Life Experience High School Diploma
Now, this is interesting. An online “high school” calling itself “Belford High School” lets you get your high school diploma in just a few minutes’ time. You can do this one of two ways:
1. By taking a test in language arts (26 questions), math (20 questions), science (15 questions), and social studies (10 questions)
2. By telling them your life experience
You don’t have to attend any classes, you just have to fill in a form and pay them $249 (basic fee – it can cost more if you ask for additional stuff). You can even backdate your graduation to years ago, have yourself graduate with honors ….. all for a large additional fee, of course.
They’ll even give you fake transcripts, and print your fake GPA on your fake diploma. You automatically get a fake 3.0, but for an additional fee you can go all the way up to a fake 4.0. Obviously, I’m going for the fake 4.0!
I took their tests, which require 70% in each subject to pass. It was pretty funny, I have to admit, because some of the questions made no logical sense. There were only 71 questions total, which is supposed to prove that you know everything you would have learned in four years of high school.
I wish I could have gotten through high school by answering less than 20 really easy questions per year.
What’s especially interesting is that, if you miss a question, they will tell you the right answers – not only that, but they pop up in a separate window so you can copy the correct answers the second time around. That’s pretty doggone convenient, I have to admit.
When I didn’t buy a diploma from them (obviously, since I have a real high school diploma and was just doing it for laughs), they started inundating my inbox, trying to get money out of me. All that did was make me determined to make complete fools out of them.
As stated, you can also tell them your life experience, and get your high school diploma that way. I logged back in under yet another pseudonym, pretended to be an 18-year-old high school dropout slacker, and wrote:
“I help my mom around the house, and sometimes go grocery shopping for her. I am very good at playing Warcraft online also.”
Sure enough, it immediately asked me all the information needed to process my “diploma” – but, no one had even looked at what I had written as my alleged qualifications!
Now, does anyone here think getting your mom groceries and playing WarCrack qualifies you as a high school graduate? Well, Belford High School probably does – I should find out in about 24 hours! They say they are going to review my qualifications – who wants to bet that no one even looks at it, and they offer me a diploma based on my stated skills as a slacker?
What’s really scary is that they also have a fake university, where they sell fake doctorates (and fake bachelor’s degrees and fake master’s degrees) also conveniently for a low, low price – and, as always, they offer free shipping (ROFLMAO). Once I finish messing with their fake high school diploma program, I’ll play with their fake college degrees a bit. That should be very interesting, considering that they offer fake doctorates in everything from law to medicine (no, I’m not kidding) and everything in between.
Update on slacker application for high school diploma:
I went out for a late dinner and, when I returned, I had this email in my inbox. Gosh, this guy sure does work some interesting hours:
I, as Assistant Superintendent of Belford High School, would like to inform you that in order to make your information presentable, I have started working on your resume.
The Experience Evaluation Committee will then evaluate your eligibility for the desired diploma program. On the approval of your credentials, you will be contacted directly by the Experience Evaluation Committee within 24 hours.
I wish you all the success in your future endeavors
Regards,
John Hudson,
Assistant Superintendent,
Belford High School
I’ll let you know when I hear more from the people who are apparently going to evaluate an applicant’s ability to mooch off his mother and play Warcraft.
Second update on slacker application:
Apparently, playing Warcrack and getting your mom’s groceries is equivalent to a high school education after all – ROFLMAO! Here’s their latest response:
Congratulations [name redacted]!
We are pleased to announce that on the basis of your resume submitted by the Assistant Superintendent, the 10-member Evaluation Committee at Belford High School has finally approved you for your high school diploma.
You can now pay the amount from the link provided below and get your high school diploma within 7 days from today. Once you make the payment, you will also be able to access the Alumni Area of Belford High School and get exclusive privileges and discounts.
If you are unable to pay the complete amount at once, you can now place your order for an initial deposit of $99 only. The remaining balance can be paid within 30 days in small and easy installments through our Flexible Payment Option Plan. Click on the link below to read more details and continue with your order.
