Rating: 
Summary: The best distance education book on the market!
Review: It's interesting to read a couple of the reviews here. If the reviewers have actually read the book, then my only conclusion can be that they are not particularly bright. This is one of those books that has changed the lives of countless readers. Note that this is the 13th edition! Dr. Bear provides information that has led to (at least) thousands of people continuing their educations. No, this book is not meant for everyone nor is it meant to be. No, the Ivy League isn't doing much in distance education (yet). However, Dr. Bear has taken a long, hard look at those programs out there and has given his opinion on them. Will his opinion disagree with U.S. News and World Report? Probably, because the USN&WR is looking primarily at on-campus programs. Based on this book and his other books, I'd trust Dr. Bear more than USN&WR any day of the week. I own an earlier edition of the book and will quite likely buy the next edition. If you want to get your degree, but can't or don't want to spend a lot of time on campus, this is the book for you!
Rating:
Summary: Very useful resource
Review: John Bear is to be commended for his long service to students. He provides a thorough description of many schools offering degrees through a variety of distance learning methods. There are good and bad nontraditional and distance learning colleges -- just as there are good and bad traditional colleges. (Ivy-covered walls do not redeem party schools.) John Bear gives enough information for the intelligent reader to draw conclusions and select colleges for further consideration.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of information, often, if not always, misleading.
Review: Mr Bear fails to provide sufficient information or direct the reader to sources of information that permit the informed selection of a degree program through distance education. In reality, even among accredited institutions, reputations vary greatly. Perhaps this is less important for an undergraduate degree where there are so many colleges outside of the well-known. How many people know if (say) Miami University of Ohio provides a better education than (say) the University of Sarasota. In graduate, especially doctoral education, the reputation of the degree-granting institution is critical and accreditation is merely the MINIMUM requirement. Mr Bear doesn't make this clear. One institution, which Bear refers to as "outstanding" has, in fact, been placed on WARNING status by its accreditator. This is only one step away from losing accrediation altogether. Perhaps Bear considers this school "outstanding" because he claims his wife received a degree here. The rating of universities is controversial, but certainly the best accepted of rating systems is that published annually by US News and World Report. An institution Bear states is "excellent and very useful" was rated DEAD LAST among ALL "national universities" in this study. Not nearly last, not next to last, but DEAD LAST. Of course, some school MUST BE be last, but would you want to earn a degree there? Similarly, an institution Bear states is the "best" and "most widely accepted" alternative PhD available is rated 6th FROM THE BOTTOM in the US News and World Reports study. Doesn't Bear have an obligation to inform his readers of how OTHERS view the quality of colleges he recommends? Isn't this true even if Bear disagrees with the method used by rating systems? Bear has made a very successful career selling information about obtaining a nontraditional degree. Unfortunately, perhaps because he wants to continue this success, he fails to provide readers with information about actual reputations of the institutions he promotes. Or perhaps, as evidenced by his comments preceeding the reviews posted here, he simply cannot believe that anyone, in good faith, could disagree with him. All critics, according to him, merely want to promote their own school or are "fossels". An author with this inflated view of his own infallibility, should never be trusted because no error can be acknowledged or corrected.
Rating:
Summary: Decent if you want to be deceived.
Review: Mr. Bear's book on distance learning is one of the finer books on distance learning institution if you want a biased, uninformed opinion on the value of distance learning as opposed to traditional residential learning. Mr. Bear fails to address the fact that distance learning schools do not become less valuable because they are non-regionally accredited. Student purchasing this book should realize that curriculum based, faculty mentored programs are the just as effective if administered via distance learning as traditional residential programs. Mr. Bear himself has been associated with a number of non-accredited distance learning program. I'm sure the book's original intention was to drive enrollments away from his competitor. Nevertheless, Mr. Bear trys very hard to be objective. I just wish that he would address the fact that there are distance learning program out there that are mentioned in his book, that have outstanding programs to help the life-long learner achieve his/her academic goal. It would be nice if Mr. Bear had done his research and actually visited some of these distance learning programs which he is so quick to misrepresent. I have been a student at one of the schools mentioned. The education I received was outstanding. I learned more there than I did in my State operated undergraduate university. However, Mr. Bear's review of my alma mater is less than favorable. Little does he know that I have been able to honestly show the work that I have completed at this university and have gained the respect of my professional colleagues. My advice is: Help John Bear make more money so he can afford to visit the schools he is so quick to judge by virtue of his bias toward non-accredited programs.
