International Gem Society

 

 

 

 

 

The International Gem Society promotes itself as the first internet-based school of gemology, having been founded in 1998 by Don Clark. The IGS has a world-wide membership and a wide variety of member services that make it one of the largest and oldest gem cutting and faceting organizations on the internet. Their education programs in gemology have been widely promoted by its owner over the years, however on closer inspection there are serious problems with these claims. First, founder Don Clark claims to hold the gemological title of "International Master Gemologist". Unfortunately, no one has ever heard of this title and a search for the gemological education organization that awards this title yields no results. The other problem is regarding their website where the credentials of instructors and other important information regarding their education program is noticeably missing. The operators of the website are now listed, but they appear to have no formal gemological credentials of their own. The greatest problem we found is that the "courses" offered by the IGS are not actually courses, but just a compilation of articles written by the now-retired founder as much as 20 years ago. This is not a "course" but rather a "reading assigment" with an exam at the end. The claim that this program somehow constitutes a "certified program" is false. This is a wonderful membership organization with a long history of member services, but as an education institute the IGS can only be considered for hobby level participation. Unsupported claims of credentials that don't exist, and a program that fails to offer any true verified courses from credentialed instructors, the claims of offering a gemology certification program are simply not true.

Rating System by Stars: : Superior ____: Excellent____ :Good____ :Average____:Needs Improvement

 

Overall Rating:

Tuition Cost:

Quality of Course Programs:

Quality of Instructors: No stars due to no instructors listed.

Course Updates and Freshness:

Instructor to Student Ratio: Unknown

Depth of Course Programs:

Depth of Practical Programs

Reported Quality of Student Experience:

Availability of Assistance for Online Students:

Student After-Graduation Support :