Jamie Littlefield across the hall from me here at Creative Weblogging had a good piece last week at her Online Universities Weblog about life experience credit.

Jamie talks about the distinction between diploma mills (the kind of place where you can get your degree in astro-engineering or nanocomputing by writing a couple of term papers) and legitimate institutions that offer life experience credit for things you've actually done. Paying a few hundred dollars to get a nice sheepskin diploma from the University of Mail Order Credentials won't really get you anywhere in life. But many accredited colleges and universities offer different forms of life experience credit that can translate into time saved as you work toward a recognized degree.

The most obvious source of those sorts of credit is military experience. If you've served in the military, one of the first things to do when you start college is have your military training and experienced assessed. In some cases you can earn a substantial number of college credits this way.

If you're returning to college after several years in the workforce, many colleges have a degree program specifically designed to take work experience into account and find you credits for what you've done on the job. Ask about it at your college's admissions or guidance office.

And take a look at Jamie's piece on life experience credit, too.