Unaccredited Colleges, Why?

[jhc7]

I want to show what I believe caused so many people to make the choice to use unaccredited schools. Why, John Gray, why so many others, why...??
1-good advertising
2-state licensed and recognized
3-Expert opinion? said they were a good choice.

"Columbia Pacific is the largest university in the United States and one of the largest in the world offering non-resident Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorates. Despite the size, students report an extremely high level of personal attention from the faculty and staff. (The faculty numbers more than 200, nearly all with traditional Doctorates.) Two former presidents of major accredited universities serve as the two Deans of Columbia Pacific, and C.P.U.'s president, Richard Crews, is a prominent psychiatrist with his medical degree from Harvard.* Work for the degrees is based largely on credit for prior learning experiences, plus completion of an independent study project, demonstrating competency or creativity in one's field. Tuition is in the range of $2,000 to $3,000, with an extended payment plan possible. *The university has two campuses: a million dollar university urban campus in downtown San Rafael, and a 13-acre North Campus in northern Marion County with library, student housing, and other facilities.
Comment: No other non-resident, Doctorate- granting institution has a staff with the credentials, reputation, and experience of Columbia Pacific. Many major universities, including Harvard, Yale, and Princeton have expressed a willingness to accept C.P.U. degrees. I have had more positive, enthusiastic
feedback from C.P.U. students and alumni than from any other school, ACCREDITED or not. These people praise the very personal approach, the valuable learning experience, and the comparatively low costs."
*Some material left out because it did not add to the value of the description.
--John Bear--1982 Guide Book

Ok, we have low cost, based on life-experience/not too demanding, Properly licensed by the State of California, graduates accepted in graduate school by some very big name schools, faculty-impressive, large campus/school? maybe, largest college in the U.S.-again maybe but doubtful, students giving strong praise and support.

John Gray, or me, probably you, would have been very impressed by all this hype. I showed this description to a friend who doesn't have any knowledge of these things. He's college educated, smart, has common sense. He has never seen this stuff before. I asked him to read the guide book description of CPU and tell me what he thought of the school. I asked him to rate the school 0-10, with 0 being God awful and 10 being what Harvard would be jealous of. After reading it he said the school seemed to be a good one and he rated it, based on Bear's description as an 8.
Now this is the way I would expect most people to view the school, CPU, after reading such a glowing description. People were sold less than they paid for. They were told they would have a real degree that would do many things.
By the way the 1982 guide book doesn't mention that our guide was an owner, and, of course neither did the 1980 book. This is a serious flaw. People wanted this to be true and were told it was, and so they did believe. Are they crooks, fools, shills? No, just people who wanted college degrees and were taken advantage of. CPU was probably a mid-level quality school, no better.

Like used cars, we should all have asked more questions and not blindly followed the guide. He lost the trail didn't he??

[jhc7]

By the way I meant mid-level as compared to the other unaccredited schools of the times, early 1980's. Some were, to be generous, challenged. CPU required a level of work that is still argued about to this day. I suspect a person could do very good work or very modest work and still receive the degree.

Are the people with these degrees fakes and frauds? dupes, or, do they have degrees.

My opinion: They have legal degrees. They paid their money, did the work required. The choice is mill or enough. I vote for enough. The school was never as good as described, but I feel that it was more than a mill. My opinion.

[Virtual Bison]

Interesting how an unaccredited school suddenly gains respect when Dr Bear gives his seal of approval.

I can only give my own personal experience regarding Kennedy-Western which later became Warren National.

I was looking for a distance learning program granting degrees in Electrical Engineering, a program which was not available in any DL program at the time except for KWU. I called the school and spoke with an admissions consular. I did some investigation and it seemed ok. My supervisor at work said it was ok so I went for it.

It was a difficult program. But I passed. It was not until I was done that I found that it was under some kind of investigation. Now a lot of lies were told about the school. There was even an instigation in which some paid stooge said she earned 40% of her credit in 16 hours. In fact, what she meant was that she got credits waved. She also took one class (one in literally hundreds offered from the school) and passed. I would guess she cheated somehow but I do not know for sure. I know that you can repeat up to 40% of your classes.

Anyway there are a lot of people who will tell you that a college is only legitimate if it has Regional Accreditation. At least that is the line pushed by the Bear-Gollin cabal. But they will certainly make an exception to their case if Bear says otherwise.