Dog Gets Online MBA For "Life and Career Experience" -- Highlighting Growing Problem of Online College Diploma Mill Fraud

Chester Ludlow, a pug dog from Vermont, has been awarded an online MBA (Masters in Business Administration) by Rochville University--an online college that offers distance learning degrees based on life and career experience.

Chester Ludlow, Dog With Online MBA

Chester is believed to be the first dog to be awarded a college degree based on life experience. But did he earn it--or did he buy it?

"The difference between earning a college degree online or buying one is key," says Vicky Phillips, founder of GetEducated.com, a consumer group that reviews and rates online colleges and works to protect consumers from diploma mill fraud.

In May, Chester submitted his resume--along with $499--to Rochville University online. A week later, on June 5, 2009, an express packet arrived from a post office box in Dubai. It contained Chester's MBA diploma, two sets of college transcripts, a certificate of distinction in finance, and a certificate of membership in the student council.

The paperwork says the pug "earned" a GPA of 3.19 (for an additional $100, he could have graduated with honors).

All documents were issued in the dog's AKC pedigree name: Chester Ludlow. Chester also received a Rochville University window decal for his car (though reportedly the canine does not drive).

Rochville University is one of scores of online universities operating from foreign post office boxes that advertise college diplomas fast for a flat fee. The university claims accreditation by the "Board of Online Universities Accreditation" and the "Universal Council for Online Education Accreditation."

The catch? Neither of these agencies is recognized as a college accreditor by the U.S. Department of Education or the Council of Higher Education Accreditation.

"It matters which agency accredits your online college," explains Phillips. "Want to ensure your fellow alumni aren't real dogs? Make sure your online college is accredited by a recognized agency."

To help combat credential fraud, GetEducated.com operates a free service, The Diploma Mill Police. This service allows consumers to verify the accreditation status of any online college. It also helps employers screen resumes for fraudulent college credentials.

"Degree mills represent a billion dollar industry worldwide," warns Phillips. "If you define a degree mill as any agency willing to award educational credentials without concern as to whether or not learning actually occurred, then it appears Chester the pug has been the victim of a degree mill."

Chester is currently starring in GetEducated.com's educational video: "Dog Earns Online MBA: A Cautionary Tail." In this video, Chester and his sidekick Bixby, a rescue puggle, dramatize the canine quest for credible online education.

The video has been produced by GetEducated.com to help online students understand the importance of college accreditation and to warn them of the rapid spread of online college degree mills.

About: Founded in 1989, GetEducated.com is a consumer advocacy group that reviews, rates and ranks online colleges along the dimensions that matter most to consumers: cost and credibility.

Midway College Launches Online B.A. in Mining Management & Safety

This fall, Midway College, a Learning House online education partner, launched a new Bachelor program in Mining Management and Safety delivered online. This degree program will provide a detailed overview of coal and coal mining from exploration to combustion. Flexibility and convenience are at the forefront of this online program, intended for students who wish to seek management or administrative careers in the coal industry.

The online Bachelor of Arts in Mining Management and Safety degree program at Midway College will enable students to complete core content courses in accelerated formats online and on-campus. While some courses may be taught on campus, or have on-campus requirements, enrollment counselors can help prospective students develop a plan to meet the program requirements as well as the student’s unique needs and lifestyle. The curriculum is structured to provide students with fundamental knowledge necessary to achieve lifelong professional growth and pursue additional academic advancements.

Graduates of this program are anticipated to qualify for many jobs within the coal industry, including land and mineral acquisition, office management, personnel management, quality control, bid preparation, transportation and sales. This program will simultaneously prepare students for a managerial career in coal mining operations through experience in an actual mine.

Students who obtain a degree in the mining management and safety will also be qualified for positions in banking and finance, transportation, electric utilities, with industrial coal users, with companies that own and/or control vast mineral reserves, environmental regulation agencies, state and federal government agencies that regulate coal mining, and with numerous other public and private employers.

Careers in mining management are highly technical, work-intensive positions which require extensive experience and superior knowledge. Midway College is committed to imparting this knowledge while exceeding the expectations of online students by offering accelerated degree programs of the highest quality, to meet the needs of every student.

About Midway College

Midway College (http://www.midway.edu/), located in Midway, KY, is a multi-dimensional baccalaureate and master’s degree granting institution, founded in 1847 as the first school in the United States to serve orphaned and disadvantaged students. Over the years, Midway College has expanded its mission to serve students through its women’s college, school for career development and various online programs.

Accelerated degrees are offered in business, computer information systems, health care, homeland security, and sport management, and include an MBA program. Midway College currently offers these courses at 14 locations throughout Kentucky and online.

