Have you ever heard the term "Diploma Mill"?
In July 2007, Indiana State Attorney General Steve Carter filed lawsuits against two of them that had been selling fake Indiana University degrees and fake high school diplomas online. Michael J. Everett, operating the web site DiplomasAndMore.com, and David Schoettlin, operating the web site DocumentProfessionals.com, shut the sites down in response to the legal action and agreed not to sell the web site names to anyone else.
They also agreed not to sell any more fake documents.
What is a Diploma Mill?
Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines a diploma mill as "An institution of higher education operating without supervision of a state or professional agency and granting diplomas which are either fraudulent or because of the lack of proper standards, worthless."
Unfortunately, although some schools that are later determined to be diploma mills have campuses and buildings where they allegedly hold classes, many "institutions of higher learning" are not schools at all, but merely fraudulent businesses like the one Everett and Schoettlin were running, using the Internet to sell fake diplomas like party favors or joke gifts. Buyer beware!
Diploma Mills vs. Accredited Schools
Diploma mills often claim to be accredited schools—they are not—and issue degrees for "life experience" rather than college coursework.
Another way in which diploma mills try to appear legitimate is to use the name of an actual accredited college—or a name so close to that of an accredited school that unwary consumers confuse the two and think they're one and the same.
For example, one of the Indiana attorney general's investigators bought Indiana University Kelly School of Business MBA degrees from Everett and Schoettlin's web sites, whereas the correct name of IU's business school is the Kelley School of Business. The fake diplomas were also embossed with what the fraudulent company claimed to be an IU "University Seal" and contained forged signatures of IU officials.
According to the press release from Attorney General Carter's office, the Everett and Schoettlin web sites offered "the most realistic Fake Diplomas money can buy."
Tips for Identifying Diploma Mills
The good news is, if you evaluate degree and diploma web sites carefully, there are clues for identifying diploma mills. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation recommends that you keep the following questions in mind when you're looking at degree providers. If the answers to many of the questions are "yes," the degree provider may be a "mill":
- Do you have to buy the degree?
- Is there a claim of accreditation when there is no evidence of this status?
- Is there a claim of accreditation from a questionable accrediting organization?
- Does the operation lack state or federal licensure or authority to operate?
- Is little if any attendance required of students, either online or in class?
- Are few assignments required for students to earn credits?
- Is a very short period of time required to earn a degree?
- Are degrees available based solely on experience or resume review?
- Are there few requirements for graduation?
- Does the operation fail to provide any information about a campus or business location or address and rely, e.g., only on a post office box?
- Does the operation fail to provide a list of its faculty and their qualifications?
- Does the operation have a name similar to other well-known colleges and universities?
- Does the operation make claims in its publications for which there is no evidence?
The CHEA Database
To give legitimate schools the benefit of the doubt, CHEA also cautions, "There are institutions that may not be accredited but are not degree mills. For example, the institution may be seeking accreditation, but the process is not complete. Or a legitimate institution may choose not to be accredited for reasons that do not relate to quality."
CHEA maintains an extensive database of accredited higher education institutions, a good place to start.
The CHEA site also contains lists of the regional and national accrediting organizations that it recognizes as legitimate higher learning accreditors. If the school you're thinking about applying to claims to be accredited by an accrediting body you're not familiar with, you can check the CHEA site to confirm that the accreditor is legitimate.
An accredited degree is a worthwhile investment
The Indiana Attorney General's lawsuit is asking for $5,000 for every fake degree Michael Everett and David Schoettlin issued through their phony diploma web sites. In January 2007, Mr. Carter took similar legal action against Allen Kleiman of Indianapolis, shutting down his diploma mill, Noveltyworksdegrees.com, as well.
"Diploma mills cheapen the hard work and effort that students put into successfully completing their education," Mr. Carter said in a press release from his office. "It was important to halt the activities of this company so the reputation and value of a high school and university diploma weren't further harmed."
Sources:
1) Third New International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster; June 2002
2) "2 caught faking degrees for IU," The Associated Press, July 6, 2007
3) Office of the Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter, July 5, 2007
4) Council for Higher Education Accreditation, www.chea.org
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