Category: Protection From Predatory Education Practices

Accreditation represents the fundamental quality assurance system distinguishing legitimate American higher education from worthless diploma mills, yet 37% of prospective online students cannot correctly identify their chosen institution’s accreditor or explain what accreditation validates, creating vulnerability to fraudulent operations charging $25,000-55,000 for credentials employers reject, licensing boards refuse to recognize, graduate schools won’t accept for…

Online degree marketing advertises “$299 per credit” or “$9,600 annual tuition” creating impressions of affordability, yet students discover actual costs exceed advertised rates by 20-60% through fees cunningly excluded from prominent pricing—$450 per-course online learning fees multiplying across 40 courses, $280 annual technology fees, $320 student services charges, $150 graduation application fees, $85 per-transcript charges,…

American student debt reached $1.77 trillion affecting 45 million borrowers, with average debt loads of $37,000 for bachelor’s recipients creating monthly payments of $350-450 consuming 8-15% of typical starting salaries and delaying home purchases, family formation, and retirement savings by 5-15 years compared to debt-free peers. This crisis stems from tuition inflation exceeding income growth…

Online education’s expansion created unprecedented access to legitimate high-quality degrees from respected universities, but simultaneously enabled proliferation of diploma mills, predatory institutions, and questionable programs extracting money from vulnerable students while delivering worthless credentials employers don’t recognize. These fraudulent operations charge $15,000-45,000 for degrees completed in weeks with minimal coursework, promise guaranteed acceptance and degree…