Distance-learning students are mostly mature students and, for a variety of reasons, are less concerned with the prestige of graduating from a "top 10" college. Many mature students are in "mid-career" and need a degree to enhance their promotion prospects, rather than as a gateway to a career. Colleges are quick to service this need, thus the glut of MBA programs on offer. For those whose lack of a degree hinders their employment prospects, any degree is often viewed as being better than none. This is what those colleges lacking recognized accreditation, and diploma mills, want for such a situation enables them to prey on the desperate.
Of course, there are many students, especially mature students, who study purely out of interest in a subject, or for whom the gaining of a qualification provides a unique, and deeply sought after, sense of personal achievement. Such students are not usually ‘desperate’ and are therefore likely to be more discerning in their choice of college. Even so, their final choice is still likely to be a compromise, with cost often the deciding factor. Few mature students can afford fulltime study, let alone at a "top 10" college, so it is usually a case of searching for the ‘best buy’. This frequently means a distance-learning program and the ‘sharks’ are ready to bite the unwary.
Unfortunately, there appear to be no rating tables of distance-learning providers similar to those of campus-based providers, published by "US News and World Report". Some may disagree but I believe that such tables help to maintain standards. Doubtless, if they were to exist, Regents College, Thomas Edison State College, and Charter Oak State College would figure in the "top 10." Moreover, many more potential distance-learning students would be made aware of second-rate colleges to avoid, thereby forcing those colleges to improve their standards or risk boycott. The tables would also make it easier to identify diploma mills as none of those would appear in them.