Posted on Feb 3, 2014
LTC David S. Chang, ChFC®, CLU®
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Not a week goes by where I see ads for For-profit colleges offering degrees to our military. I have taken classes online and some are great and believe that the future will be online classes such as MOOCs. 

However there are have been controversy with schools not being accredited, colleges graduating people just to get the money, a huge wave of investigations, and the quality of education is questionable. I believe it is important that our soldiers get as much access to education as possible, but how should we scrutinize colleges so they don't take advantage of service members?
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PO3 Account Management Specialist
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Stay away from Grand Canyon University. I got my MBA online through them, and while they aren't on the sleeze level as Kaplan or University of Phoenix, if I had it to do all over again, I certainly would NOT. I could have gotten a much better education for alot less money at a brick and mortar school.&nbsp;<div><br></div><div>The good news is that many brick and mortar schools now do offer completely online degree programs, where in 2008 when I started my MBA, the schools that offered complete online programs were few and far between. There are so many options these days, just a matter of doing the research before committing.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div class="pta-link-card"><div class="pta-link-card-picture"><img src="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAutoLogin/start?type=1x1"></div><div class="pta-link-card-content"><div class="pta-link-card-title"><a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_colleges_in_the_United_States">List of online colleges in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a></div><div class="pta-link-card-description">Below is a list of schools that offer virtual or online education programs and are accredited by an accrediting body recognized by the US Department of Education.[1] The Distance Education and Trainin...</div></div><div style="clear:both"></div><div class="pta-box-hide"><i class="icon-remove"></i></div></div><div class="pta-link-card"><div class="pta-link-card-picture"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bd/Ambox_globe_content.svg/48px-Ambox_globe_content.svg.png"></div><div class="pta-link-card-content"><div class="pta-link-card-title"><a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_for-profit_universities_and_colleges">List of for-profit universities and colleges - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a></div><div class="pta-link-card-description">Many for-profit institutions are subsidiaries of larger parent companies such as the Apollo Group, Career Education Corporation, Corinthian Colleges, Inc., DeVry, Inc., and Laureate Education.</div></div><div style="clear:both"></div><div class="pta-box-hide"><i class="icon-remove"></i></div></div>
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1SG(P) Recruiter
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10 y
I am currently a student at GCU and my experience has been very good so far. I have also taken clases at other colleges such as UoP, DeVry, and I do not see any difference in the education. They are definitely not the Ivy league schools but the clases have been as challenging as those in the other colleges. GCU is regionally accredited just as any major college. Not sure what was your experience, I'm sure you have your reasons I just wanted to tell my story to give other perspectives
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PO3 Account Management Specialist
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10 y
My experience was strictly the cost factor. And the predatory practices on military members with guaranteed GIBill benefits.
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SFC Public Affairs Ncoic
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8 y
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Edited 10 y ago
MAJ David Chang, Accreditation is critically important for many reasons: (1) it certifies the legitimacy of the academic program, (2) many employers require accreditation to recognize a degree, (3) it includes a review of the graduating student's ability to get a job to justify costs incurred, (4) it lays the foundation for transferring units between accredited colleges making it easier to transfer earned units from one college to another college, (5) undergrad college accreditation may be required for admission to grad school, training, or profession. Unfortunately, unaccredited for profit colleges often set their per unit cost to the maximum a student's sponsor or loan agency will bear, the unaccredited degree is often unhelpful in seeking employment, and unaccredited units may be impossible to transfer to any other school forcing a student to complete all coursework required to complete their degree at the unaccredited school and if they cannot complete the program (due to cost, relocation, etc) their earned units may not be transferable to other schools, requiring them to start over without the benefit of the units for which they have already paid.  Warmest Regards, Sandy

CMSgt Danny Roby
CMSgt Danny Roby
>1 y
Sandy..I'm sure that happens (obviously since you witnessed it at the school you were associated with) at some for profits. I can say it definitely doesn't at mine. I would again like to point out that we are kidding ourselves if some of the attributes you mentioned don't also occur at schools outside the for profit world.
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SFC Mark Merino
SFC Mark Merino
>1 y
It took me about 20 years to get my masters done with all the PCSing and deployments. I would have loved an accredited online school. I ended up with soooo many credits wasted and restarted my major a bunch of times.
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SFC Public Affairs Ncoic
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8 y
SFC (Join to see) - I understand the position taken - but to hold the VA wholly responsible may be a bit of a stretch. The beneficiaries must take some responsibility for selection and verification of the valued and quality of the service provided. Otherwise, the government is likely to limit beneficiary choice of programs, providers, and/or universities.
SSgt Boyd Herrst
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It’s these “fly by night” George Jones Schools of advanced basket weaving that need to be shut down !..
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