User:William Pietri/Almeda University
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As discussed here, this is the content of the Word document which Almeda University sent me:
Almeda University
In the United States, it is rare to see newspapers and television news say or print anything good about a company. That sells no papers and gains no viewers. For example, the news will often print about a company that did something bad or wrong to an individual—and not say anything at all about the one-million satisfied customers. What’s worse, the newspaper does not require any proof about the negative story. They just print it as it’s interpreted by them or told to them. Please see http://www.fair.org/media-beat/951213.html
Almeda University has had some negative press. And while the vast majority of Almeda students have positive experiences with their Almeda degrees, only the negative gets printed.
Wikipedia says the only burden of proof needed to get into Wikipedia is that it is printed in the newspaper or on the television news. Since the newspapers only print negative stories and no positive or happy stories, it is virtually impossible to counter the negative attack.
Wikipedia Editors have picked up on the Almeda newspaper stories and have printed an attack on Almeda University. They do not require proof of the newspaper stories either. In other words, they print these stories as if they are 100% truth – because they are in the newspaper.
The stories ALL have another side to them. Some of the stories are outrageous lies – such as the fellow who got a degree for his dog. See this link: http://www.almedauniversity.org/press-release.html
Other stories are partial truths. For example, there were two police officers in Florida that were fired for using their Almeda degrees. While this is true, it should be known the following:
1. Almeda warned them in advance that their degree should not be used for taxpayer funded employment in Florida (such as being a police officer). They signed (electronically) that they read that disclosure.
2. After an investigation, they were HIRED BACK and they were given BACK PAY and they were found of NO WRONGDOING.It is true that Almeda degrees are not for everybody! Almeda makes this clear on its website. But there are many people that can benefit from the Almeda degree.
The people that are against non-traditional education are making so much noise that they are hurting Almeda’s good name.
Real Praise:
After a person gets their degree from Almeda, Almeda asks them to complete an online survey. About 12 percent of Almeda graduates complete the survey. The survey results can be found here http://www.epubliceye.com (search for Almeda University). They are asked to rank each area on a scale of 1=very unsatisfied, 2=satisfied, 3=neutral, 4=satisfied, 5=very satisfied. Then it is ranked as follows: 5=100%, 4=80%, 3=60% and so on. Thus a score of 90% in the category of ONTIME DELIVERY does not mean Almeda delivered 90% of the packages on time. It means that about half of the respondents said they were “satisfied” with Almeda’s on-time delivery, and half said they were “very satisfied” with Almeda’s on-time delivery. Almeda’s actual history of ontime delivery is 98.4 percent. This year, (2007), Almeda is at 99.3 percent and this month (March) so far Almeda has achieved a 100% on time delivery success.BBB reports: http://www.data.bbb.org/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=boise/boise/showrpt.html?bis=n&zid=ZHHnGhIfSg
According to the Better Business Bureau, over the last 3 years, Almeda University has no complaints! Almeda considers this a testament to its excellent customer service and product. Almeda has over 26,000 satisfied alumni, processes over 150 applications a day, responds to over 400 e-mails each day, and gets over 15,000 visits to its website each day. The Almeda website has a high Google page rank which corresponds to a well known and often visited website. Therefore, to have zero complaints with such a huge volume of business is, again, a testament to Almeda’s excellent customer service and product.
Degree Inspector
This site http://www.degreeinspector.com shows that Almeda is the only Life Experience Degree college that actually stands behind its refund policies.
Degree Advice
This site http://www.degreeadvice.com shows Almeda once again better than it’s competition.
College Degrees
This site http://www.college-degrees.com has some interesting articles about accreditation. Almeda pays to advertise on this site. Please see this article as well – no longer accessable from the front page of the college-degrees.com website: http://www.college-degrees.com/defense-life-experience-degree.html
Legality
The Almeda program is well explained and entirely legal. Almeda has the required disclosures on its website to ensure legality. Almeda works with six lawyers to ensure continued legitimacy of the Almeda program.
Legality is different from acceptance, however, and Almeda understand that Life Experience degrees are often frowned upon by traditionalists (mostly) in the public sector.
Almeda recommends to its potential candidates that if one is unsure about whether the company he/she works for or the company he/she would like to apply to will accept the degree, to contact them before proceeding any further with Almeda. This information is spelled out on the disclosure. All applicants must check a box prior to being able to submit their application stating that they have read and agree with the disclosure.
I can confidently tell you that Almeda receives many wonderful stories from alumni about the positive impact their Almeda degree(s) has had on their lives. In fact, many alumni are able to obtain promotions that would have otherwise been closed to them.
. . . . .more . . . . .
Almeda gets a lot of slack in the press that people are wasting their money paying $500.00 for a Life Experience Degree. Even news (investigative reporting) claims it's a sham and don't waste your money!
But, what about the traditional colleges. Perhaps the Life Experience degree is not as good as a traditional college education. This is true and a point I will not argue, BUT (This is a big but) . . .
