Perhaps you’ve heard of the online degree programs that have received the dubious distinction of being pejoratively titled degree or diploma mills? You know, online schools that hand out degrees like candy to little ghosts on Halloween? Only real losers who could never fool anybody into thinking they actually had earned advanced academic degrees would ever even think of applying for and receiving diplomas from these mills, correct? Think again. A mini scandal erupted earlier this decade when it turned out that a stupendous number of even high-level employees approved by the Bush administration to work at the Department of Homeland Security and within other federal agencies were flouting fancy degrees earned at online learning academies that receive little or even no oversight from the state in which they are based. Word of advice you really should take to heart: Never waste money getting an online degree from a college in Mississippi unless they have a football team named either the Rebels or Bulldogs. And even then, you know, you might want to be a little hesitant.
One of these diploma mills actually set itself up as a college specializing in degrees related to Homeland Security issues. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Pres. George W. Bush has a diploma with Yale Univ. stamped on it so, really, is that institution any less trustworthy than online colleges like Hamilton University or American University of London? Sadly, Yale does still retain a place slightly above these universities as well as the average clown college even though they did award George W. Bush a degree. But since you aren’t a legacy, you won’t be able to weasel your way into Yale anyway, so you may well turn your attention toward grabbing an online degree from one of these diploma mills. These unaccredited online colleges can vary in the range of sophistication. Some operate out of very impressive office buildings, while others are literally nothing more than a post office box to which you send your tuition in exchange for an utterly meaningless degree that will impress nobody. Well, nobody except those in the Bush administration in charge of hiring people to work in very sensitive areas of the government charged with ensuring your security and protecting you from terrorists of all stripes. Such was the level of infiltration into the Dept. of Homeland Security by these academic frauds too lazy or stupid to earn a degree the old-fashioned way, or even the way George W. Bush earned his (by doing as little as possible and having his family pay through the nose to Harvard to overlook his C-average), that even the GOP-controlled Congress was forced to bite the bullet and hold hearings into just how prevalent these degree mills were in introducing morons into the workplace. The result of these hearings sounds good in theory: a searchable database of schools that have been accredited. Unfortunately, the database was incomplete from the beginning and the lack of accreditation alone doesn’t necessarily mean that your online degree isn’t respectable.
Even worse is that the Congressional hearings did nothing to cleanse the Dept. of Homeland Security of those employees whose academic credentials are inflated as a result of receiving a degree from one of these mills.
