If you’ve been searching for education options online, the term “life experience college” has undoubtedly come up. You’re probably wondering how legitimate these offers can be; can you really obtain a degree based solely on life experience? Is such a degree actually worth anything? There aren’t simple answers to these questions. First, it depends heavily on the institution that’s offering the degree program. A so-called life experience college degree from an unaccredited institution is not equal in any way to receiving a degree from an accredited school. That being said, there are indeed ways to earn credits, and even undergraduate degrees based on your prior learning experiences.

Prior learning credits are obtained through a more complex process than a life experience college degree. While they don’t require classes they typically require extensive documentation of your learning experiences, and they expect these to very closely parallel the requirements for an associate’s degree or a bachelor’s degree. An institution or organization that assures you that you can have a degree so long as you pay money–that your experiences, whatever they are, are sufficient to merit a life experience college degree–is probably a scam.

Also, any institution that claims you can receive a master’s degree or a doctorate degree as part of a life experience college program is simply trying to separate you from your money in exchange for a useless piece of paper. There’s absolutely no respectable education institution that would make such a claim or attempt to support such a program; they’d be in danger of losing their own accreditation. Not one. And they wouldn’t be the only ones in violation of the law; were you to use a master’s or doctorate from an unaccredited source as a qualification for a job, you’d be breaking state laws as well.

If you’re conscientious about following up on a school’s own credentials, it’s a simple matter to see if the program they offer is of any real worth to you.