College Degree Advertising: Do Your Homework!

[Kimble]

I've only been working in academica for almost a year and a half, but in that time I've run an academic department, served as an subject specialist inspector for accreditation visits at other institutions, and taught as an online professor for two seperate colleges. I don't pretend to know everything about the American college system in general, but I've had the opportunity to learn a lot in a relatively short amount of time.

One of the many lessons I have learned during this time is that marketing for degree programs- as is the case in Corporate America- can be a bit misleading at times (if not a complete fabrication and totally false).

Take this program advertisement for example (while the name of the collegiate institution has been intentionally cencored, note the areas I've highlighted in red):




From my own personal experience I can assure you that a graduate of an associate's degree program is not likely to even meet the minimum qualifications to be a special agent in federal law enforcement (except in the extreme and rare circumstances where they have a wealth of relevant work experience that allows them to qualify), much less gain a position upon graduation. I can not stress enough the importance of DOING YOUR OWN RESEARCH into the career field and finding out what the requirements for the positions that interest you are. Do not rely on a college or university to tell you what career position their degree program will grant you. While it may be accurate, many schools are under NO obligation to list the entry-level positions for a career field, and as such, will list the more "sexy" positions available or commonly known to the general public (these may include buzzwords like "detective", "crime scene investigator", "special agent", "FBI", "federal agent", etc.).

If you find a degree that seems to peek your interest, go the extra mile and seek out people who work in that career field. Talk to them, and find out what their education background is in, and also what work experience they had beforehand to help the obtain their current position.

Regardless of what a college advertisement may say, you're not going to be selected to work at the FBI's Laboratory with only a Forensic Science associate's degree from Mayberry Community College.

[Apollo8138]

Are there any laws or regulations that these people have to follow in order to set-up these so called "online colleges?" Can they be charged with false advertisement or something along those lines?

[Kimble]

Are there any laws or regulations that these people have to follow in order to set-up these so called "online colleges?" Can they be charged with false advertisement or something along those lines?

They likely can't be charged with false advertisement because there are people in the career field with an a similar associate's degree (or less) BUT who also have substantial work experience. Therefore, the advertisement isn't false, but rather misleading as to the actual opportunities available to the average program graduate. I'm certainly not putting down any associate's degree program's curriculum- or any higher education degree specifically- but to say that someone with 60 semester hours/90 quarter hours of higher education is qualified to be a criminal investigator (at the local, state or federal level) without any additional relevant work experience is not accurate.

It's important for one to investigate the career field one is interested in by talking to people IN THE CAREER FIELD, not what some college marketing department has recently come up with.

[Nole795]

Excellent advice Ros, you know I befriended a girl who worked as a recruiter at one of these private technical colleges that also had an online course. She actually had a big pamphlet that told her what she could and could not say in order to get a potential student to enroll. Sort of like a car dealer selling you car. She said it was some of it was pretty shady.