any legitable foreign educational credential evaluation services-non-NACES

In looking at foreign educational credential evaluation services I see almost all universities and colleges want the evaluation to be done by a member of NACES .
http://www.naces.org/members.htm
There are many non-NACES eval services.
Are there any other legitable foreign educational credential evaluation services that aren't NACES members? The ones I review seem suspect. Several have connections to degree mills or are "recommended" by suspect programs to have their degrees evaluated as equivalent to a U.S degree.
Any good Non-NACES foreign eval services that are used by academia?

 

That is correct. Many, many universities, government agencies and private employers use NACES member agencies to evaluate foreign credentials. Some NACES agencies offer more services than others; there are those who believe that some NACES member agencies are inherently better than others (or do a better job than others); however, they all subscribe to a common set of standards and, theoretically, one NACES member agency should be as "good" as another. That said, some colleges/universities, government agencies, and private employers go beyond saying that just any NACES member will do, and go to the point of specifying which NACES member agency (or agencies) it will accept. One should always check with the college/university, government agency or private employer to see what it requires.

But only one that's legitimate. Keep reading...

Yes. One. Keep reading...

If they're not either NACES members, or the one I'm about to specify, "suspect" is a mild word. Pretty much every alleged foreign credential evaluator that isn't either a NACES member agency or the one I'm about to specify is fraudulent -- usually a creation of a non-U.S. diploma mill for use as a means of legitimzing said non-U.S. diploma mill's fraudulent degrees. That said, there probably are (in fact, as memory serves, I think I remember at least two) credential evaluation services out there that are in no way affiliated with diploma mills and are neither NACES member agencies, nor have anything to do with the service I'm about to specify... but the problem with such places is that even if they're trying to be completely objective and legit, they're just not recognized by government, colleges/universities, or private employers. So their opinions, even if they're exactly the same as what a NACES member agency or the entity that I'm about to specify might have rendered, aren't worth much.

It's usually more than just "connections" to diploma mills. They're usually the creation of such nefarious places.

Only one: The AACRAO foreign credential evaluation service. Other than a NACES member agency, AACRAO's service is the only game in town; and it's the preferred credential evaluation service of the State of Oregon's Office of Degree Authorization. Some argue that AACRAO's service is better than that of any NACES member agency; and, in fact, some colleges/universities, government agencies, and/or private employers specify AACRAO instead of any NACES member agency. Some, on the other had, specify AACRAO in addition to any NACES member agency. Still others don't care whether the evaluation comes from a NACES member agency or from AACRAO, just as long as it's one or the other.

But the important thing to remember is that whatever evaluator you choose, if it's not either a NACES member agency or AACRAO, then you're pretty much wasting your time. Just don't even bother with any other agencies, no matter how good they may look. If the credential evaluation you're considering isn't either a NACES member agency, or AACRAO, stay away!

 

Thanks! Is AACRAO a membership organization like NACES or an independent reviewer. Some agencies claim some sort of connection to it.
http://www.foreignconsultants.com/-says they are a voting member of AACRAO.
http://www.thedegreepeople.com/recognition.html-state they are a member of AACRAO.
AUAP -member of AACRAO -to name just a few.
So is a degree evaluated by AACRAO or by a "member" organization?

One apparently bogus site is http://www.acacorp.org/. They offer to evaluate your PLA for a degree and refer you to a school. And they offer challenge tests , not for course credit, but for a whole degree! On their website they say" Academic Credential Assessment Corporation is an independent agency and is not owned or controlled by any school or university." Bu if you go to Paypal to pay for a "challenge test" it reads :
[email protected]
Payment For: ACAC Exm

Currency: U.S. Dollars
Amount: $25.00 USD
Shipping & Handling: $0.00 USD
Total Amount: $25.00 USD !

 

FCI has a good name and at one time was good for FBI evaluations.

I think FBI moved to NACES and their own.

Here are a few to start with. (Not to say that NACES are not more widely accepted but there are others that are well accepted):

http://www.sbec.state.tx.us/SBECOnl...1024&height=768

http://www.dese.state.mo.us/forms/d.../foreignltr.pdf

http://www.dallasisd.org/depts/altc...val_foreign.htm

http://www.wcjc.edu/admin_offices_n...ty_parttime.asp

http://www.usoe.k12.ut.us/cert/OOS/outcountrycred.htm

http://www.uewm.edu/admissions/foreignstudent.html

http://www.uhd.edu/admissions/naces.htm

http://www.bauer.uh.edu/mba/admissionfaq.htm

Students may submit their official foreign transcripts to one of these evaluation services:
Foreign Consultants, Inc.
http://www.foreignconsultants.com
1-877-603-7959
3000 Dundee Road, suite 209
Northbrook , IL 60062

or

World Education Services, Inc.
www.wes.org
1-800-414-0147
P.O. Box 26879
San Francisco , CA 94126-6879

Please contact the Admissions Office for more information on the evaluation of foreign transcripts.