Please click here to view your order details and to make payment.
Remember, the evaluation result is only valid for 7 days from today.
We congratulate you on being approved as a Belford High School Student, and wish you all the success in your future endeavors.
Regards,
Experience Evaluation Committee,
Belford High School
I’m not sure why it’s only good for 7 days. After all, it’s not as if the applicant is going to lose the knowledge necessary to lay around the house and play WarCrack in that period of time.
That’s always the sign of a scam, incidentally – the sense of urgency is palpable. Truth is, I could go back three years from now, having not paid them a cent, and still get their diploma. Obviously, all they want is the money. If you have cold hard FRNs, you can get a diploma from them, and it doesn’t matter if you are one of the biggest frickin’ ‘tards in the history of the universe.
To be honest, I was hoping they wouldn’t fall for what I sent them. Sure, it’s funny as hell, but it’s also extremely worrisome considering their doctorate program, which offers fake medical doctorates. Now, that’s scary and, unlike the high school part of their program, it could actually prove deadly if some idiot sets up a medical office using a fake degree (hey, it happens more than you’d think). I’ll address Belford University in a separate entry over the next few days.
Wow. a high school less credible than the public one I attended.
LOL, Dee!
I think I’ll take a shot at becoming a medical doctor through them. After all, “ElfNinosMom, MD” sounds pretty snazzy. I’ll let you know how it works out.
Ok, can’t be any worse than the Dr not a resident I had a large teaching hospital. I was there for an asthma attack & rather out of it. He hadn’t heard of Advair and wanted to change my meds to something he had heard of.
Sheesh, that doctor sounds scary. Even I know what Advair is, and I mostly blog and watch television, LOL.
I think I’d be a fake doctor like the kid in “Catch Me If You Can”, and just delegate everything to the real doctors, LOL.
If you haven’t seen that movie, definitely rent it. It’s a true story, too.
Oh, yes it is a good movie. We own it. Actually, we find it is cheaper to just buy movies instead of going to see one.
I do the same thing, Dee. I have a huge selection of DVDs; I buy them previously viewed, either at the Blockbuster, or the pawn shop where I can get five DVDs for $10. Every once in a while, if I can’t find it previously viewed, I’ll hit the Best Buy.
I prefer to watch movies at home, where I can pause if it I want to get something to drink or eat, or if I want to use the restroom. I like that a lot better than the theater.
I think I’ll start a movie thread. I love to watch movies, so maybe we can all recommend movies to one another.
Actually, my posts on good family movies is one of my all time top posts.
[What’s especially interesting is that, if you miss a question, they will tell you the right answers - not only that, but they pop up in a separate window so you can copy the correct answers the second time around]
Actually, my history teacher in high school did this. He gave us the complete multiple choice test the day before. The answers were displayed on an overhead projector (and yes I am that old). We all had color wheels. The questions were tape recorded. A disembodied voice would read the question. Then we would turn our color wheel to the right answer. You know A was red, B was blue and so on. Then the disembodied voice would say, “Ready, respond.” And, we all turned out color wheels out so that everyone in class could see whether or not we were complete morons. We took the exact test 2-3 times during the “test study day.” The next day we took the test, the identical test… there was no difference, they were the same. Even the questions were in the same order so you didn’t really even have to read them again. All you had to do was, “A, B, B, D, E, E, C…”
Did you know that as a homeschool mom I can write a transcript and print a diploma for my daughter? Well, I can. I am kind of black and white, so I actually grade assignments and keep track of grades, but no one really checks on me. What I thought I would do is let my daughter attend the local technical college during her senior year under our state’s Post Secondary Education Options program and see how she does.
Actually, I could make a whole lesson plan out of shopping if I wanted to including Family and Consumer Science (menu planning, nutrition), Consumer Math (budgeting)… but I don’t. Much to my daughter’s chagrin we actually do math.
Oh, and medical school can’t be that hard. I was a nurse for almost 20-years. Some of the interns I worked with weren’t the sharpest pencils in the box.
