Patriot University

What do you think about Patriot University ?

Thanks for your time.

 

OT. New B&M school specializing in home-schooled students. Has a significant Christian 'tude.

 

Is it another less-than-wondeful school or just a non-regionally accredited christian distance school... is it a mill?

 

It seems to me that someone well known (memory fails here) wrote a book, and his Doctorate was attacked because it was not from an RA school. The response was that Patriot is legally operating under a religious exemption. It would appear from their website that their primary mission is to train those wishing to go into the ministry field. Since the degrees appear to be all religious in nature, i.e. D.Min, M.A in Christian Ministry, etc, it would appear that it is not a mill. Can't tell much about quality of course material. If you are considering entering the ministry, you may want to check with your denomination (Baptist.org or whatever) and see what it is thought of there. If you are considering a field other than ministry/religious education, a degree from Patriot may not have much utility just because it is not RA.

 

Ignore this post. I confused Patriot with another school. Sorry about that.

 

Why in the world are you asking us?

Think about it: If you enroll in it simply for the education it provides, you need to decide for yourself whether or not the education it provides seems valuable to you. If you intend to earn and use a degree from this place, it will be up to you to find a niche application that accepts the school, or else be able to convince skeptics of the school's credibility. That would all be on you if you were considering studying at a school like this.

But for whatever it's worth, here's my personal opinion:

The school does offer DL. That seems to be all that it offers. They are rather defensive about the fact that they operate out of a small building next to a church and tell us that they have been attacked as a degree-mill in the past. (Those damn evolutionists.)

http://www.patriotuniversity.com/buildings.asp

http://www.patriotuniversity.com/PriceOfTruth.asp

They operate on a Colorado religious exemption. It's interesting to see how many religion schools use that exemption (though some are branches of accredited out of state seminaries). It seems that secular degree granting schools in Colorado are required to be on a recognized accreditation track.

http://www.state.co.us/cche/colleges/sem&bible.html

They are rather dismissive of accreditation but may or may not be claiming unrecognized accreditation:

http://www.patriotuniversity.com/accreditation.asp

Here's their graduate course descriptions. While these classes may have considerable value for certain students, I think that both the lineup of courses and their individual descriptions are pretty weak from an institution that purports to offer advanced degrees up to the doctoral level. The fact that they are designed to be completed in three to six weeks isn't reassuring.

http://www.patriotuniversity.com/gradcourse.asp

How are the classes delivered? They send you a workbook, written by them, that asks T/F, multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks and some short answer questions. This is accompanied by a textbook (that may also have been written by them) or an audio tape. This doesn't sound like graduate level, or even university level work.

http://www.patriotuniversity.com/coursesample.asp

Despite those obvious weaknesses, they go into a whole thing about how they are a curriculum-based based institution as opposed to teacher-based. That supposedly justifies their lack of a faculty.

http://www.patriotuniversity.com/curriculumbasis.asp

My personal opinion? I think that these classes may have value for somebody who is looking for some rather hard-fundie individual DL classes for their own edification. (There are much better options.) But I don't really consider this place a university level institution of higher education and I don't think that its degrees look very credible.

 

?Creationist? Kent Hovind got a Ph.D. from Patriot.
Hovind's site is - http://www.drdino.com/index.jsp

Here is a discussion of Hovind's dissertation - http://home.austarnet.com.au/stear/bartelt_dissertation_on_hovind_thesis.htm

Here is a not so flattering challenge to Hovind, his education and work (one with which I do not totally agree) -http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/comment/hovind.htm

If my memory serves me correctly, I believe Levicoff (sp?) or Walston has discussed Patriot.

Patriot seems to be one to avoid...

 

In the '60s, I was having fun with the Millard Fillmore Institute, giving silly honorary degrees to people I liked, or who asked nicely for one. There was a request to send one as a gift to a person I didn't know -- something like a Doctor of Universal Love -- which was done.

A couple of years later, there was this name, a Dean of Patriot University, listing in their catalog a "Ph.D." from "Willard Fillmore Institute." (In Old English characters, the capital M and W look similar.)

That was the only time (as far as I know) that someone actually tried to use the thing. I did write to the president of Patriot, who replied noncommittally by thanking me for the information.

 

When my wife & I applied to pre-school for our 2 1/2 year old boy/girl twins, I couldn't resist the opportunity. There was a section on the application titled "Other accomplishments of your child". I filled in their Millard Fillmore doctorates.

We got back responses that totally ignored those noteworthy educational achievements.

 

So how come they're not contributing to the Alumni Fund, Bruce? They can endow a chair for $9.95. (The K-Mart Lawn Chair of Leisure Studies, that is.)

 

You still have K-Mart?

You know whats sad, is that certain think that you ran Filmore as a legitimate school...... When it was nothing more than a joke. So sad on their parts....