Evaluation of Foreign Credentials

Unfortunately, the various legitimate credential evaluators can be very different in how they evaluate the same credential. As an extreme but common example, ECE recommends zero credit for the extremely demanding Heriot-Watt MBA courses, while World Education Services and International Educational Research Foundation, among others, recommend four graduate units.

When I appealed this to then-VP of then-Regents, Paula Peinovich, she agreed, and accepted the World Education Services evaluation. But she is gone (to Walden), and they longer do that kind of thing.

The best advice might well be to see if WES, IERF, or other reputable ones will give you a decent amount of credit, and take that to Edison or Charter Oak.

 

My sympathy. I too was goosed by ECE. I'd relate the detail but whenever I do, my blood pressure rises alarmingly. It is my considered opinion based on direct experience, and related documentary evidence, that this outfit are a bunch of chancers, who have little idea of what it is they are supposed to be doing.

There are many who feel they have been hoodwinked and had, by these consummate artists. Perhaps we could band together and get ourselves a class action going to expose their incompetence. That would be without a doubt a singular public service.

John Bear's advice is sound, but if you want to stay with Excelsior, another option may be to test out, if you can. After receiving ECE's assessment, I discarded nearly all the credit (90 hours) and tested out. It proved about as cheap, as quick, and a lot less aggravating.

 

That no university credit would be forthcoming in Germany does not mean that ECE were therefore correct in their evaluation. The evaluation of equivalency is with respect to U.S. university and college course content.

The U.K A-level will not garner university credit in the U.K.(nor indeed, I suspect, in the FRG), but it can get you 10 semester hours at U.S. colleges and universities. If the meter was as you describe (not there, therefore not here) there would be no need of an evaluation services to divine equivalency.

Having said that, it seems that is the judgment ECE made with respect to MGSmile's vocational/professional education. Any lower primate could have made that judgment and it is therefore perhaps no accident that the task fell to the ECE crew.

The correct way to do it, the fair way to do it, and the only meaningful way to do it, is to determine to what extent his course work approximates U.S. college level course work (in terms of breadth and depth). This can be time consuming but it is not rocket science, and ECE is well paid for its efforts. It is done every day in portfolio construction and assessment. I found I was able to map every single course of a UK HND math and an HNC computing to specific U.S. college courses. Not approximate them, map 'em. ECE did not even try.

Again, it is my judgment based on direct experience that ECE are incompetent. It will certainly be the case that they will sometimes get it right, but this I suspect will be more a matter of good luck than good judgment.

 

I am sooooo upset...
I am planning on getting my BA/BS from Excelsior and thougth I would get SOME credit for my 3 year Dental Assistant Degree from Germany...Wrong!!

I had ECE evaluate all my documents and all they came up with is a post highschool part-time vocational program and since that is non university -> NO credits at all!!
How can this be!??? This is 3 yrs. of school in Germany and working at the same time with a final exam in the end, medical billing and an x-ray license....
That has to be worth something!!!

Does anyone have ANY experience at all in that field? Can I get some lifetime or workexperience credit for it at some school, which I could submit to Excelsior then?
Input will be highly appreciated...Thanks!

 

hm,
actually, MGSmile, you must admit that you would not even get any credits at any German university (or polytechnic) either.
So in that regard ECE is absolutely correct with their evaluation... - although of course I wish you good luck in finding a solution!
Greets,
Trigger

 

Could you please tell me what the degree is? i.e. Prufungszeugnis etc....

Thanks

 

Is ECE as reputable as others ?

I was thinking about getting some of my International credentials evaluated by ECE to apply to Excelsior. But it seems that I should also be expecting bad outcome as ECE is not generous or flexible at all. Does Excelsior accepts report from any other evaluator ?

 

wow ! I posted my reply on Oct 22 and its showing Oct 21..

messages are really screwed here. Most of the time I dont even get replies to my posts as they showing up in the wrong sequence and people are missing them.

 

I think they only use ECE. You could call and find out.

 

University credits Only!

Sure that is correct, but the German and the US School systems are far apart in level when you ask me.
College level courses here are what I did in the 'Realschule' (Highschool) regarding Math for example.

The councelors at school are also aware of that, they say, but the official rule is, that only University courses are accepted!
This goes exactly with the concept of the Bears' Guide if you ask me...since I have a 3-year degree in Dental Assisting, 13 years of work experience in different fields and all this is not worth anything to the College?
I am supposed to sit in school, pay lots of money each year for things I pretty much know already?....Does that make sense?

I just feel it's not quite fair to not acknowledge anything else but University for a BA, which is more like a Master's program here.

 

Thank you Lawrie...I am glad to hear that is not 'the end' for me.
of course I am not glad to hear that ECE seems to be rather incompetent, since they are recommended by Excelsior for the evaluation.

