Faking College Degrees to Feed One’s Family

Prostitution caused by degree desperation is hitting a new high in the 21st century. In 1980, when I finished my Master’s degree in English, there were no teaching jobs open for tyros like me, and the only job I could find was as a cashier for a downtown bookstore. The owner of that store had a sign for cashiers that said, “Must have a college degree.” After a few weeks of work I realized that having a college degree had nothing to do with being a good employee in a bookstore (just a few of my fellow cashiers read a lot or cared about the books), and the only reason that was a requirement for work, that I could see, was to keep the many urban minorities seeking work from bothering the owner.

 People with means can always buy a ticket rather than earn a ticket to the job market, promotion, or school entrance, and this sense of unfairness, of gaming the system, has caused many to question the value of college and corporate work over the years. In the August 2012 issue of Harper’s Magazine Thomas Frank writes a blistering essay (titled "A Matter of Degrees") about our worship at the altar of college and the residue it leaves upon the minds and spirits of the worshippers. He notes, “Choosing the winners and losers is a task we have delegated to largely unregulated institutions housed in fake Gothic buildings, which have long since suppressed any qualms they once felt about tying a one-hundred-thousand-dollar anvil around the neck of a trusting teenager.”

Frank goes on to list a number of high profile cases of fake degrees being used by deans and officials at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, Bishop State College in AL, Texas A&M, and the dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A background checker estimates:

40% of job applicants misrepresent in some way their educational attainments. And he reminds me that this figure includes only those people "who are so brazen about it that they’ve signed a release and authorization for a background check.” Among those who aren’t checked . . . the fudging is sure to be even more common.

I fear Frank’s call for more regulation of higher education degrees will lead to an even more byzantine system of credentialing; in education, in particular, where have we seen rules and regulations decrease in the past 50 years? Indeed, Frank ends this thought-provoking essay with these sobering thoughts:

Never has the nation’s system for choosing its leaders seemed more worthless. Our ruling class steers us into disaster after disaster, cheering for ruinous wars, getting bamboozled by Enron and Madoff, missing equity bubbles and real estate bubbles and commodity bubbles. But accountability, it seems, is something that applies only to the people at the bottom, the ones who took out the bad mortgages or lied on their resumes. The pillars that prop up the system, meanwhile, are visibly corrupt: the sacred Credential signifies less and less each year but costs more and more to obtain. Yet we act as though it represents everything. It’s a million-dollar coin made of pot metal—of course it attracts counterfeiters. And of course its value must be defended by an ever-expanding industry of resume checkers and diploma-mill hunters . . .

If College is About Making More Money, You Might Want to Reconsider, Part 2

I've decided to keep this headline and follow the number of stories and research about the value of college degrees. Interesting how the college discussion has moved from one of justifying college as a time for developing intellect, social awareness, and personal cultivation into a job training program that can be measured based on your return on investment.

Here's a great graphic that illustrates one of the large issues that politicians and educators who continue to push everyone into a 4-year college program refuse to acknowledge: earnings from a college degree have decreased over time while costs from a college degree have escalated.

Cost of a 4-Year College Degree versus Earnings

Can Life Experience Credits Help You Achieve Your Goals Faster?

Today I have a guest blogger, Mariana Ashley, who writes about how you can turn life experiences into college credit. Though she addresses an adult audience, anyone who needs college credit or a degree in order to accomplish their goals can benefit from this option. I’m familiar with homeschoolers, typically teenagers, who turn their life experience into college credit because of how they used their time through volunteering, work, or serious involvement in some study, thereby cutting costs and time spent on college. I also know a couple of parents who, once their unschooled children left home, were able to turn some of their learning-at-home years into college credit towards education degrees. —PF

______________________________

Imagine this scenario: you're not certified nor do you have a degree, but somehow you worked your way up the ladder and made something of yourself—you're a manager of mid-size luxurious retail store, a title you've held for the past two years. But the deteriorating economy forces owners to close down shop, leaving you without a job. While there's an opening at the high-end retail store across the street, there's only one small problem: a bachelor's degree in fashion and merchandise and or management is required. You have tons of relative experience, but whoops! No official degree. It seems unfair that you would be forced to spend time and money attending a traditional college just so you can listen to a professor lecture about concepts that life has naturally taught you already. Thankfully there are some programs tailored just for you: we're talking about participating in a "Life Experience" program.