Sadly, I prefer to watch movies at home where I can turn on the subtitles. My hearing isn’t that great anymore ~
I have given students a study sheet of all the test questions. Reversed the order of the questions and still 80& failed. Why? They memorized the answers A, B, C, etc not the words or questions. Of course, that was also the class that decided to punish me by refusing to do their homework. Their reasoning was that if they all failed I would get fired.
You can legally call yourself “Dr” without paying $200 to a diploma mill. You simply pay $30 to the Universal Life Church for their honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree.
Laugh if you will, but it has held up in US Court. The ULC as a “religious” organization has the right to hand out these honorary degrees. Gotta love freedom of religion.
So…I can use…
Dr. Jason Gatties
or
Rev. Jason Gatties D.D.
I use neither…but I could…
Jeez, you mean that not only do I have to be at least functionally illiterate but I also have to cough up $250? High school is hard!
Good thing the Illuminati doesn’t have an educational requirement, well except that one advanced degree for neutering field mice, but they’re willing to substitute life experience.
Now, where did I put my pinking shears?
FUCK BELFORD HIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU GOTTA BE A TOTAL LAME TO EVEN DO THAT TO PEOPLE!
I wonder…some of the schools seem legitimate. Forgive me if I don’t seem to care…I think you learn more from life experience this days than school! With all the social problems at school I just don’t want my kids in a public school (it’s worst than when I went to school) Can’t afford private school so I’m getting their “HS diploma” and putting them in trade schools, when they get older they can go to college. I really don’t respect public schools not then and not today!
I went to Huntington Park High School in California…most of my class mates graduated with little knowledge of English! in fact ALL our classes were in Spanish except for English! the worst was that when I asked my counselor for help because I’m hard of hearing and I really wanted to learn English her reply was “what for? you are going to either, get pregnant, join a gang, get kill by a gand or all of the avobe now get out of my office! Well…I was LEGAL in this country I wish I would have said something back then, so yeah lots of US have HS diplomas that mean crap! and who loses the most THE TAX PAYERS!!!
Yocheved: Are you drunk? Your rant has absolutely nothing to do with a proven scam offering fraudulent high school diplomas.
In Yocehved’s defense there are some diploma mill schools that prey on homeschoolers and those seeking an affordable alternative to bad public schools. I ran across a several of the on-line all connected last year. If you want more details email.
Ya I have a Belford high school Diploma, but I knew it was a scam but pretty much my highschool life was bad since of Problems I had with family I was held back for two years. though I am planning to get a Real Diploma once I have a Job and money still doing what I love to do, which is computer hardware and programming. I am no moron and msot of the time I was so ahead that I was sleeping in class and it didn’t matter. even going summer school still didn’t help me and it was more money doing it the hard way. I needed to get out and on with life. got the Diploma form Belford. though most jobs Require a “Real” diploma and sticking around 2 more years because of some stupidly of parents and teachers didn’t seen like something I should have been in.
though its not worth the money it was paid for it did get me out of a prison that I didn’t need to be in. I wasn’t a homeschooler i was a real high schooler that was pushed to the end I needed somethingto get out, though I was Preyed on by Belford and sadly the highschool I was in.
if this seems like a rant, I am sorry, but personally experience beats Teaching anyday, I learned programming and computer hardware form my father or myself but I am pretty happy for what I can do.
They sent me a diploma that is not legitament. They won’t refund my money back. I had to pay them $500.00 dollars cause I payed for my husbands diploma too. Now how do I go about getting my money back?
You could try making a fraud complaint to your state Attorney General’s consumer protection department.
I hope you and your husband have signed up for GED classes. They cost a lot less than a fake diploma, and a GED is legitimate. Contact your local school board for information.
To get your money back from these people is Next to impossible. However, You can with in 60 days of purchase dispute the charge to your credit card. This is the only way you will be able to get your money back. The next thing Is blogging…. I have a facebook and myspace site. Just wait.
