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Summary: best seller from an author formerly involved with unaccredited schools
"A degree is often more useful than a good education or valuable skills in your field." (the authors, pg. 3)
"One man's degree mill is another man's alternative university." (the authors. Bears' Guide, 13th Edition. pg 306)
'People rarely check up on other people's degrees." (John Bear, Bear's Guide, 10th Ed., pg 24)
I think these quotes encapsulate John Bear's strategy and view of higher education. "alternative" is altedspeak code for "unaccredited." John Bear is correct on the second point - outright degree mills on the one end of the continuum shade into sincere but unrecognized alternative/unaccredited universities at the other. I myself would say they're all bogus - whether degree mills or "alternative/unaccredited" universities. John Bear by his own admission involved himself in his past with a string of unaccredited "universities/colleges" in states with lax or non-existent laws governing degree-granting colleges/universities.
Such unaccredited schools - according to some sources - were: MILLARD FILMORE (owner); INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES ( President, 3 years); COLUMBIA PACIFIC ( part owner); LONDON INSTITUTE OF APPLIED RESEARCH (owner); FAIRFAX UNIVERSITY ( part owner/founder); GREENWICH UNIVERSITY ( President, 1,5 years ).
It is instructive to consider the case of Fairfax University: John Bear and his wife were two of four founders, but left after the first few students enrolled in 1986. As of 1991, John Bear was calling this an "academically-sound program" in the previous version of this book. Here's what Fairfax University's current website advertising says: "Degree programs offered at Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral levels. Personal supervision by mail, telephone, etc by...highly qualified..faculty. No residency or written examination requirements. Work at own pace from home. Credits awarded for prior learning, training. Average duration of programs is 6-18 months." Sounds a lot like ads for a school for cartoonists. Fairfax is not accredited. The degree-granting authority comes from Louisiana, which has notoriously lax regulations, but the school itself is apparently in England with only a secretarial drop-office in Louisiana (all information from Bears' books). Posting on a message board on 1-28-2003, mr.Bear wrote "Don't even think of applying to Fairfax, unless you are comfortable with a degree whose use would be a criminal offense in New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois, etc".
Other alternative education enthusiasts favor loosening the traditional link between the bachelor's degree and the three or four years of on-campus study necessary to attain the degree. They want evaluations of "course equivalents" and credits for "life" experience - John Bear himself suggests that riding a horse, eating at an exotic restaurant, "applying statistics to gambling" (I like that one - a subscription to Racing Form ?...Bear is nothing if not droll) and reading his [Bear's] books "could" be worth credit for life experience learning (Bear's Guide 10th Edition). In my view, this "life assessment model" will have the same effect on university degrees as the dumbing-down of high school education did for the high school graduation diploma - render it untrustworthy. I note the US Armed Forces do not believe the GED is worth even as much as an high school diploma. I believe the same will happen with the bachelor's degree if large numbers of students start earning their degrees by "challenge" or "life assessment" or other bogus non-residential forms advocated by Dr. Bear. Incidentally, the bogus- sorry, "alternative"-degree community has a home on the internet. John Bear is guru-in-residence, but it appears his followers are predominantly trailer park residents and third-rate academics, judging by their incoherent postings.
This brings us to the book - "College Degrees by Mail & Modem." Bear's predecessor to this book - "100 College Degrees By Mail - Good Schools that offer Bachelor's Master's Doctorates, and Law Degrees by Home Study" - was a disgrace, in my opinion. Of the recommended "good" schools, about 97 were accredited, and 22 were non-accredited. Among John Bear's recommended "good" schools was "Eurotechnical Research University" of Hilo, Hawaii. (Hawaii at that time and still now does not have effective legislation to prohibit bogus schools). This school was run out of two rooms in the founder's home. John Bear admits to being a friend of the founder (since deceased) and an advisor to the "university." Yet John Bear didn't notice, until a Hawaiian reporter pointed it out, that an outright diploma mill (Leiland College) operated from a Hawaii post office box opened by the founder. Eurotechnical Research University at last report is now affiliated with a karate school, and the street address is a mailbox rental service. Several other unaccredited schools in Bears list of "good" schools have turned out to be "less-than-wonderful" or gone out of business. Bear himself notes that several legitimate schools have pleaded not to be mentioned in his books.Incidentally, John Bear himself was president of an unaccredited school - "Greenwich University" for eighteen months in Hilo, in the period 1990-1991. This and his other school of that time - a institution-in-planning temporarily called "School Without a Name" were also in Bear's recommended list of good schools.
Summary: Exemplary, Exhaustive, Honorable, Refreshingly Candid
Arm yourself with this lastest, updated version of Bears Guide before diving into the murky world of earning a degree through distance learning, particularly advanced degrees. It's exemplary and exhaustive in its research and useful database, the authors are honorable and refreshingly straight-talking - their candor will help you read between the lines of legality some questionable institutions engage in. You'll learn who's doing non-residency or semi-resident education, who's offering what degrees or fields of study, and who's reputable.
Bears Guides have been around for years, undergoing frequent revisions, championing distance learning, and exposing the crooks of diploma mills.
I want to counteract comments made in another (2003) review that seemed to disparage the integrity of author John Bear (whose daughter, Mariah, is carrying on his work with Nichols in these books). Bear is a founder of Degree.net, which I'd recommend as an adjunct resource to this book. He, and all the earlier versions of this book, have done a LOT to debunk and expose diploma mills to the general public. Other than the state of Oregon (which has a helpful website), no other entity in the U.S. has done - or is doing - as much.
Here's a quote from Wired Magazine news in March 2000:
"[Diploma mills] are growing, especially on the Internet, at astonishing rates," agrees John Bear, founder of Degree.net. Bear has witnessed the dark side of the distance-education boom up close. A former consultant, informant, and expert witness for the FBI's task force operation DipScam in the 1980s, he helped shut down a number of diploma mills over a 12-year period."
That quote alone should help - and hopefully my review, too. The layout of Bears Guide is reader-friendly and makes a complex subject accessible. And it's frequently updated/revised. So unlike the Peterson guide, there's barely a comparison between the two.
Summary: Excellent resource
Not much changed from previous versions, but still extremely useful. Describes with clarity and nicely indexes the wide range of distance education programs with detailed contact information.
I found it extremely helpful in the search for a limited residency DBA.
Probably the most helpful resource is the excellent forum that John Bear recommends in the intro for any questions you might have on distance programs - www.degreeinfo.com
A goldmine!
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