Zombie colleges? These universities are living another life online, and no one can say why.

USA TODAY

Chris Quintana

May 9, 2024

Stratford University says it will prepare students to “Be the Boss.” But applicants hoping a Stratford education will ensure that future are headed for disappointment: The Virginia school closed two years ago this fall.

Instead, Stratford is one of at least nine shuttered colleges whose names have been resurrected on the web. None of these zombie universities are accredited or cleared to receive federal financial aid – hurdles that signal legitimacy. And their motives are cloaked in a mystery no federal oversight agency seems to have tried to solve.

Kari Kammel, who heads the Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection at Michigan State University, was perplexed by the counterfeit sites. At USA TODAY’s request, she reviewed them and said she suspected identity theft could be at play for some.

“They figured out a way to post something, get students to apply, take application information, take credit card information, take financial aid information,” Kammel said.

Some of the imposter websites are tied to colleges that shut down long ago, like Morrison University in Nevada, which closed its doors in 2014, or Jones International, one of the first schools to offer college courses online, which followed in 2015. Others focused on institutions whose demise came recently, including the private Catholic Marymount California University, which closed nearly two years ago.

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