - and the rest is none of your business or for this site.
My concern was confined to PWU and to counter all the badmouthing, etc.
This was my first & last visit to this site
YOU have the last word as I have better things to do than play back and forth with you.....

 

You were the one that brought up your "multiple degrees" not me.

I guess the fun ends. Good luck with your degree mill diploma. You did seem to fail miserably in trying to salvage the horrible reputation of the degree mill, Pacific Western University, may it RIP. Don't feel too bad about that though, it was a hopeless case.

 

Well, since Bill and I don't know each other at all, that's a pretty interesting assessment.

Right. Like I'm going to track that. If you have something that shows where I'm wrong about PWU--or anything else--please share it for all of our benefit.

Again, please show where that statement is in error. It is not.[/quote]

You imply for some reason that you've trashed (your words) PWU because of supposed misleading statements. My statements are merely my opinion and we now all know what I think about opinions.[/quote]

Yes, you have some interesting opinions about PWU, but you also poured out a lot of misinformation. I've addressed it and don't feel the need to re-hash it.

Didn't say you were.

A claim you choose not to support with the facts, so no.

Well, "Ted Trowbridge" with a Pacific Western degree doesn't seem to actually exist anywhere. But I do. I have seven degrees earned nontraditionally from regionally accredited, not-for-profit colleges and universities, including two doctorates. One of those is a PhD specializing in this field. All of that is public and verifiable.

I haven't posted in several months, so I'm no so sure I have "watchdog duties," biased or otherwise. Your other claims are not verifiable and are thus moot. As for bias, I would imagine it would feel that way. The facts often do. Again, feel free to refute anything I've said.

Pacific Western University was a legal, ersatz institution operating under no scrutiny from educational or government scrutiny. When those conditions changed, it (with dozens of other, similar operations) went away. Degrees issued by Pacific Western University have never had any academic meaning. They serve merely to fool people. And not just people who think you actually have a degree. Operations like that also fool their customers, like you, into thinking you have a degree when you do not. I can understand your frustration, but taking it out on others is bad form.

Good luck with your continuing deception of those around you. Sorry you got caught here.

 

Gosh, someone mentioned good old Kennedy Western. I very nearly signed up with that bunch myself decades ago. Would have but for Bear's Guide and this forum. Dodged an expensive bullet that time.

 

Ah, the "none of your beeswax" defense, employed on schoolyards and playgrounds everywhere. Then why did you bring them up?

But you didn't "counter it." Not one little bit. You just complained about what people had to say about it.

Okay. Let's sum up what you've accomplished. You logged on using a pseudonym, claimed a degree from a shady, unaccredited, unapproved, out-of-business operation. You talked it up, then got mad when others pointed out the truth. You moaned about it, but didn't refute anything anyone said. You chose not to acknowledge where you were in error (multiple times), claiming "bias" instead. You insulted everyone who addressed your posts, and have now metaphorically slammed the door on your way out. Nice work!

One wonders why you didn't just attend to them instead of posting your lies here. But then, the wondering is as gone as you.

 

I got a good laugh about that one too.

I loved him bragging about multiple degrees but then lashing out when I asked him about it, another good one.

 

A difficult one to dodge. All of those Authorized schools under 94310(c) wrote amazing things in their literature about the voluntary nature of accreditation and touting their Authorized status as if it meant something. The best of all, IMHO, was Columbia Pacific University. Their materials were gorgeous. Kennedy-Western's were very business-like and slick. But they all had a compelling message to those who needed to get a degree.

Of the whole bunch of schools who emerged from that genre/era, the most impressive overall was California Coast. It was the first unaccredited DL school in California to have (a) all of its degree offerings Approved under 94310(b) and having done so with degrees through the doctorate. They offered degrees in psychology, education, business, and engineering, and every program went through the state-approval process successfully, even the doctorates in those fields. It was an impressive accomplishment back in the day

Another confusing aspect of those days was when California first got rid of the Authorized category. Some schools were successful in getting what was now institutional approval. Others folded. Still others (like Kennedy-Western) moved to other (less rigorous) states--even if they didn't actually move (again, like K-W). But a small set of schools tried a different scheme. They set up two operations, one awarding a few degrees in one or two academic areas. They'd get that approved by California. Then the rest of the mill-ish business would operate from a more-forgiving state--Hawaii was the choice du jour. Otherwise, the two versions of the school--like the two Frederick Taylor Universities--would operate from the same California location as before, but using Hawaii as the licensing source for all but one or a few of them. That was a confusing time. Looking at my copy of the 15 edition of Bears' Guide (John and Mariah), I note that another school who pulled off this deception was...wait for it...Pacific Western University!

