Amerstate University
- Thread starter Indie12
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Balrog
Master of Arts
It is not accredited by one of the Regional Associations of Colleges and Schools, so it is probably a diploma mill. And, who knows, maybe even a belt factory. :lol:
- Thread Starter
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Check this out... http://auwi.org/accreditation.cfm
No I've seen the actual Masters degree in science of Martial Arts... It's legit! But I've heard different things about it..
That's simply state accreditation that says "yes, this place actually exists." It's not the same as peer accreditation -- which means that the odds are beyond good that the Master's degree won't be recognized by another university.
I believe there are a couple of university-level phys ed, sports science, or kinesiology programs with an emphasis on martial arts.
Interesting article:
http://www.journaltimes.com/news/local/article_528a9952-9b34-11de-8069-001cc4c03286.html
It would appear to be legit as authorized by the states of Wisconsin and not just a diploma or belt mill. However, it is certainly not a traditional university in any sense, and as stated, I doubt that the Master's degree offered would be met with any great acceptance in any doctoral program, for example.
http://eab.state.wi.us/search/viewschool.asp?schoolid=815&display=description
It also appears that the school is aimed primarily at Korean students who wish to study TKD in the USA, graduate, and find jobs here as instructors. Their two primary foci are TKD and ESL for Korean students.
I am going to take a wild shot in the dark and say that as a registered non-profit, some of these students are receiving US tax dollars as aid, or student loans from Uncle Sam. No proof of that, just a sneaking suspicion. EDIT: I found this, which says NO, no tax dollars are involved:
http://eab.state.wi.us/search/viewschool.asp?schoolid=815&display=financial
My bad on that. Sorry.
Might be an excellent TKD program; who knows? Other than what I have posted in the links above, I do not know.
I used to live just outside of Racine, WI in Sturtevant. I have always liked it, but it's a somewhat grubby little lakeside post-industrial ruined town between Milwaukee and Chicago, without a lot to recommend it except a few good friends of mine who live there still.
http://www.journaltimes.com/news/local/article_528a9952-9b34-11de-8069-001cc4c03286.html
It would appear to be legit as authorized by the states of Wisconsin and not just a diploma or belt mill. However, it is certainly not a traditional university in any sense, and as stated, I doubt that the Master's degree offered would be met with any great acceptance in any doctoral program, for example.
http://eab.state.wi.us/search/viewschool.asp?schoolid=815&display=description
It also appears that the school is aimed primarily at Korean students who wish to study TKD in the USA, graduate, and find jobs here as instructors. Their two primary foci are TKD and ESL for Korean students.
I am going to take a wild shot in the dark and say that as a registered non-profit, some of these students are receiving US tax dollars as aid, or student loans from Uncle Sam. No proof of that, just a sneaking suspicion. EDIT: I found this, which says NO, no tax dollars are involved:
http://eab.state.wi.us/search/viewschool.asp?schoolid=815&display=financial
My bad on that. Sorry.
Might be an excellent TKD program; who knows? Other than what I have posted in the links above, I do not know.
I used to live just outside of Racine, WI in Sturtevant. I have always liked it, but it's a somewhat grubby little lakeside post-industrial ruined town between Milwaukee and Chicago, without a lot to recommend it except a few good friends of mine who live there still.
Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
Accreditation
Accreditation > Institutional Search
Accreditation in the United States
College Accreditation
The ones listed above are the ones that matter but that still does not mean the school is any good... a hard learned lesson I recently learned that cost me $900
Accreditation > Institutional Search
Accreditation in the United States
College Accreditation
The ones listed above are the ones that matter but that still does not mean the school is any good... a hard learned lesson I recently learned that cost me $900
One has to qualify the statement "the ones that matter" as to why they matter, IMHO.
Regional accreditation is a very good thing if you wish to have your degree recognized by current and future employers, or for transfer of credits or recognition of previous degrees granted if you attend another school in the future. It does *not* matter for other things, such as vocational training, where what you learn is probably of more importance than who said you learned it.
I agree that regional accreditation is generally a good indicator that a school is legitimate; many US states do not offer any guarantee that schools accredited under various state programs offer anything of any particular value or that the education is legitimate or bogus. So if you have nothing in the way of regional accreditation to go on, you are pretty much on your own to determine if a school is legitimate or not.
As to the legitimacy of the martial arts instruction at this school, I can't possibly say. However, I do see it more in terms of 'training' than 'education'. I can't imagine what a dissertation on a form would be like in academic terms.
In the USA, at least, post-secondary education that is primarily vocational, as this seems to be, is generally done at the 2-year or 'Associate Degree' level, as community colleges typically offer. I hold an AAS myself, although mine is from a regionally-accredited college in Colorado.
In the end, post-secondary education is often 'buyer beware'. And with a new school with no track record, I'd invest a lot of time in investigating the people behind the school, the staff and educators, and look hard at the curriculum. The state of Wisconsin seems to indicate that their program is in the $30,000 US Dollar range. That's a lot of cheese; what does it buy you? I noted that there is a high drop-out rate based on total number of students they've ever had; are those students obligated to pay the full tuition or can they get a refund on training they have not yet received? And as to post-education employment, it does not say if they are employed in the martial arts profession, just that they are employed. And what sort of income do they earn if they are employed in the martial arts field? I'd want to know these things, and from verifiable sources, not just from reading a brochure or asking a school recruiter.
Accreditation from regional bodies is a good thing; not always appropriate for every school, but a good thing. Not having it is not an automatic mark of disreputability to me, but it is something to make one investigate even more thoroughly before investing time and money.
Balrog
Master of Arts
I saw that. The issue is that for a university to be....well, for lack of a better word, legit, it needs to be accredited with one of the regional associations of Colleges and Schools. For example, look at my alma mater, Texas State University at San Marcos. If you look at the bottom of that page, you'll see
And if you click on the Accredited by line, it takes you to www.sacs.org, which is the site for the accrediting organization.
If a school is accredited by one of the regional associations, then credit hours and degrees earned are recognized as meeting certain, well-defined standards and are interchangeable. If you earn credit hours at Amerstate and then try to transfer to another university, odds are very strong that they will not be accepted, and many employers will not accept the degree as being valid.
When you see something like this:
All that means is that the company has a license to do business as a school. It's not accredited. Every diploma mill in the country has something like this; California has hundreds of them; the "school" is a couple of offices in a building or a trailer somewhere.
Here's a good discussion on the topic of diploma mills.