By the way, I still get emails from Belford, five years later, still trying to get me to buy a fake high school diploma. I just got one a couple of days ago, in fact.
Sure, you might get a fake diploma past a few employers, but eventually you’re going to get busted for trying to pass it off as a real one. Even if you are qualified for the job without a diploma, the fraud inherent in claiming a fake diploma would disqualify you. Fraud is also cause to fire you even if you already got the job before they checked. It’s just not worth it.
What I find very sad is that most buying these fake diplomas could greatly benefit from taking adult education classes, to achieve at least a minimum level of literacy. Getting a GED requires actual work, but it’s a lot cheaper, and it’s completely legitimate and accepted anywhere. If you score high enough on the GED, in many states you can even get a college scholarship based on that test.
So for anyone thinking of buying a fake Belford diploma, I would strongly suggest investing in a real education instead. You can usually take the GED for $50 or less, and most places also offer free or low-cost GED preparation classes so you can do better on the test. Just contact your local school board for information.
Well as far as i know, phoenix university with my belford high school diploma.I work as an armed security officer and trust be the background checks are thorough.I am convinced that most of you people are from another online campus trying to stab belfords business in the heart.Not all people,some people just hear these liers go on and on.So they are discouraged from getting their belford high school diploma.The diploma is not fake,look it up yourself.Belford is accepted by the higher education commission.If you want proof for yourself email me @ [email address removed by ENM]
Well as far as i know, i attend phoenix university with my belford high school diploma.I work as an armed security officer and trust me the background checks are thorough.I am convinced that most of you people are from another online campus trying to stab belfords business in the heart.Not all people,some people just hear these liers go on and on.So they are discouraged from getting their belford high school diploma.The diploma is not fake,look it up yourself.Belford is accepted by the higher education commission.If you want proof for yourself email me @ [email address removed by ENM]
ENM,
The last comment demonstrates your point.
Hiya, Dee! Yes, it definitely does that. He proves only that Belford will give a fake diploma to just anyone, LOL.
By the way, Belford is “accredited” by two fraudulent accreditation “agencies”, which is I guess what Joseph is referring to when he talks about “the higher education commission”. One appears to be owned by Belford, and neither is recognized by the US Department of Education, which is the only “higher education commission” which actually counts for US students.
What I find scary is if someone was actually given a gun to carry on the job after presenting a scam diploma. There was no background check done. If there were, he’d have never gotten the job (assuming any of what he wrote beyond “attending” Belford is even true, which I seriously doubt). After all, one need only google the school name to find out it’s a diploma mill scam.
However, since Joseph does very well illustrate the level of proficiency their “graduates” possess, I decided to leave the comments up.
ENM,
The Big Guy found the entire piece so funny that he posted a link to it on his Facebook.
As for accrediting agencies the only ones I consider reputable are the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges and its other regional equivalent, Association of Christian Schools International, National Association for the Education of Young Children. There are also some smaller ones that are good but those are the big 3 so to speak.
Hiya, Dee! Tell The Big Guy that I’m honored!
I’m not that big on supporting any particular accrediting agencies. My only concern is whether the agency (and thus the schools they recognize) is recognized by the US Department of Education, and of course Belford is not since it is just a diploma mill (which is still wanting, years later, to give a high school diploma to someone who lays around his mom’s house playing WarCrack).
Last I checked, the Texas Department of Education had started a fraud inquiry about Belford, as well they (and every other state) should.
Is TEA (Texas Education Agency) the one doing the investigation?
As for supporting accrediting agencies I am very selective with the ones I support. Guess that is my background in education. I do find it interesting that it is harder for a preschool or school to be accredited with NAEYC than SACS (or other regional accreditation) or ACSI. I have taught at both at schools accredited by all 3.
Hiya, Dee! If I recall correctly, it was the Texas Department of Education (my internet is woefully slow right now, so I’ll have to confirm that later).
It’s cool that you have taught in such respected schools! I guess that means you won’t be handing out fake diplomas for Belford anytime soon?
