Bears Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning

by Mariah P. Bear

Book Overview

For 30 years, BEAR'S GUIDE TO EARNING DEGREES BY DISTANCE LEARNING is the most comprehensive, respected, and opinionated guide to the potential minefield of non-traditional education. It's often... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580086535
• ISBN13: 9781580086530
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press
• Length: 392 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 8.8" x 10.8"

Customer Reviews

The difinitive fesource for people looking for non-traditional options

This is the one necessary resource for anyone looking to begin or continue education through non-traditional means.

Helpful, informative book.

This book provides information concerning many avenues of online learning in a convenient, useful format. It's a great source of information for the person who is just considering options as well as one who has already decided to take the plunge.

best seller from an author formerly involved with unaccredited schools

"A degree is often more useful than a good education or valuable skills in your field." (the authors, pg. 3) "One man's degree mill is another man's alternative university." (the authors. Bears' Guide, 13th Edition. pg 306) 'People rarely check up on other people's degrees." (John Bear, Bear's Guide, 10th Ed., pg 24) I think these quotes encapsulate John Bear's strategy and view of higher education. "alternative" is altedspeak code for "unaccredited." John Bear is correct on the second point - outright degree mills on the one end of the continuum shade into sincere but unrecognized alternative/unaccredited universities at the other. I myself would say they're all bogus - whether degree mills or "alternative/unaccredited" universities. John Bear by his own admission involved himself in his past with a string of unaccredited "universities/colleges" in states with lax or non-existent laws governing degree-granting colleges/universities. Such unaccredited schools - according to some sources - were: MILLARD FILMORE (owner); INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES ( President, 3 years); COLUMBIA PACIFIC ( part owner); LONDON INSTITUTE OF APPLIED RESEARCH (owner); FAIRFAX UNIVERSITY ( part owner/founder); GREENWICH UNIVERSITY ( President, 1,5 years ). It is instructive to consider the case of Fairfax University: John Bear and his wife were two of four founders, but left after the first few students enrolled in 1986. As of 1991, John Bear was calling this an "academically-sound program" in the previous version of this book. Here's what Fairfax University's current website advertising says: "Degree programs offered at Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral levels. Personal supervision by mail, telephone, etc by...highly qualified..faculty. No residency or written examination requirements. Work at own pace from home. Credits awarded for prior learning, training. Average duration of programs is 6-18 months." Sounds a lot like ads for a school for cartoonists. Fairfax is not accredited. The degree-granting authority comes from Louisiana, which has notoriously lax regulations, but the school itself is apparently in England with only a secretarial drop-office in Louisiana (all information from Bears' books). Posting on a message board on 1-28-2003, mr.Bear wrote "Don't even think of applying to Fairfax, unless you are comfortable with a degree whose use would be a criminal offense in New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois, etc". Other alternative education enthusiasts favor loosening the traditional link between the bachelor's degree and the three or four years of on-campus study necessary to attain the degree. They want evaluations of "course equivalents" and credits for "life" experience - John Bear himself suggests that riding a horse, eating at an exotic restaurant, "applying statistics to gambling" (I like that one - a subscription to Racing Form ?...Bear is nothing if not droll) and reading his [Bear's] books "could" be worth credit for life experience learning (Be

Exemplary, Exhaustive, Honorable, Refreshingly Candid

Arm yourself with this lastest, updated version of Bears Guide before diving into the murky world of earning a degree through distance learning, particularly advanced degrees. It's exemplary and exhaustive in its research and useful database, the authors are honorable and refreshingly straight-talking - their candor will help you read between the lines of legality some questionable institutions engage in. You'll learn who's doing non-residency or semi-resident education, who's offering what degrees or fields of study, and who's reputable. Bears Guides have been around for years, undergoing frequent revisions, championing distance learning, and exposing the crooks of diploma mills. I want to counteract comments made in another (2003) review that seemed to disparage the integrity of author John Bear (whose daughter, Mariah, is carrying on his work with Nichols in these books). Bear is a founder of Degree.net, which I'd recommend as an adjunct resource to this book. He, and all the earlier versions of this book, have done a LOT to debunk and expose diploma mills to the general public. Other than the state of Oregon (which has a helpful website), no other entity in the U.S. has done - or is doing - as much. Here's a quote from Wired Magazine news in March 2000: "[Diploma mills] are growing, especially on the Internet, at astonishing rates," agrees John Bear, founder of Degree.net. Bear has witnessed the dark side of the distance-education boom up close. A former consultant, informant, and expert witness for the FBI's task force operation DipScam in the 1980s, he helped shut down a number of diploma mills over a 12-year period." That quote alone should help - and hopefully my review, too. The layout of Bears Guide is reader-friendly and makes a complex subject accessible. And it's frequently updated/revised. So unlike the Peterson guide, there's barely a comparison between the two.

Bear's Guide used by many governments

This is an excellent book. It informs you all the in's and out's on obtaining a legitimate, fully recognized degree. It's perfect for people working f/t especially for those who have a family to raise. I'd say this is quite possibly the best "bible" on distance learing one can obtain. The Oregon Commsission on higher education uses it to filter degree mills and other discredible sources. One must be careful though, the author seems to have many "enemies" who tries hard to ruin the reputation of the author. But I guess that's what one gets for appearing on National TV and working for the FBI to raid all the degree mill scams. An excellent read!