Are online diplomas legitimate?
There are two types of learning institutions: accredited and non-accredited. The bad guys in distance learning are the unaccredited ones, known as diploma mills. Essentially, they re selling you a diploma in exchange for very little, if any, educational requirements. Employers and accredited schools are unlikely to take a diploma from a non-accredited organization very seriously. It is also possible that a school will claim to be accredited, but the accrediting agency itself may be bogus. To know if a college or university is the real thing, begin with the accrediting agency. The only recognized authorities on this are the Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). These two organizations hold accrediting agencies to a high set of standards. The CHEA website (www.chea.org) offers a searchable database of accredited learning institutions listed by name, location, program and other criteria. Can anyone be accepted? Just fork over the money and you
