Degree Mills to Avoid
We Name Names
Some prominent websites and names associated with degree mills are:
- www.ashwooduniversity.com
- www.affordabledegrees.com (the site for Rochville University)
- www.degreewhiz.com
In July of 2005, a Pennsylvania diploma mill was shut down by a US circuit court judge, and all its "degrees" rendered invalid. The place was called the University of Berkley, meant to sound like the far more prestigious University of California, Berkeley. This university sold "life experience" degrees to students who never left home, never studied and never took tests. Instead, they purchased degrees for flat fees. A BA was available for $2,795, while a doctorate came for the hefty price of $4,995—and zero years of school.
In March of 2005, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott shut down a Dallas-based for-profit university called Trinity Southern University. Abbott called the "university's" owners "scam artists" and fined them over $100,000 for issuing fraudulent degrees.
Here is a partial list of universities that are not really accredited and which emphasize life experience degrees, or which you may want to approach with caution:
- Belford University
- Glendale University emphasizes the affordability and its easy credit for "life experience".
- Almeda University prominently features its "life experience program" and also an online store. What does that tell you about where their hearts are?
- There are a number of colleges and universities that take the name Concordia, but the one that you will find at this website, http://www.concordia-college.net is very likely a degree mill, offering "life experience degrees." We recommend that you approach this university with caution. However, it does have accreditation from UNESCO, which is recognized by the US Department of Education.
- Suffield University is not accredited.
We won't discourage you from clicking on ads for these "universities" to investigate these places further, but we recommend that you do not buy degrees from them, as you may only be hurting yourself in the long run.
