How to Spot A Fake Distance Learning Graduate School
In the 1950's, correspondence schools started up promising to deliver diplomas for adults who couldn't go to college for whatever reason. These correspondence schools were later to be determined to be nothing but frauds. However, the idea of the correspondence school fraud has taken on a new incarnation in the world of distance learning online graduate schools.
Now, there are legitimate graduate school degrees that you can get from some learning institutions - but there are also the fraudsters ready to take your money and run. Here is how to tell if a distance learning graduate school is legitimate or not.
It's An Online Course
Any distance learning graduate schools MUST be online and not through pen and paper routes like in the old bad correspondence school days. You must be able to get into virtual classrooms (often conducted in real time) and take tests and submit papers online. You don't take the tests when you feel like it and then mail it in.
It Has A Real Campus
Legitimate degrees from distance learning graduate schools are branches of a real campus that you can drive to, walk up to the professor and slap him right across the mouth. Alright, so you shouldn't be slapping anybody physically, but you get the idea. The college or university offering the online degree should be in the business of education in all of its forms.
They should make most of their money with campus education for undergraduates - not with an online course. With more and more quality and Ivy League colleges designing distance learning graduate school courses, you should be able to find a school you (and your boss) will already have heard of.
It's Accredited
Since there is a lot of "diploma mills" out there, you can't rely on the promotional materials of any distance learning graduate school course. Of COURSE they are going to say their degrees are accredited. But, are they? Hey, whenever has there EVER been truth in advertising? You must find out if this course is accredited.
You can easily discover if an online degree is accredited. First, check with your state (or country's) Department of Education for their list of accredited online courses for the degree you want to pursue. Then, check with the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), a non-profit watchdog organization that tries to ferret out "diploma mills".