Texas has to be different. TEA (Texas Education Agency) is the state department of education. The set regulations for schools, issue teacher certifications (I have 4 from them), and accreditation. Although they no longer accredit new private schools.
No, no fake diplomas for me. I have 3 legit diplomas if you count high school.
Wow I’m blown away at all the comments about Belford High. I guess I was desperate at the time to get a hopeully legitimate diploma for a job I was seeking. I was hired for the job so I’m wondering now if they did an actual background check or was I blessed to slip through the fingers of the right person to be hired? If I would have known Belford was not legitimate trust me I would have continued to try for my GED but back then was pressed for time.
Are there any real online high schools out there?? I gave two friends that are searching sites currently…
Yes there are many legitimate on-line high schools. In many states the department of education or its equivalent run on-line high school programs.
Also, some universities like Bob Jones, Stanford, Texas Tech & University or Nebraska offer a distance learning program for homeschoolers. The programs at Texas Tech and Nebraska started as correspondence programs and have been around for decades.
For adults seeking a high school diploma try checking your local community college or school district for ways to obtain a high school diploma
Hiya, Sin City Mom! I’m sorry you got taken in by those shysters, but glad you got the job anyway. I know how hard it is for moms with kids at home to do anything for themselves, so in your case, I applaud your efforts.
Just out of curiosity, and please don’t give any specifics which might identify you or where you work because that is not at all my point in asking this, what kind of job did you get with a Belford diploma?
This is what I suspect happened ….
A lot of places just assume mature adults really do have a high school diploma, especially if they look and act like they have one. You are clearly intelligent, so honestly, I wouldn’t have checked that on you either as long as you’re older than, say, 24. They therefore may indeed have done a background check insofar as previous employers and references, but just not checked that part of your resume because they had good reason to assume it was true.
I’m honestly not sure if there are any legitimate online high schools, but my friend Dee will probably know since she is a homeschooling proponent and former public school teacher. So I’ll leave that response up to her, since she is far more qualified to answer.
My biggest concern for you, since a high school diploma is likely just a piece of paper rather than proof of knowledge for you, is that they may one day find out about Belford, and then you could get into trouble for misleading them. My other concern is that someone with your level of intelligence should definitely seek to attend college, and you’ll need a GED to do that.
Honestly, based on your responses, I suspect you could pass the GED exam without even studying for it, or at least you probably could in most states. At most, you would likely just need to buy a GED review book and self-study in your spare time. You could probably take it on a Saturday, and be done with it. If you take some college courses after that (and there are legitimate online colleges run out of real colleges) no one will care anymore whether you have a diploma vs a GED, since they will depend on your college information in evaluating you as a potential employee. Heck, I haven’t even listed my high school on my resume in over 20 years. There just comes a point in time where high school doesn’t matter anymore, as long as you have pursued higher education.
Best of luck to you!
I would recommend checking with Texas Tech University or the University. They were considered the standard for correspondence learning for decades.
Many school districts offer programs for adults to obtain either a GED or diploma.
As for not checking background I agree with ENM about the age thing. While a high school diploma is the standard there are many successful college graduates without high school diploma due to early enrollment options. Some very bright students are able to forgo the last 1 to 2 yrs of high school and jump to college. Another option that many homeschoolers use is to attend community college for their junior or senior year. If you can get into and community college and successful complete 30-60 credit hours no one questions education before that.
Oh, yeah as a mom there should be some programs and even scholarships through a community college.
Thanks, Dee, and excellent point about the financial aid and scholarship possibilities for a mom.
Excellent point about the financial aid and scholarship possibilities for a mom.
Many thanks for answering Sin City Mom’s question!
Sin City,
I just thought of something. See if you can find a chapter of Christian Women’s Job Corps. CWJC provides training and assistance getting jobs. They should be aware of programs in your area for getting a high school diploma. Not sure what classes they teach as the only classes I thought for them were computer.
Just found a listing of CWJC sites.