Although it seems hard to believe, every couple of years there are schools including institutes, even colleges, that close their doors and shut down all operations. Like any business, when these schools suffer low attendance or operation costs skyrocket they find keeping their doors open difficult to manage. With each school closing, situations arise such as former students needing copies of their diplomas for replacement purposes and so on. The question for many of these former students then becomes, "What steps do I need to take to replace a diploma from a closed college or university?"
For the thousands of former students looking for answers, we decided to offer up some solutions and deep dive into this problem. In some cases these solutions may be beneficial, in other cases they may not be. Still, it's important to understand why this is happening and what steps can be taken.
Why did my school close its doors for good?
Like we said earlier, it’s very rare but it does happen.
Ten years ago, Sandy Andrews attended a private business college that offered her the ability to earn a certificate in business administration in as little as two years. Comparing the average time it took to get a bachelors in the same field from a large state run college, she decided to attend the for-profit school.
Basically about two and a half years later, a bit later than anticipated, she received a diploma. Long story short, she was able to get a job with a local frim and worked there for years.
Then last summer, she was putting together her new home office and decided to hang up her old diploma from the college. It was then that she realized the diploma was damaged and a simple request to replace it because a nightmare.
What Sandy discovered was that her old college was closed. What happened to her school? Well, the college over the last few years had fallen into some financial troubles. Fewer and few people were attention, the school was struggling to stay afloat and they made the decision to close their doors.
Is it common for schools to shut down and go out of business?
I wouldn’t say it happens a lot. There was a catholic prep school in River Grove that shut down after 60 years. There was also a popular tech college were forced to shut down in 2016. Of course these are some of the more well known cases. Stories will often popup in the news about smaller schools but pretty much any institute struggling financial is at risk of this happening.
So when Sandy called the phone number from before to request a copy of her diploma, nobody there answered the phone. Sandy was lost and unsure of how anybody could help her.
Alternative Options to Replacing a Closed College Diploma
Later, she spoke to another friend of hers who attended the same college. She ran into the same problem herself but discovered products sold online in the form of — or more precisely, for her needs, . A fake basically looks and feels like a real diploma, because it’s created using templates that are inspired from real diplomas including diplomas from closed colleges and universities.
Sandy realized that fakes are sometimes used as diploma props for Hollywood movies, as a way to boost your self-esteem and yes, even as personal replacements for diplomas that are irreplaceable which was her case. A fake is never official. Nothing is being issued or granted. It's basically sold for entertainment purposes and what records show is what records will show. This is what makes a novelty services like these 100% legal and beneficial for many.
The friendly staff at the online company had access to a template from her old college. All they needed was Sandy to fill out an order form providing her name, dates for graduation, etc. The design team used those details to produce her from her now defunct school, which was packaged up and shipped out to her.
Sandy was able to get a personal replacement, for her home office, by ordering one through . Although there is no guarantee that every diploma from a former school could be replaced through such a service, often they can be a big help. That's because they stock so many templates from both current and former schools. In many cases the templates are from less popular closed colleges, making diploma replacement requests very likely.
How to Find Diploma Replacement Alternatives from Closed Colleges?
Still if you are stuck in a situation where your former school has closed its doors and can’t be reached, turning to such a service to replace a diploma that is irreplaceable may be worth a try. If this is your situation, please give us a ring at 866-687-5403. We are here Monday to Friday, from 10 am to 5 pm CST. We’d like the chance to speak with you. Orders can be placed 24/7 and we even offer free proofs of your order to check over before the final custom documents leave our facilities.
