Credibility of Life Experience Degrees
Do Life Experience Degrees Really Work?
Yes. Life Experience Degrees do work for many people. The question is whether getting a life experience degree will work for you. Once you understand what you are getting and open your mind to the shortcomings of it, you will not be disappointed. I
will show you here exactly how to make your life experience degree work for you.
Don't be fooled by claims that you will "land your dream job" or that the degree
is "fully accredited." On the other hand, don't be intimidated by the idiots on
message boards such as degree.net and wiki that spew venom at anyone that merely
mentions the words LIFE EXPERIENCE DEGREES. The truth is that these life
experience degrees DO WORK. But you have to know how to work them. Keep reading
if you want to know how to make a Life Experience degree work for you.
First, you need to know that there is no free ride in life and that every
shortcut has is pros and cons. Life Experience Degrees are no exception. Some cunning on your part is required to be successful with your Life Experience Degree.
Isn't it true that Life Experience Degrees are not worth the paper they're printed on?
That's what John Bear wants you to believe. You know Bear as the self
appointed diploma mill czar. Bear will tell you that there is no substitute for
a traditional education. He will tell you that a Life Experience Degree is
useless and worthless and could land you in jail.
Think about this for a moment -- according to Bear, these "diploma mills" are
a $200 million a year industry and have been operating for hundreds of years.
That means there are over half a million people that get their Life Experience
Degree (or diploma mill degree as Bear puts it) each year. That's
about one-sixth of all college graduates! Let's put that in perspective:
- No industry can be that successful if the product didn't work.
- No industry can have that many sales without word of mouth or repeat business.
- No person has gone to jail over having one of these degrees on his/her resume.
- The number of people that can be identified that have lost their jobs due to these degrees can be counted on two hands. Additionally those people that were fired were virtually all government employees. Teachers, law enforcement officials etc.
- According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov) there are about 3 million new college educated employees entering the labor pool each year. According to Bear's numbers (do the math) a full 16 percent of these people are holding Life Experience Degrees from institutions bear considers to be "Diploma Mills." Why aren't these people being fired? Why aren't these people going to jail? The fact is this: If they are doing a good job, they remain employed. If they are incompetent, they will be terminated because they are incompetent.
- John Bear gets paid by the University system to spot and try to stomp out competition (err. . I mean diploma mills).
Now before you run out and buy Bear's book for $30.00 so you can learn the 'who's who' of diploma mills (according to the Big Enchilada himself), let me save you the trouble by making this simple. If it has a campus and a football team and charges tuition of over $10,000 per year, Czar Bear will say it's legitimate. If it is web based only, mentions the term Life Experience Degree, and is not one of the three honeys (Thomas Edison State College, Excelsior College, or Charter Oak State College), then Big Brother Bear will tell you it's a diploma mill. There -- now you can send me the $30.00. My e-mail address is at the end of this page.
Aren't Life Experience Degrees Illegal in some States?
This is one of the biggest fears people have before they get their Life Experience Degree. They may have read that Life Experience Degrees or unaccredited degrees are illegal in their state. Some of the schools that offer Life Experience Degrees even disclose that they are illegal in some states.
Well, what about those states that make it illegal to use your degree from
non-accredited schools? They are trying to protect their own precious system. Just like the states regulate tobacco and alcohol, some states are trying to regulate who is allowed to provide education. They want to make sure that they get their fee from anyone that buys education. The problem for the states that make these degrees illegal is that these are unenforceable laws. States like Texas
have what some lawyers refer to as "legal outs."
Frequently, laws are enacted
based on the prevailing party in power that contradicts pervious laws. Right to
work laws in Texas are very strong. The law that says you are not allowed to put
your Life Experience Degree on your resume is UNENFORCEABLE unless you are doing
government (or government contract) work. Texas government respects the privacy
of its private employers and citizens and it cannot come between these two as
long as there are no issues of safety or discrimination (there are a few other
areas where the government can intervene, but none related to hiring decisions
based on what's on your resume).
Still need more proof? If your state says non-accredited or Life
Experience degrees are illegal, try this: Call the police department and ask
them if you, as an employer, can call them if/when you receive a resume from
a person listing a degree from a university not approved by the state. Will
they run to your place of employment and drag the offending applicant off in
handcuffs? (The answer is that they will refuse to get involved because
their involvement violates so many other laws. But you can find out for
yourself. Just make the call.)
Aren't these schools operating illegally?
Some schools that offer Life Experience Degrees are operating illegally.
None of the schools on the
www.degreeinspector.com website, however, are illegal.
It is illegal to sell a diploma with the name of an existing school. If
Rochville offered the option of getting your diploma "from" University of
Arizona, that would be illegal. But they don't.
It is also illegal to mislead people into thinking that the diploma will
come with guaranteed acceptance. Again, each school on the
www.degreeinspector.com website
has iron-clad disclosures. These disclosures, written by teams of lawyers,
specifically protect the school.
Lastly, there have been several attempted lawsuits brought against some of
these schools under the guise that the purchaser "though" he or she was
getting a fully regionally accredited 4-year degree. These have all been
dismissed. The problem is that deception by the university is difficult to
prove when the student receives his or her degree only two weeks after
paying $500.00. In other words, the claims that one "thought" they were
getting a traditionally accredited four-year degree have all been dismissed.
None of the schools on the
www.degreeinspector.com website (that's correct. Not ONE of them) is
headquartered in the USA. They may have operations and employees in the USA,
but they are all registered in foreign countries. In a similar manner to the
online gaming industry, there are no internet commerce laws that prevent
these schools from advertising their product on the internet.
In the USA, there is no federal regulation of postsecondary education.
Higher education is mandated by each state individually. States actually
compete with each other for college enrollment. And while states such as
Florida and Texas have laws that prevent non-regionally accredited schools
from operating in their state, they have no jurisdiction over what their
citizens purchase over the Internet. There are no regulations about shipping
these documents to these states as long as the shipments do not contain
hazardous material or otherwise regulated materials such as perishables or
live animals.
Finally, in states that prevent the operating of these schools in their
states, the state still has little or no control or regulation of these
institutions as long as they ship their degrees exclusively to other states.
For example, until a few years ago, Suffield was operating from New Jersey.
They were able to operate as long as they did not issue degrees to residents
of that state. Realizing the population of New Jersey and the
opportunity they were missing, they moved out of the country.
I am so confused - should I get a Life Experience Degree or go to a Traditional College?
Still not sure what to do? Here's a suggestion. DO BOTH! Get your degree from Almeda University or Rochville University or one of them. At the same time, enroll in your local traditional college. Now spend the same time on each. That is, for each hour you spend at 'traditional college' (include commuting time, class time, and studying time) spend that same exact amount of time sending out your resume to employers that require college degrees - using your Almeda University or Rochville University degree. Do you think you will earn your traditional degree before you land a job with your Life Experience Degree? Highly unlikely.