How many degree mills are there and how much money are they making?
It’s difficult to even get a handle on how many mills are out there because they might appear on the Internet one day and disappear the next. Worldwide there are thousands. We conservatively estimate the total market is about a billion dollars. The five schools that the U.S. Senate investigated [in 2004], for example, grossed about $111 million. Many of these fake degrees are sold as novelties, so what’s the real harm? There was a man arrested in Nevada for pretending to be a doctor. He had a medical degree from a diploma mill in Liberia and was actually practicing medicine, doing rounds in the hospital, and giving injections. I spent $110,000 for my two daughters to go to the University of Florida and the University of North Carolina, and I have bought counterfeit degrees for both of those schools. There are companies out there that will print any degree and any transcript for any school. It shouldn’t be that easy. Aren’t the firms selling phony degrees simply responding to a public d