What Is a Life Experience Program Exactly? A Life Experience program, which is sometimes referred to as a Work Experience program, awards credits to students who properly showcase their "expertise" in a particular field. A student's prior knowledge about his or her industry—whether he or she obtained that knowledge through life, work, personal hobbies, vocational learning, or professional training—is assessed through a variety of different ways, including essays. If the professor feels as though the student's knowledge is on par and he or she knows both theoretical and practical knowledge about a particular field, he or she will grant the student credit(s) that can be applied toward his or her degree—which means a student can save time by skipping a few classes entirely. It's important to note that the set-up is totally "experimental learning" and there are no traditional textbooks or exams involved. The program is also offered online through various distance education institutions, so those with families and jobs have a bit of flexibility. This can save time and cost, but like when earning a traditional degree, you still need to pay for tuition.  Assessment can also vary from a few weeks to a few months, so it may take a while to get your credits.

Who Could You Benefit from One? Simply put those who want to switch careers or want a promotion in their field.

That said, below are the top 3 online schools/programs that offer life experience credit:

1. Empire State University

Empire State University, whose brick-and-mortar institution is based in New York, offers more than 300 accredited online degree programs—one of which is Life Experience. Students are able to design their own special program with an instructor tailored to fit his or her individual's needs, but assessments for life experience credit are typically earned the same way: students are required to create a portfolio which consists of a series of essays explaining what he or she knows as well as ace an interview about his or her "experience." The assessment fee for each credit is $300, whatever the outcome.

2. Inver Hills Community College

Inver Hills Community College offers 75 online courses, most of which accept life experience credit. However, it's required to take at least two courses before an assessment of life experience can be completed. The good thing is that assessment is free. However, Inver Hills only allows students to earn up to 15 credits in life experience—about a full semester's worth. Similar to other programs, Inver Hills requires students to write narratives about their experiences to earn credit.

3. Linfield College

Lastly, this four year online university offers prior learning assessment credits through its accelerated adult education program.  Like the other programs, students at Linfield are required to create a portfolio that thoroughly explains their career goals and addresses what they "know." The online college states that students typically earn 8 to 12 life experience credits, although the maximum is 31. The assessment fees are as follows (whatever the outcome): 15 or fewer semester hours $275; 16-25 semester hours $375; and 26 or more semester hours $475.

While it may benefit those that don't know very much about a particular field to just go ahead and take a few traditional classes, those who have been in the biz for quite some time can definitely benefit from a earning a few prior life experience credits online to expedite the process and achieve their career goals. 

By-line:

Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031 @gmail.com.

College and Learning Are Not Identical

Why push more people to complete four years of college when there are other less expensive ways to help them find work worth doing and lives worth living?

I am developing a much more detailed response to this question that I’ll post in the coming weeks, though I feel I’ve been responding to it in various forms for all of my 30-plus years in homeschooling, but I feel compelled to provide a quick reply today based on some contacts I’ve had related to this issue.

First, Dr. Robert Kay, a retired school psychiatrist who is a long-standing, unabashed supporter of alternatives to conventional school, recently wrote this letter to his local newspaper and shared it with me. Though not all the articles he cites are current they are nonetheless still true and relevant and useful to anyone who wants to understand the issues involved. Further, some unschoolers will undoubtedly take exception to Bob’s claim that electronic gadgets should be rigidly controlled for the young, but Bob has his reasons for this. In fact, he rigidly controls his own computer use for these reasons, so if you want to engage him on this issue you’ll have to contact him via post or phone. Send me a private message and I’ll send you his contact information.

To the Editor:

While "Obama Calls for Restraining Rise in College Tuition" (News, Jan. 28) we might check out the Wall Street Journal of 8/13/08 -- "For Most People, College is a Waste of Time", a 10/06 op-ed in The Evening Bulletin -- "A Solution to the Fraud that is Higher Education", The New York Times of 4/27/09 -- "End the University as We Know It", and the Baltimore Sun -- "Is America's Love Affair with College on the Rocks?"