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Summary: This is the BIBLE of non-traditional/distance learning!
Review: Pardon the hyperbole, but no "nontraditional" (i.e. working adult) student should be without this book. John and Mariah succinctly and humorously break down the good, the bad, and the ugly in this guide to the world of nontraditional and distance learning. If you're a working adult considering your options for continuing your post-secondary education, you need this book. There are many ways to earn or complete a degree, and Bears' Guide attempts to show you the myriad paths and how best to select and pursue them. Last, but not least, there are many "institutions" in the US and abroad that would love to have your money. In fact, many of them would be perfectly willing to sell you a degree that would serve you better as toilet paper than as a credential. This book helps you tell the difference between institutions that deserve your money/time and those that deserve to see your backside. There are only a couple of high-quality general treatments of the topic of distance and nontraditional education, and this is one of them. The other is Marcie Thorson's Campus Free College Degrees. Peterson's guides get an honorable mention from me. In closing: I own it; I love it; I highly recommend it. Now go buy a dozen copies!
Rating: 
Summary: Troublingly innacurate
Review: Particularly the section on accreditation. Many of the schools recommended are diploma mills. I would not be at all surprised if he owns the offending schools. Don't waste your money.
Rating:
Summary: Caveat Emptor
Review: The author of this book is a SELF-PROCLAIMED expert. much of what he says is utter nonsense and on further research I discovered that the schools being promoted are the schools he himpself owns. Caveat Emptor BEWARE!
Rating:
Summary: A must read for anyone considering a Distance Education
Review: The Bear's Guide is a must read for anyone considering a Distance Education degree. It is the most comprehensive catalog of DE programmes around the world classified into clearly explainged categories including Diploma Mills. If you are considering any DE or non-traditional degree programme I would recommend that you read this book first. Jim Carlson MA ODE.
Rating:
Summary: Bears fail where it's needed
Review: The Bears spend too much time exposing diploma mills and on covering "legitimate" unaccredited schools. I wish they would have delved into the differences among legitimately accredited universities offering nontraditional doctoral degrees. For example, what the Bears don't say: Quite a few Union Institute faculty on its Web page claim expertise in areas where they have no academic credentials. We find its graduates usually end up at very small universities, not the Michigans, Penn States, or Stanfords. Greenwich is accredited by the Australian government, but back-doored through tiny Norfolk Island, home to what's left of HMS Bounty mutineers. Many of Greenwich's leadership and faculty have degrees from U.S. unaccredited schools, and its president operates the school from Hawaii. Sarasota operates from a strip mall in Florida, and its correspondence courses may be of marginal doctoral quality but acceptable to accreditors. San Jose (Costa Rica) has many more undergraduates than doctoral students on real campuses (main and regional). Walden, by its own Web page, shows to be a bureaucratic nightmare. South Africa tends not to accept accredited U.S. master's degrees. London provides great materials at low cost in its distance masters' programs, a requirement for Ph.D. admission, but the proctored exams (London provides samples) are very demanding. The Bears also fail to help readers understand well there are "pecking orders" among doctoral universities, departments, even individual faculty members one might choose as a mentor. For example, a degree from Greenwich is as different from San Jose as it is from the Union Institute as it is from Columbia, even though their nontraditional programs are all accredited. This book needed at least one page on each of these schools, for example, not a brief paragraph or two, to help the reader-consumer make choices. Also, in some circles it may be more important who was your dissertation advisor than the accredited university that granted the degree, and readers needed help there, too, in how to find academic leaders in their chosen profession. Simply, this book did not provide readers help navigating through the growing maze of accredited schools that offer distance learning doctoral degrees. Readers need this help more on the doctoral level, as nontraditional undergraduate and master's level programs become common at well-known, accredited, traditional colleges and universities. The Bears get an "A" for breadth in their book, but an "F" for depth. If you seek to weed out diploma mills and unaccredited schools, this is your book. If you seek more, look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Questionable resource material
Review: The uninformed punter might be fooled into believing this is a worthwhile reference guide, until the author's direct association with degree mills is revealed. Unfortunately, I did not know this until AFTER I had purchased the book. I find it ethically troubling that a man who founded three qustionable non-traditional schools (and advised a fourth) that all subsequently became classic degree mills, should write a guide book on which non-traditional schools are the best.
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