Graduate Financial Aid

Degree Mills, which produce phony degrees, have been around for over a hundred years and have helped thousands of people find employment. Of course if the human resource department did their due diligence at the time of hire these cheaters would not thrive at all, but many are too trusting and take the credentials listed on ones resume at face value.

The superintendent of school’s for California’s second largest school disctrict lost his job and faced serious legal consequences when the Stanford Ph.D he had claimed for years turned out to be a phony one. The chairman of the board of a major Florida university resigned, after it became known that he had bought his degree from an Oklahoma diploma mill.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation actually has a division called DipScam, which was launched back in the 1970’s, and is committed to investigating diploma scams. That’s how big the problem has become. In fact, in one operation they accumulating over 7,000 client names from a diploma-mill raid, and the FBI identified more than 200 federal employees in the batch, including 75 in the Defense Department with bogus degrees! Just mind boggling.

It may also trouble you to know that newspapers and magazines continue to allow these perpetrators to advertise. Next time you pick up The Economist, USA Today, Forbes, Psychology Today, Inc., Discover, Investors Business Daily, and the regional editions of Time and Newsweek keep an eye out for these second rate operations.

Do I endorse buying a phony degree? No. Have many people jump started or furthered their careers with phony degrees? Yes. Every man has their own code of ethics and personal standards they must follow. You can roll the dice if you want, but just remember the house usually wins.