Not to mention the fact that in 2006 just 31% of college seniors were proficient in reading -- down from 40% in 1996 -- while, from K through most of graduate school, virtually all subject matter is happily forgotten come summertime.

So perhaps we should consult with wealthy Switzerland where 77% leave school at age 14 and then, as in the home/unschooling movements, HELP kids keep on learning with the joy, rapidity, and effectiveness of the average toddler especially if we rigidly control all electronic gadgets while exposing them to books, magazines, newspapers, libraries, museums, work, concerts, theater, movies, i.e., the wide, wide world. Meanwhile, we could check out the Inquirer article of 12/12/91 -- "Don't Try Another Choice Plan: Change the Very Nature of Schooling," plus three definitive works -- How Children Fail (Classics in Child Development) by John Holt, School is Dead (out of print) by Everett Reimer and Deschooling Society (Open Forum) by Ivan Illich.

Yours,

Robert E. Kay, MD

Related to this is an email I received from Helen Rubin, a GWS subscriber whose grown son, Dan, is doing well because of, not in spite of, unschooling. Helen shared Dan’s recent blog post about his educational background; he is a professional photographer and designer, but it is unclear if he even graduated college from the post. However, he is clear about who his most important teachers and experiences were and how they inspire him to want to make the world a better place.

So was there an “aha” moment where you really knew what you wanted to do?

I don’t know if there was a single point. If there was, it doesn’t come to mind. There was no epiphany but that kind of ties into the way I was raised. The most valuable thing my parents instilled in my brother and me is that if we’re passionate about something, or even interested in it, we should just do it and let it run its course and if it’s something we learn more about and decide we’re not interested in, that’s fine, but we didn’t decide that prematurely. Instead of one big moment, there were a series of moments, and those continue. That’s an ongoing thing with me. I probably chase those moments, to be honest.

You talked about some of your mentors and people who have supported you. Who has encouraged you the most on your creative path?

Um, it has to come down to my folks, ultimately. I don’t think I’ve had people in my life who aren’t encouraging, but the groundwork for all I do and who I am was established when I was young. They were enabling in the most positive ways, fostering and encouraging creativity. My family (Mum, Dad, Alex, and me), we’re the kind of people who recognize when someone is passionate about something and we will do whatever we have to do in order to encourage that person. I feel really lucky that I haven’t had any barriers, and because of that, I try to help others if I see someone who needs encouragement.

That’s cool. So then, do you feel a responsibility to contribute to something bigger than yourself and what do you hope to contribute?

I want to fix the world. I feel a constant pressure, not to do any one thing worthwhile, but that everything I do should make a difference. The only shame of it is that the drive to contribute to something doesn’t always result in me being able to do something. It isn’t always a clear path from, “I want to help, I want to make products that don’t suck, I want to fix every interface I see that’s difficult to use.” I think that’s my favorite thing about design as a broad term. To me, design is the medium through which I can improve the world.

Will Dropouts Save America? Probably!

Michael Ellsberg, the author of the new book The Education of Millionaires: It’s Not What You Think and It’s Not Too Late, has a very good op-ed published in last week’s New York Times: “Will Dropouts Save America?”

Ellsberg argues, “American academia is good at producing writers, literary critics and historians. It is also good at producing professionals with degrees. But we don’t have a shortage of lawyers and professors. America has a shortage of job creators. And the people who create jobs aren’t traditional professionals, but start-up entrepreneurs.”

I heard Ellsberg present his personal story and his ideas at a webinar a few weeks earlier and was impressed by his understanding about the limits and roles of higher education and I look forward to reading his book. This op-ed is a great condensation of some of the major issues we face as institutional interests, using government funding and persuasion, continue to insist that in order to get ahead in life, the roughly 73% of Americans without four-year college degrees must mortgage their children’s future earnings for costly college degrees. The world Ivan Illich described in Deschooling Society, where compulsory education creates deep class divisions in society based on where you attend school, is heavily upon us. I used to think it was just a small group of homeschoolers, alternative schools, and some intellectuals that saw this as a serious problem; now I think the situation has gotten so bad that people like Ellsberg get it without needing to read Illich or Holt (Ellsberg admitted he hadn’t read either of them at the webinar). This gives me hope that our numbers will grow and that common sense and new alternatives to college will stand a chance in the face of institutional resistance to change.