Midway College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

About The Learning House, Inc.

Learning House is a total online education solutions partner that helps colleges and universities offer and manage their online degree programs.

Why more women don't get MBAs

t's a bit puzzling: Over the past 20 years, as women have made tremendous gains in the business world, the percentage of B-school students who are female has remained at about 30%, or roughly the same now as in the late '80s. (By contrast, female enrollment in law and medical schools has risen over the same time period to about 50%.)

The Forté Foundation started in 2001 with a mission: to encourage more women to consider getting an MBA, and to provide them with information about how to do it.

Sponsored by 21 companies, among them IBM (IBM, Fortune 500), Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), Ernst & Young, American Express (AXP, Fortune 500), and Avon (AVP,Fortune 500), and 37 B-schools -- including Harvard, Chicago, Wharton, MIT, and Columbia -- Forté is holding a series of conferences called "The MBA Value Proposition" in five cities (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Boston) between now and October 1.

The events are designed to answer questions women may have about everything from how to finance a graduate business degree to what to do if their math skills are rusty. For more information or to register online, go to www.fortefoundation.org/forum.

I recently spoke with Elissa Ellis Sangster, Forté's executive director, about their work. Some excerpts from our conversation:

Let me play devil's advocate here for a minute and ask, why do women need to go to B-school? Or I'll put it this way: Does anyone really need to get an MBA in order to get ahead in businesses other than investment banking or consulting?

Well, plenty of people are successful without an MBA. But the degree does give you the ability to take your career to a higher level.

For one thing, it gives you a great network of people who are in a position to support your career in the future, and it teaches you analytical and decision-making skills that are useful in any industry, so that you have the flexibility and the nimbleness to move easily from one role to another or one industry to another.

That's an important asset, especially in this economy. An MBA is really an investment for life.

Beyond that, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has done studies showing that the more education you have, the more you earn over the course of your lifetime, and the less likely you are to be unemployed.

Right now, the overall unemployment rate is almost 10%, but for people with a master's degree, it's 2.4%. That's pretty striking.

Why are there still relatively few women MBAs?

Well, the thing that launched Forté eight years ago was a huge study of this question, by researchers at the University of Michigan and Catalyst that revealed four main reasons.

First, women were concerned about balancing work, school, and home-life responsibilities if they went back to school.

Second, they didn't see many role models -- female MBAs who were managing to juggle everything.

Third, they expressed doubts as to whether they had the quantitative background and the advanced math skills to handle MBA courses.

And fourth, they weren't getting much, if any, encouragement from their employers to get an advanced degree.

To a large extent those concerns have not gone away. So we address those issues in our forums and through our online network of about 40,000 businesswomen. We're also reaching out to undergraduate students in fields like liberal arts and engineering, holding on-campus events called "Career Labs" that encourage them to consider business careers.

How do you view women's role in the business world today in general? Is the glass half empty or half full?

It's certainly half full in the sense that, as Fortune's list of the most powerful women shows, more women are advancing in companies.

But it's half empty at the very top. There are still only 13 female CEOs of major companies, up from four a few years ago. I did the math, and at that rate of advancement, it will take women until 2096 to reach parity with men.

Also, Catalyst did a study showing that, at the senior management level -- one or two rungs below CEO -- 19% of women lost their jobs in this recession, versus 6% of men. I don't know why. It's probably due to a combination of things, including the fact that women often don't have the kinds of strong professional networks their male counterparts have. An MBA could help with that!

ITT Technical Institute Now Offers Online Degrees for Master/bachelors

TT Technical Institute has over 100 campuses located all over the United States. This college was founded in 1946 in Indiana. ITT Tech has recently been accredited by the Council for Independent Schools.

ITT considers itself an integrated technical institute. The college’s focal point is within design, business administration, electronics, information technology, and engineering. They offer a wide array of associates degrees, bachelor degrees, and MBA’s.

ITT brings learning to a new level with six different schools dedicated to the profession with which they teach. They offer dedication with the School of Information Technology, School of Electronics Technology, School of Health Services, School of Business, and School of Criminal Justice. Almost every degree they offer can be studied through online college.

ITT Technology Institute is a leader in electronic and drafting degrees and providing these online courses, it allows the student to work within their own pace and ITT assists with being available to help you 18 hours a day along with being in contact with your instructor via phone or email.

The newest addition to the online college is the School of Criminal Justice. A degree in Criminal Justice has become quite popular and could be due to the television shows that are currently on. The School of Criminal Justice uses a balance between courses based on interpersonal skills and courses based upon criminal justice. Many students prefer to be in a career that allows them to do positive work within their community. The courses offered currently for online education are criminal justice and criminal justice- cyber security.