Pacific Western--Hawaii awarded bachelor's degrees for an 8-page essay. Master's degrees and doctorates could be had for submitting a project. The Hawaiian operation occupied an empty room while degrees were issued under Hawaiian authority from its California location.

Go ahead. Defend that.

 

Hawaii, Dr. Douglas, requires no defense. Well, unless it's December 1941.

I remember California Coast's ads in the flight magazines. Seductive was the word. A nice line drawing of whatever tree that is on the coast at Monterey. "Earn your degree entirely by distance at ..." Wow.

The thing about those days was that a school (like, say, Taft Law) could always point out that there WAS NO accreditor to which they could apply. Not true now, of course. Taft got accredited as quickly as they could. My humble LL.M. comes with DEAC accreditation. Even so, it's a "degree with an explanation" and would not have the utility of the same diploma from even a bottom ranked resident school. It was also a great deal less expensive and under my particular circumstances that was the decisive factor.

I have a very hard time with the notion that any legitimate degree offering institution should neither have nor be pursuing some sort of recognized accreditation. There just isn't any excuse.

 

Wow, they have not lost their graphics touch there at California Coast! www.calcoast.edu Setting sun with seagull! Even better than the tree!

 

Sorry. I was referring to that guy with the PWU degree defending his choice when no one really cared (until he brought it up). But my post was in response to yours and I should have been more clear.

Yeah, that was slick. John used to marvel at how much that must have cost the school--and how they could afford it. Also, that it must have been effective in enrolling people with the means to pay.

Yes, being excluded from accreditation remains a problem to this day. There are several California-Approved schools facing closure if they can't make headway with a recognized accreditor. And the scene is not good. ACICS blew up and WASC, who at first said they'd entertain the idea of accrediting these schools, pulled away and stranded them. That leaves DEAC, but some of these schools are struggling to fit their offer into the course-in-a-box thinking still dominant at DEAC.

It was a common lament back then, but schools were doing it. When the PWU guy got his MBA, Fielding was already a candidate for accreditation, as was Union. It was happening, but slowly. But back then, no one thought about a strictly-DL degree, with most people looking for part-time programs they could do locally while still working. I don't know where that guy lived, but I suspect there were options. He just took a short cut and got mad when others called him on it.

With a few marginal exceptions, I agree. There are some really unique California schools that are struggling because they don't have the financial reserves the accreditors (rightly) require. This was WASC's big issue. DEAC is a bit more forgiving, but they have standards in this area. ACICS didn't much care, but we've seen the result of that.

 

Your post was perfectly clear. I just saw a chance to say something amusing. Well, I thought it was amusing, anyhow.

What IS that tree? You see it all over everything tied to the area. Some kind of dwarf pine, maybe?

Well, as always, the potential D/L degree student must do the research and be SURE that the degree will meet the student's foreseeable needs BEFORE signing up. There's more than a little regret out there for student loans and lousy job prospects.

 

Ah. It's a Monterey Cyprus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Cypress We can all get on with our lives.

 

The Monterey Lone Pine is 350 miles from Santa Ana, the home of CCU. There's a lot of California in-between. Odd choice. Then again, there isn't much in Santa Ana to use.

 

A shopping mall perhaps?

 

I didn't mention this before because I was trying not to be too awful rude but my guess is that Ted works for a major insurance company and was paid by the company to write the Claims Handling Manual. He then turned that into PWU as his thesis.

 

In my opinion, driven by my experience with that sector of California "education," I would guess that he turned in the Claims Handling Manual AS his thesis, rather than turning it into one. But I guess we'll never know.....