Bears' Guide to Earning College Degrees Nontraditionally

First a bit of background - I have been involved in distance education for over 25 years and have been a university and community college faculty member for over 15 years. I have traditional bachelors and masters degrees (two of them in fact). My work in distance education includes the design, production, scheduling and delivery of "traditional" video telecourses as well as Web-based courses.In my work with students over the past decade and a half, I have advised a significant number to explore completetion or advancement of their academic programs through non-traditional or distance programs. In all that time, I have used Dr. Bear's books as my primary referrence about distance education. I believe I started with the second edition of his "Bear's Guide" and have acquired every update since. For a number of years, his was the only publication which presented a comprehensive collection of information about programs and schools.I have always received positive feedback form my students who relied on the information Dr. Bear presented - their expereinces with specific schools most often mirrored the reviews in the "Guide".Throughout the years and the progression of new additions I have noted a marked shift in the method of presentation, particularly regarding the level of Dr. Bear's crusaiding against those institutions that did not measure-up to his standards. The largest number of those outfits would be called degree mills, but he did assail a fair number of "real" schools for being non-responsive, pompus or disorganized. I must confess I miss that level of "edge" in his last couple of editions. This is unfortuante, I beleive, given the growth of educaitonal coursework via the Internet and the fact that the majority of two and four-year schools in the U.S are offering some form of distance learing (with that number growing every day.Nonetheless, I still find "Bear's Guide" to be the best single resource for distance and non-traditional post-secondary education.

In the 1970's I launched a private correspondence institution named Lincoln University (Arizona). Most students were from Nigeria. I had a lot of problems from "yellow journalism" - newspapers such as Britain's Daily Telegraph which never approached me denounced me falsely as a bogus degree salesman. I was very grateful to Dr John Bear for giving Lincoln a fair assessment in his Guide recognising my work as a genuine attempt to make quality tertiary education available at a cheap rate for Africa. I have gone on to be a professor in residential African and Asian universities whose standards certainly don't match those I set for "unaccredited" LIncoln. I feel John Bear's research on real and imagined universities is very thorough, informative and fair.Dr Bernard Leeman [email protected]

My use of this book was to check on the credentials of someone else. This book is an excellent source for a listing and a description of schools you will want to avoid for yourself. It clearly lists the known diploma mills. It also gives you good information on unaccredited schools as well as accredited schools. There is a lot of information on a lot of schools around the whole world.Dr. Bear does an excellent job describing how accreditation works and what to watch out for when the school you're interested in says it is accredited or admits it is not accredited.So, if you're checking on someone elses creditentials or you want to make sure that your diploma will be worth the time and money you invest, make sure you get this book!

In the mid-80's I had a high-school diploma and a decent job, yet I knew I had more information and reading/writing skills than most of my peers and many of those higher in the corporate ladder. I decided to read John Bear's GUIDE TO EARNING COLLEGE DEGREES NON-TRADITIONALLY. I read it, re-read it and studied it. I decided to act on his advice. In two years I obtained an AA degree from the University of the State of New York, while working at my regular job and never attending a college campus except for a few hours to take some monitored tests. In the next two years I obtained a BA degree from the same University, by passing only two more tests; both entrance exams. John Bear assured me that my degrees were fully accredited, but I wondered. I decided to apply for an MA degree from Cal State at Dominguez Hills; another one of John Bear's recommendations. I had never heard of the USNY before reading his book, but I surely had heard of Cal State, so I applied for their off-campus MA program. To my delight I was accepted on the weight of my BA degree from USNY, and in another two years I earned my MA degree while working at my regular job, without ever setting a foot on the CSDH campus. Since that time I have advanced my career to the level of a consultant, and my income is nearly triple my mid-80's income. I attribute at least part of my success to the self-confidence and prestige of having these sheep-skins on my resume and on my walls. Thank you, Dr. John Bear, for your invalubable book, which has greatly enriched my life. Best regards, --Paul Trej

This book is an excellent resource for students considering a degree via distance education methodologies. The book provides the reader with concrete definitions of dist ed and categorizes the schools by the amount of participation required (i.e on-campus vs. email). The section I found most useful was the careful and meticulous review of schools that were rip-offs and Dr. Bear's cautionary notes on schools started by people with a shady past. There are several excellent dist ed schools out there and this book helps you select one that meets your needs. Considering the cost of a degree these days, I felt the book was a great investment before my BIG investment