According to ACT (http://www.act.org/news/releases/2002/11-15-02.html) 49% (nearly HALF) of all freshman entering a traditional 4-year college will not graduate. The colleges know this and they plan for it. There is less housing for seniors than freshman. They do not even have the facilities to graduate all those freshmen entering the school. This is part of the equation.
25 percent of these freshmen will not even return as a sophomore.
So what did they get for their THOUSANDS of dollars? NADA! ZIP! NOTHING! So is a life experience degree that is only accepted by 67% of all corporations (according to http://www.vault.com) worth less than the NO DEGREE accepted by 0% of corporations?
And, if we were to assume that the price of the tuition of the traditional college was worthwhile because the student at least learned something, then what can we say about all the miscellaneous fees that can add up to thousands of dollars each year. These are actual fees charged by colleges in the USA and Canada:
Application fee
Tuition fee
Room and Board
Books
Information Technology Fee
Library Fee
Cultural Activities Fee
Medical Services Fee
Student Services Fee
Late Payment Registration Fee
Testing Fee
Drop/Add Fee
Computer Lab Fee
Graduation Fee
Student Union Fee
Student Recreation Center Fee
Student Transportation Fee
ID Card Maintenance Fee
Student Business Services Fee
Intercollegiate Athletic Fee
Energy FeeYork University charges nearly $1200 per year just for PARKING! But they say that the life experience degree at $500 is a sham and a waste of money.
10% of incoming freshmen withdraw from college before the end of the first semester. What did they learn? Nothing. How much did it cost them? Well, at minimum, they paid tuition, books, parking fees and application fees. Probably a bunch of other fees as well. Try to get your money back? I don't think so.
So for the 50 percent of people out there that started college but never finished perhaps they had family or personal obligations), they have nothing. No degree. But they think Life Experience degrees are a sham. Imagine that! Wonder how many thousands of dollars they wasted.
Not to mention the opportunity cost of not finishing college. A person could have worked and earned $30,000 a year or so instead of spending it for a waste of time and money.
This should talk to the 50 percent of people that started but didn't finish college. The other 50% that finished are probably the ones bad mouthing the life experience degree program. Perhaps they are afraid that the non-degreed individual may get a life experience degree and overtake them in their careers. So they say that the LE degree is bogus and they should go back to traditional college -- even through evening and weekend enrollment. (knowing it probably never will happen and if people follow this advice it ensures that those with the traditional degree will stay ahead).
Again, regarding the article about the Florida police officers that lost their jobs, please note that they got their jobs back WITH BACK PAY.
It is once again legal to use the Almeda degree on job application in Oregon as long as you state that the degree was earned based on prior learning.
Most of the states listed do not classify Almeda as a "diploma mill" but they simply fail to recognize Almeda's accreditation.
The Life Experience (LE) degree backlash only seems to be an attack launched by several 4yr colleges. Perhaps they feel threatened.
Almeda hopes that more employers will join in and realize that the LE degreed individual is just as competent (more so at times) than his traditionally educated counterpart.
Almeda University is a Nevis Corporation in good standing. Almeda has been around since 1997. Almeda has over 26,000 satisfied alumni, processes over 150 applications a day, responds to over 400 e-mails each day, and receives over 15,000 visits to its website each day.
Almeda fully understands that not everyone who has heard of Almeda agrees with its mission. There will always be people who feel that a Life Experience degree is totally unfounded.
But Wikipedia has no right to bash Almeda the way they do.
There is no doubt that degrees from traditional colleges have value for those who can commit the time and afford the expense that comes with this type of education. But, the fact is, traditional college comes at an enormous cost with no promise your investment will lead to a legitimate job. Traditional colleges are designed so that half of all students leave before graduating. Twenty-five percent (25%) of people that start traditional college leave school with a student loan payment of $150 per month (on average) for 10 years and have literally nothing to show for this ordeal. By contrast, with Almeda, you spend about $500 for all costs associated with your Life Experience degree. This degree will open doors of opportunity for you to advance professionally.
A Life Experience degree represents hard work and professional expertise that will help your entry and advancement in the corporate world. Please don’t accept the attacks on Life Experience programs reported on the news but waged by traditional schools. The traditional schools are threatened to realize their revenue base is dramatically decreasing as employers recognize that nothing is as valuable as practical experience.
Some careers require the formal training of traditional college. Police work is one of them. But for many other careers-sales, various industries, and entrepreneurial enterprises-you don't need college. In fact, college can slow you down and set you back. What benefits most people in making a good career, high income, and productive life for themselves is experience. Plain and simple, you are what you do and practice, not what you study in college. I'll go even further and tell you that college is often one of the costliest wastes of time that could ever happen to a lot of people.
[edit] Word copy of that document
Hi - Sorry for the very slow response, but I have e-mailed you the original Word document cited above to william (at symbol) scissor (dot) com. Wombat 16:21, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