You write :

Let me see if I understand this right: I need to map the courses myself (for example see if medical billing or human anatomy is similar to what I learned) and then submit it to another evaluation service? I am not sure if I have to submit MY assessment to the school directly or to the eval.service?

Thanks for making me feel better....
Monika

 

Re: University credits Only!

A dental assisting degree? In Europe and anywhere in the world, a dental assisting certificate is not at the degree level.

You don't have to sit at the University again. If you feel that you know everything, all you have to do is to sit for the exams and pass them.

 

It really just means that you are so brilliant that yesterday you knew what you were going to post today so instead you posted it yesterday.

 

I know! It's all messed up. As I'm reading the various threads I'm seeing answers BEFORE the questions and everything in between.

 

Check this service,

http://www.auap.com/eval.html


They have very good connections in many leading Universities in USA.

My friends and I have evaluations from this service, their membership ACE is very voluble and many registers
work with ACE recommendations.

The Credential Evaluation Service is an independent branch of AUAP, which evaluates the transcripts of foreign students for admission into American universities. It also evaluates academic and experiential credentials for Immigration purpose. AUAP Credential Evaluation Service is a member of the American Council on Education (ACE), AACRAO (American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers), NAGAP National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals and NAFSA (National Association of International Educators).



Mrs. Kathy Nance Director of Admissions of the American University of Paris for 11 years, NAFSA, NACAC.

Dr. J.N. Prade Harvard Institute on College Admission'95, author of a published paper on foreign students at Harvard FAS, University of Paris II'76, former judge at the Paris court, Chevalier du Mérite National, CMA, PBB, AACRAO (American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers) and NAFSA Conference speaker on foreign Credential evaluations

Prof. Gao Zhou Tenured professor at department of Physics of Peking university, member of the admission committee of Peking university (Beida) , Master of Sciences - San Diego University.
Each other member of our team has experience in admissions and has local and American university degrees.

AUAP Techniques: The members of the AUAP team are specialized by countries or group of countries. They utilize the guidelines of National Council on the Evaluations of Foreign Educational Credentials, NAFSA, AACRAO, ACE Harvard and Columbia university grades equivalency tables, and INS rules on Experiential equivalencies. They however have a dynamic approach that take into account the specificity and academic traditions of each country. (For example, in France an 11/20 in French language should be considered higher that the same grade in Mathematics)


Schools that accepted AUAP evaluations:

1) Columbia University (NY)
2) Harvard Law School (MA)
3) University of Pennsylvania*(PA)
3) Cornell* (NY)
5) Wake Forest University (NC)
6) NYU (New York)
7) Fordham (NY)
8) American University (DC)
9) UCLA (CA)
10) University of Chicago (IL)
11) Yale (CT)
12) Vanderbilt (TN)
13) Penn State University (PA)
14) LSU (LA)
15) Georgetown U (DC) **

And many accredited RA DL schools.

 

I wonder that those colleges which insist they want to use some specific agency like ECE, would accept evaluation from AUAP ?

Is ECE also member of all these associations that AUAP is ? I want to make sure that the evaluation by AUAP is accepted widely so I dont have to get it done again later.

 

The whole subject is well explained in Dr. Bears guide.

There are deferent applications for credential evaluations.

Immigration, Licensing, Continuing Academic education, employment in Government, employment in privet sector, military etc.

The nice thing about American University Admission Program service is that they not only evaluate but assist students in admissions to US universities.

AUAP is the world largest organization which helps foreign students in selecting and gaining admission to American institutions of higher education.

They are 45+ Higher education specialists, mostly Directors of Admissions, Professors, Ph.D. Holders, Psychologists, Recognized Grades evaluators, Notaries and certified translators etc.

For example - Dr J.N Prade
Chairman Harvard SICA95, Author on a published paper on International Students at Harvard FAS(97)
He lectures on this subject in more than 23 countries worldwide.
He is presenter on foreign Diploma equivalencies at NAFSA conferences.

He communicates with the institutions that requires the evaluation and can bend the rules.
Yes the service is not free but with the cost of education
If they evaluate your academic equivalency more accurate
and you have to take less classes than the evaluation paid for it self and saved you some money.

There ECE service is probably the most accepted among universities.

But their evaluation is not accepted for Professional Licensing in Social Work, only the agency that accredit Social Work programs
in USA can evaluate foreign credentials for that purpose.And many other professional licensing.

I think that AUAP should join NACES.
Usually NACES member evaluation services have better acceptance.

 

Hi,

Does anyone know If I should be sending ECE my CLEP results ? Does ECE counts CLEP credits when evaluating prior education to find US equivalency ?

 

If you're enrolled/enrolling to the Big 3 I believe that you just ask CLEP to send your results to the school directly. CLEP wouldn't be considered to be "foreign" for the purposes of evaluation.

 

Does COSC accepts other than ECE?

Does COSC accepts foreign credential evaluation other than of ECE?