Can a school know if you have a degree, if you don't tell them?

[EDUxplorer]

I've seen that some universities will not accept a student into an under-grad program if they already hold a Bachelor's degree. I've also seen some grad-level programs that state they will not accept if you have a similar grad degree or working on one that could be similar.

Example:
https://extension.harvard.edu/registrati...ligibility

My question is this:
Can the school verify or know that you have a degree or are enrolled at another school for a degree if you don't report it to them and did not use financial aid?

I ask because what if a student has a Bachelor's degree from an NA school but would like to get one from an RA school? Could that RA school check and see if they already have one, then turn them down? What if a student has a Masters of Information Technology focused on Networking but wants a Masters in Cyber Security?

Food for thought in my head...

[Vle045]

Yes, I don’t know how, but some do check. I had recently tried the free term at Walden. I also applied to another one. The second one emailed me to tell me that since I was enrolled at Walden, I needed to send them some sort of permission letter from Walden saying that it was ok for me to do both. But I didn’t intend to continue at Walden, and the other school was one of those free course deals, so I just decided to let it go.

[davewill]

They are going to find out. Most schools will require you to submit all previous transcripts before issuing you a diploma, so even if you initially sneak in and take the courses, you'll get caught out then. So why can't you just neglect to send them the required transcript?

It's called the National Student Clearinghouse. It has records of every school you've attended and a lot of other stats about your school experience. Think of it as a credit bureau for colleges. That would be how that next school discovered Vle045 was already enrolled at Walden. We've had people here complain that they have to send in transcripts from schools where they've never finished a course, because there's a record that they attended. They can also discover (and verify) degrees you've earned and whether you owe money to a previous school.

It can be a bit of a downside to grabbing every random free course offer you see, if it's an accredited school, it becomes another transcript you'll be required to submit, even if it was just a free art course you dropped out of.

P.S. Even if you did manage to sneak through and get your diploma, they can rescind it after the fact if they discover later that you broke the rules.

[JannikTT]

They are going to find out. Most schools will require you to submit all previous transcripts before issuing you a diploma, so even if you initially sneak in and take the courses, you'll get caught out then. So why can't you just neglect to send them the required transcript?

It's called the National Student Clearinghouse. It has records of every school you've attended and a lot of other stats about your school experience. Think of it as a credit bureau for colleges. That would be how that next school discovered Vle045 was already enrolled at Walden. We've had people here complain that they have to send in transcripts from schools where they've never finished a course, because there's a record that they attended. They can also discover (and verify) degrees you've earned and whether you owe money to a previous school.

It can be a bit of a downside to grabbing every random free course offer you see, if it's an accredited school, it becomes another transcript you'll be required to submit, even if it was just a free art course you dropped out of.

P.S. Even if you did manage to sneak through and get your diploma, they can rescind it after the fact if they discover later that you broke the rules.

All of this applies if you are a student with a US degree, seeking to complete another US degree. There is no way a national student clearinghouse based in the US can acquire information about degrees taken in other countries.

[ss20ts]

All of this applies if you are a student with a US degree, seeking to complete another US degree. There is no way a national student clearinghouse based in the US can acquire information about degrees taken in other countries.

Well that depends if you used financial aid. If you used financial aid which is an option for some schools outside of the US, then yes it would be in the clearing house and known to other schools.

[studyingfortests]

The National Student Clearinghouse is not remotely universal. It started as an electronic transcript service, and there are several competing services, so there are many schools that are not a part of its services. I could be wrong but I've not seen any evidence that they hold and disclose information to schools unless the student pays for a transcript to be sent.

[ss20ts]

The National Student Clearinghouse is not remotely universal. It started as an electronic transcript service, and there are several competing services, so there are many schools that are not a part of its services.   I could be wrong but I've not seen any evidence that they hold and disclose information to schools unless the student pays for a transcript to be sent.

The transcripts are just part of what they do. They do report to other schools and schools can check you out in it. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_S...aringhouse

[studyingfortests]

The transcripts are just part of what they do. They do report to other schools and schools can check you out in it. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_S...aringhouse

Interesting. I somehow managed to have several schools that were not participants in their program, which is surprising given that they have, according to Wikipedia, 97% participation. I stand corrected.

I do seem to remember that degree earned, year, and name of graduate are considered "directory information" under whatever federal law dictates privacy rights regarding student information, so it's clearly legal for his info to be collected and disseminated.

[dfrecore]

The National Student Clearinghouse is not remotely universal. It started as an electronic transcript service, and there are several competing services, so there are many schools that are not a part of its services.   I could be wrong but I've not seen any evidence that they hold and disclose information to schools unless the student pays for a transcript to be sent.

The transcript service is separate from the reporting service.  So a school might use another transcript service, or even do it in-house, and still check the NSC reporting.

[bjcheung77]

@EDUxplorer, institutions have their own regulations and rules for concurrent studies or second degrees with similar content. In your example, a MSIT then a MS Cybersecurity, there "may" be some course content that overlaps, but not the entire degree will overlap (such as every single course), they will either allow or reject your application due to the similarity. This is common, some programs may have just a couple or more courses that overlap, so they would allow something like this... an example is say someone wants to take an MSML and then take the MBA, some courses will overlap but not everything.

It's always best to bring forward the entire picture to them and be honest about your goals and reasons, just explain to them why you're looking at a second degree in a very similar program/subject. They need to pass it over to the dean to approve your admissions due to the similarity, that's basically it... On the NSCH, there are some international institutions and nationally accredited ones in the list. Again, I would not leave anything out of the application, it's best to be straight with them and let them give you feedback.