Who thinks Walden University is a Diploma Mill?
In the old days it was easy to spot a diploma mill. All you had to do was to find out if they were accredited or not. Now every business organization that wants to make a buck is starting a "University". They get a bunch of professors from other schools, come up with a bs curriculum, and sell it to students who had poor grades in high school or undergrad. They don’t ask for a SAT or GRE.
Walden University seems to be one of those schools. The classes are completely canned and ridiculously easy. Students were taking 4+ classes a semester until the school received bad press and stopped the practice. Now their students just sit through classes, doing the minimum amount of work (mostly taken from previous online postings), and get a degree in half the time of a regular school.
Sure it’s not like the "send your check and receive a degree in 30 days" schools, but it’s close.
Has anyone else gone there and what did you think?
They are accredited, but that means very little to the employment world. I received my Masters from Walden in 2005 and it has been treated with nothing but mockery since. Capella University, Phoenix University, and Walden University are not looked up favorably by employers. Given the choice, I would not go back to Walden and wish that I had gone to a better school to begin with. Sure the classes were pretty easy and it did fit my schedule, but the end degree just doesn’t carry the same weight.
I think I did see a ranking for online schools in US News & World Report a couple years ago – and it wasn’t pretty. Walden ranked better than most of the others, but still well below the national average in just about everything. I can’t image that they’ll let themselves be ranked again for a very long time. Distance education can offer advanced degrees in Bachelor, Master, and PhDs, but this school just hasn’t got it right yet.
As for whether or not they are a diploma mill, I’m not sure. I really didn’t have to work that hard for my degree. The classes are all canned and the assignments are simple. Only one or two of the classes gave me a hard time, and that is because I was so use to coasting my way through. So they aren’t the typical degree mill that just sends you a piece of paper, but it is fairly close.
FYI: I was not the greatest student in my undergrad or in high school. I don’t think that I ever got over a 3.0 GPA and I never even took my GRE. AND Walden was still easy. Oh well, I’m considering going to a traditional bricks and mortal school for my PhD.
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I only know the name Walden University from the spam email messages that they send me. I don’t think that a real school would do all of their advertising in the same way as people trying to sell penis enlargers and porn websites.
Also, if you Yahoo "Diploma Mill" this is one of the first things that comes up:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Diploma+Mill&defid=2949992
Notice that Walden University is right in there, so someone sure agrees with you. Also, a quick search for Walden University and certain key words reveals a lot of really upset former students. Everything from teachers.net, to militaryconnections.com, and even people on Yahoo Answers has nothing but negative things to say about Walden University.
Personally, I believe that a real school can exist online, but this doesn’t look like one of them.
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I’m not sure that I would trust Urban Dictionary for a definition. Their Walden University listing looks like it was written by an angry ex-student and ex-employee. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=walden+university
But I agree, that school looks fake. I’m sure they make you do some work, but probably not enough for the degrees that they give out.
I searched and searched and couldn’t find a single place that has ever reviewed their school. They have a link to US News and World Report on their website, but that magazine has never actually ranked the school. No companies that I could find even ranked them at all. They are totally void from every single one of the lists. As a matter of fact, the only thing that I could find was boards where people were either complaining about their educational standards or didn’t like that no one thought much of their degree.
When a college’s reputation is nothing but banner ads and random websites, it’s probably a diploma mill like you suggested.
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Actually Walden University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is recognized the US Department of Education. This is the same commission that accredited Arizona State University, Colorado State University, Kansas State University and about 1000 others.
I haven’t ever attended Walden University, but my mother did her master’s degree there. She worked for that degree. Like most colleges, you get out of it what you put into it.
References :
http://www.ncahlc.org
By your definition of "diploma mill" they are. I think that it’s too easy for schools to get accreditation. Any college out there can just build a standard curriculum and become a degree granting institution within a year. Plus, anyone with money could just as easily start a school, copy the layout of all of these online only schools, and give away MBAs and PhDs like they’re water.
Walden University, Phoenix University, and the rest, probably don’t want to be rated by someone like US News and World Report because it would show how poor the education really is. They also probably don’t release any information about how many people complete the program, tell people what the cumulative GPA of the school is, and/or let anyone besides an accreditation board (who is just looking to see if they meet a standard set of basic criteria) look over their program.
Given two applicants were equal, I would almost always give the edge to someone who went to a reputable school over someone like Walden University. It’s easily the lowest rung of higher education out there. Maybe someone can create a Tier 5 for them to inhabit.
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They are accredited, but that means very little to the employment world. I received my Masters from Walden in 2005 and it has been treated with nothing but mockery since. Capella University, Phoenix University, and Walden University are not looked up favorably by employers. Given the choice, I would not go back to Walden and wish that I had gone to a better school to begin with. Sure the classes were pretty easy and it did fit my schedule, but the end degree just doesn’t carry the same weight.
I think I did see a ranking for online schools in US News & World Report a couple years ago – and it wasn’t pretty. Walden ranked better than most of the others, but still well below the national average in just about everything. I can’t image that they’ll let themselves be ranked again for a very long time. Distance education can offer advanced degrees in Bachelor, Master, and PhDs, but this school just hasn’t got it right yet.
As for whether or not they are a diploma mill, I’m not sure. I really didn’t have to work that hard for my degree. The classes are all canned and the assignments are simple. Only one or two of the classes gave me a hard time, and that is because I was so use to coasting my way through. So they aren’t the typical degree mill that just sends you a piece of paper, but it is fairly close.
FYI: I was not the greatest student in my undergrad or in high school. I don’t think that I ever got over a 3.0 GPA and I never even took my GRE. AND Walden was still easy. Oh well, I’m considering going to a traditional bricks and mortal school for my PhD.
References :