Legitimate Degree or Fake Online Degree Mills - The Choice is yours!

There are many fake online degree mills which are churning out thousands of fake degrees in the country. Though strict fraud laws and higher education regulations have been set up to identify these diploma mills, many unaccredited and low-quality colleges and universities still flourish. States like Oregon have set up the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization which maintains a list of unaccredited colleges. Fake online degrees are useless and are shear waste of money as wherever you use them; they will be validated as 'fake'.

Increasing Number of Diploma Mills

With the distance education gaining popularity to attain an undergraduate and graduate certification or professional degree with the help of advanced technology of Internet, more universities are offering online degree programs. It has become popular due to the flexibility it offers and you do not have to discontinue your existing job to take up higher education. You can study at your own pace and schedule. With the popularity of distance education, another problem has cropped up and that is the increasing number of fake online degrees offered by diploma mills.

Differentiating between a Fake Online Degree and a Legitimate Online Degree

The difference between a fake and a legitimate online degree is that the fake ones are offered by fraudulent online degree universities called 'degree mills’, with the intention of fast production and distribution of fake degrees against a huge fee. You need not worry about coursework or practical experience. You can get a degree of your choice if you pay extra! However, the problem is that these online degrees are not acknowledged by state and federal laws and you might not get a good job.

You can identify if you are choosing a legitimate online college by checking the actual web address offered by The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the international organization that allocates domain names (web addresses). Most of the accredited schools receive the .edu designation. You can also check the list of accredited online colleges provided by US Department of Education.

Avoiding an Online Degree Mills

You should follow certain tips to check whether an online degree is fake one or from a legitimate source:

  • Ensure that the online college has an.edu designation.
  • Most of the diploma mills deceive students by advertising that they are "nationally accredited" or "accredited worldwide" but it is important that you find out which accrediting agency has accredited that online college.
  • You should also find out if the accrediting agency is a recognized one.
  • In the United States, the Council for Higher Education is the accreditation agency that checks the working of legitimate accrediting agencies and it maintains a directory of recognized online accrediting agencies.

Therefore, it is important to do adequate research to identify legitimate online degree programs and not get deceived by fake diploma mills.