Education industry is one of the highly profitable industries. Scams are trying very hard to penetrate into the market in order to share the profits. These scams are known as Diploma Mill and they are trying very hard to make themselves look like the legitimate education institution by claiming accreditation, offer guarantees and they even have ".edu" domain extension for their website. Here are 5 tips on how to look for the warning signs of diploma mill:
1. Accredited by Non-Recognized Accreditation Agency
Diploma mills know that you definitely will look for accreditation when you search for your university or degree program. So, they will increase your confidence level by claiming full accreditation too. The trick is on the accreditation agency, which accreditation agency accredited the school? This is the first thing you need to find out before you even requesting the degree information from them. Find out whether the accreditation agency is in the list of regional accreditation or national accreditation. If not, the accreditation is not recognized.
2. Limited Contact Information
Don't enroll into a degree program without requesting details information from the school. If you hard to find for the contact information from the school website and there is no physical address and telephone number on school website, it is better to drop this from your list than taking the risk. Every legitimate school should be able to provide students with a way to get help in person or over the phone beside the email communication.
3. Extremely Claims
If any of advertisement from any online universities guaranteed that you can get your degree within 5 days, 7 days or with solely life experience only, it is a clear diploma mill signal. You should always put yourself at a high alert level for any degree program that offers extremely good deals or claims that your can complete your programs extremely fast with extremely minimum work, it likely to be a fake.
4. The School is Not Listed on CHEA's Website
CHEA (Council on Higher Education Accreditation) is an association of over 3,000 degree-granting colleges and universities, it contain a searchable database for universities and colleges that are accredited by proper accreditation agencies. Hence, check your selected university to see whether it is listed in CHEA database at chea.org. If you can't found the university in the list, your better be caution on this university.
5. Sound-Alike Names
Many people familiar with "branded" universities and have a good confidence on those universities. But, be aware, look at the school name careful to make sure the name spell out exactly and the address is matched. Because, many diploma mills try to confuse you by using names that sound or look like those well-know universities. If the institution has a name similar to a well-known school, but is located in a different state, check on it.
In Summary
You have the responsibility to make sure that the degree of your choice is from legitimate and properly accredited universities. Keep yourself alert to the potential signs of diploma mills and avoid fake-degree burns by spending some time to check for the credential of your selected university.
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