3 Signs You Might Be Dealing With an Online Diploma Mill by Alvina Lopez

Today I have Alvina Lopez as guest blogger. Please be sure to check out her unique guest post. Guest posts are always welcome, please contact me.

Alvina Lopez writes, As online colleges are becoming more popular among diploma hopefuls throughout the United States and world, more and more degree scams are cropping up throughout the web. Since the advent of the internet people have been finding ways to scam and trick people for their sensitive personal information and money. While the internet provides a wonderful way to share information in a mass way and spread knowledge throughout a global community, it also provides the perfect environment for scammers and frauds.
A diploma mill can mean several different things—some will actually try to impersonate online colleges and others will just sell you an illegitimate diploma. Diploma mills do their best to cheat and scam you out of your money and your academic ambitions. There are several ways that you can identify a diploma mill and avoid them. 

Check Accreditation Status

Every legitimate online university in the United States must be recognized by a certified accreditation agency. This agency examines the university to ensure that it provides the proper education and educational degrees to its students. The U.S. Department of Education provides a list of all accredited online institutions, so that potential students can carefully select the right online school. If the institution that you are interested in is not among the schools on this list, you should do some further investigation into their legitimacy. It could be that they are newly accredited and have not yet been added to the list. However, it could also indicate that they are not a legitimate school.

Test Contact Information

If the online school you are wishing to attend is not on the accreditation list, you can test out their contact information to get a better idea of whether they are valid or not. Search through the school's website and try to find the contact info page. The school should provide its prospective students with a telephone number, central address, and email contact for the admissions department. A huge red flag should go up if you are unable to find any sort of contact information. Just because an institute uses the internet to facilitate its learning, doesn't mean that it won't have a physical building that it is run out of. A legitimate educational facility will provide its prospective students with advisors or customer service representatives to help answer any questions you might have about the school, tuition, degree programs, and whatever else. If you are unable to reach an actual person from the school, you may be dealing with a diploma mill.

Look for Alumni Information 

A huge aspect of attending a college is connecting and networking with past alumni. This is a wonderful way for students to find professional connections in their field from individuals who have had the same educational background. Online colleges also seek to create an alumni network for their past and present students. Search for references from the school's alumni. For the most part, colleges will provide prospective students with profiles of previous students, including references and (in some cases) contact information. If you are unable to locate any sort of alumni network or information from the online school that you are interested in, you may be dealing with a fraudulent school. You should investigate the situation further and try to contact the school itself for alumni information. Colleges should be more than happy to provide students with positive alumni remarks. So, if they are unable to provide any positive alumni connections, you should be weary. 

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Alvina Lopez is a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about accredited online colleges. 

She welcomes your comments at her email.

Many thanks to Alvina.
Enjoy your reading!