Many students of online schools do not pay attention to the slew of news stories which paint online universities as “diploma mills”: schools lacking accreditation which simply pump out degrees.  While there are many online schools that can be classified as such, there are many more that are honest, traditional universities, albeit in a different fashion. 

Diploma mill schools pride themselves on faking accreditation to make themselves sound more appealing to their students. This makes it ever more important for students to research their potential school before submitting an application.  Earning a diploma from this type of online school is not worthwhile for any career option and therefore sets you back a few years in your education and career goals.  Recognizing the signs of diploma mills is important when searching for an online school that best suits your needs.  However, understanding that not every online school is a diploma mill is half the battle. 

There are two different types “mills” that have begun to emerge within the online school community: diploma mills and degree mills.  While diploma mills have become more prevalent within the online community, degree mills offer similar falsities as well, providing “real” degrees from fake colleges.  Online schools have the most difficulty in getting past this stereotype because this is one industry in which the education world is ever-expanding.  It is difficult to produce a new traditional university (finding funding to build a campus and finding a location are tough enough), and therefore many donors have found that initiating online universities is the best option for many students.  However, earning accreditation is harder than many expect it would be. 

Accreditation is the most important part of online universities, but also provides the most complications for students.  Unaware of the many “fake” accredited schools, many students may think they are enrolled in a school that boasts accreditation when in fact they are taking classes that will earn them little in life.  Diploma mills serve such a danger to online schools because they cause so many students to get a bad taste in their mouth from the online school experience.  This is easily solved by ensuring students research all forms of accreditation, but many students simply assume that the accredited status on every school’s website is true.  It is difficult to accept that so many online schools lie directly to students’ faces, but this is a part of the way online communities work: it is an easy environment for fraud.

However, most online colleges do not participate in the diploma-mill process and it is important to keep this in mind when researching schools.  Simply keeping an open mind to the process helps online schools maintain their attendance and funding.