Utilizing the online courses for Criminal Justice will give you the knowledge that you need on how the justice system works and you will receive the important information that you are required to know in order to work within this career field. You will be taught criminal law, legal procedures, criminology, evidence types and how to use what you have learned efficiently, effectively, and accurately. Some of the parts of study are the court system, corrections system, and law enforcement. Advanced levels of Criminal Justice are offered and will cover victimology, criminal behavior, forensics, and the causes of each

Enter The Go-getters Challenge and You Could Win a Global M.B.A.

hought about going for your M.B.A.? Have the grades and desire -- but need a little extra incentive?

How about the opportunity to win a free, full scholarship toward a Global M.B.A. at Southern New Hampshire University

Enter the “Go-getters Challenge” for your chance to win.

The grand prize winner will receive a scholarship toward a Southern New Hampshire University Global M.B.A. degree. Designed for business leaders and managers, Southern New Hampshire University's nationally accredited Global M.B.A. program incorporates a global focus to enhance the broad business management knowledge inherent in an M.B.A. program.

For more information about Southern New Hampshire University’s Global M.B.A. program click here .

HOW TO ENTER - Write a five-hundred (500) word essay on the topic, “How Would A Global M.B.A. Change My Life?” Submit your essay and include a current resume with your contact information to: Gogetters@myfoxboston.com

Is a postgraduate degree more valuable than work experience?

Education maketh a man as the old adage goes. Our world has evolved so much from centuries gone by. If it can be said that we each have access to a melting pot of opportunities, it is also true that we are all athletes in the race for success. Suddenly, characteristic traits which were all important once upon a time, have taken a backseat.

Today it is a different kind of parameter that wins you respect and in most cases even a job. The abbreviations after your name have a big hand in determining your career.

So why is getting a post graduate degree attracting so much of mileage of late? Well, for starters, it is believed that a person who is studying for such a degree has a genuine passion and love for his subject.

Secondly, with the spurge in the number of universities and institutions offering post graduate degrees, a student who gets his degree from a renowned place is thought to be made of better stuff than his peers. The general perception is that if he has managed to secure a seat amidst stiff competition, then he is a declared winner for life.

Thirdly, a post graduate degree is often spoken of as being a necessity to secure a job, as well as to help one get ahead faster, in one’s career. Not surprising then, that hundreds of students globally, fill out application forms by the dozen, attend tutoring classes, and spend sleepless nights till they get a letter confirming their selection for the post graduate degree.

While this has been a force in encouraging people to study further, it has also lead to a decline in the value of a post graduate degree. Everybody has one, so how does that make you any different? This is especially true of an MBA degree.

So how did our parents and grandparents write their success stories then? Well, those times were different. In those days, getting a job meant that a person worked his way up from the very bottom.

Managers were made usually by the age of 50, as compared to today’s managers who are as young as 25. Job loyalty used to be at an all time peak as well. It was not uncommon for people to work all their lives with one firm, putting in extra hours with utmost devotion and without complaint.

Today any extra work is accounted for in a salary slip. The subtle evolution at the workplace too has not gone unnoticed. Along side middle aged employees, features a new breed of young, broad minded, eager eyed managers making presentations in well cut suits and leather briefcases.

This also leads to an increase in complexes among middle aged employees who may not have the same degree. After all, it is difficult to report to somebody who is much younger than you and still green around the ears. So who actually gets the promotion faster- an employee with only work experience to fall back on or an employee with a postgraduate degree?

There are two schools of thought on this. One believes that nothing can be a better teacher than work experience and no post graduate degree can ever substitute that. The other school of thought believes that having a post graduate degree helps you think differently, learn faster, communicate better as well as hone group handling skills.

Truth is that employers themselves prefer to hire people who are a mix of both. While having a post graduate degree signifies that your understanding of the subject is higher, work experience gives you a dose of reality. Hiring such people makes it easier for a work team to gel together as well.

It relatively cuts down ego clashes and complexes that arise because employees can relate better to each other. The important point to note is that since getting a post graduate degree is fast losing its exclusivity, it is vital that post graduates keep updating themselves by attending courses in the area of their choice, seminars, workshops and the like.

If attaining a managerial position is important to you, it is also important to possess the knowledge, acumen and skills that come along with the job. After all, it is never too late for anybody to become a student again, and job related skill development might just tip the scales in your favour. So say yes to doing an odd job or so, or even attending a seminar that is being held in your city.

Every bit of extra effort and knowledge that you gather, eventually adds up to your personality and confidence. Life itself is a school, peppered with lessons, crash courses and surprise exams. So, let every minute be your teacher.