A Long-Distance Diploma

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The nation's first wholly virtual university, Regents College is a recognized innovator in the field of nontraditional education. Its Credit Bank Service is designed for non-Regents College students who have earned academic credits through various means and who wish to have those credits consolidated on a single Regents College transcript.

Students who apply for the Credit Bank Service are asked to forward all official transcripts and test scores that they would like considered for consolidation. Regents College evaluates all submitted materials and will list all credits from: regionally accredited colleges and universities; military, business, and industry education and training programs evaluated and approved for college credit by the American Council on Education (ACE) and the New York State Program on Noncollegiate Sponsored Instruction (PONSI); and ACE-approved examination programs, including the College Level Exam Program (CLEP).

The initial transcript consolidation fee is $200. That covers the cost of the evaluation, completed within ten days after Regents receives your application package, plus a single copy of your transcript, which is mailed directly to you. Thereafter, Regents will update your transcript for an additional $25 per request, and additional copies of your transcript may be obtained for $8 each.

For more information or to obtain an application, call Regents College Credit Bank Service at (518) 484-8500 or visit the Web at www.regents.edu.

The Whats and Whys of Accreditation

Last August, the Louisiana State Attorney General's Office won a court order to shut down Columbia State University, a diploma mill operating out of Metairie, on the outskirts of New Orleans. But for some 15,000 enrolled students, the cavalry arrived too late. Together, they'd already been bilked out of an estimated $15 million over the course of just 16 months, most of which had disappeared along with the school's founder, Ronald Pellar, a convicted felon and the seventh ex-husband of actress Lana Turner.

Columbia State's class rolls included CEOs and accountants, police officers, teachers, government employees, and administrators from most every field. "These were well-meaning people who knew enough to know that they could get a degree at a distance," says John Bear, "but didn't know enough to ask the right questions."

The first question, suggests Bear, that a prospective student should ask of an institution is: Are you accredited, and if so, by whom? Followed closely by: Is your accreditor recognized by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and/or CHEA?

"There's a common problem that is often perpetuated by the well-meaning media," says Bear. "So many of the more superficial articles, the Reader's Digest -type thing, say, 'Make sure that your school is accredited.' What they don't say—either because they don't know or because. they don't appreciate how important it is—is that there are nearly as many fake accrediting agencies as there are fake schools. The current edition of Bears' Guide lists more than 50 of them."

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