Foreign applicants must also submit the following to the Admissions Office:

A completed Application Form with two passport-size photos

Learner

 

What do the big three colleges use?

Whom do Excelsior, COSC and TESC use for evaluating foreign credential?

 

Membership in just a membership this is not a seal of approval.

Some bogus evaluation agencies ( ECC International) employed by mills and have membership.

The evaluation of AACRAO directly wile costly has value.
They do theor own evaluations if I'm not mistaken.

Always check with the requesting organization for the list of approved agencies.

Learner

 

Re: What do the big three colleges use?

Excelsior uses Educational Credentials Evaluators (ECE). They also use Joseph Silny & Associates, Inc., but only for degrees from Israel.

 

ECE???

Does that mean that Excelsior only accepts ECE and not WES?

 

There are several non-naces member evaluation companies that are legit. One would be FCSA run by Bill Paver who USED to be the head of international admissions at the University of Texas. Bill is currently heading up a new database that is being put together by AACRAO. This database will compete with the UNESCO database.

Also, before you can be a member of NACES you have to run an evalaution company that isn't a NACES member.

A good example of this would be Global Credential Evaluators. GCE was started in the early 90's and at one point was the ONLY non-naces member that the University of Houston would except evalautions from.

Admittedly there are several bogus companies, like degree people, ACACORP and ECE International (not to be confused with ECE)

There is also another group like NACES called AICE. This is a legitimate group of credential evaluators like NACES and have strict guidelines for becomeing a member. You just don't pay dues, you have to do a certain number of "Test Evaluations" with documents that are authentic and fake and milled.

So to say that NACES member's are the only ones to trust is just plain wrong.

 

Re: ECE???

Yes.

 

ECE is the most concervative evaluation agency.

They usually in my opinion provide less credits than WES and others.

I know its a broad statement but from what I hear and read they follow very strict guidelines.

Am I exagurationg by stating that ECE is the most respected evaluation agency among Universities?

Thats the impression I have.

Learner

 

Conservative or Ignorance?????????

My friend told me that once he talked with one of his evaluator and so-called region expert but didn't know anything about the region. Probably, that make them look like conservative since they don't know how degrees are alloted in different regions of the world.

There is a funny story about ECE that they used to only allot 0 credits for Heriot Watt University's MBA. At that point of time, they had gross ignorance about Heriot Watt University.

I think to be respected one has to be well-accepted and know how degrees are allotted in different parts of world. Gross ignorance leading to not allotting credit may look for some people conservative but eventually they may become a laughing stock. For instance, Heriot Watt's MBA for which they wer allotting 0 credit.

 

No. It does have regional offices, but it only has one office -- the main office -- that does credential evaluations.

You're right. NACES members aren't the only ones to trust. You can also trust AACRAO.

Of course the word "trust," in this case, is misplaced, if you think about it. It almost doesn't matter which evaluator you trust. What matters -- in fact, the only thing that matters -- is which evaluator the entity to which you will be presenting your foreign credential trusts (and uses). If it happens not to be either a NACES member agency or AACRAO, then fine... use the one they like. (Of course why they would use an oddball evaluator should be a question you should be asking yourself, but that's another argument for another day.)

Bottom line, in my opinion: If I had a non-U.S. degree that I needed to make sure was viewed by the world as equivalent to "regionally accredited"; and assuming, of course, that said degree really was equivalent to "regionally accredited," then I'd go spend the money to get both an AACRAO evaluation and an evaluation from one of the better-known, more-respected NACES member agencies, just so I would have those two, most-impressive documents in my files... and that would pretty much be that. Whenever talking about my degree, I'd simply point out that it had been evaluated by both organizations -- the only two organizations (or kinds of organizations) that most governmental agencies, colleges & universities, and private employers use -- and that it was found to be equivalent to "regionally accredited." Having those will cover better than 90% of the foreign credential evaluation requirements of most government agencies, college/universities or private employers.

Only if a potential employer, a government agency, or a college/university relied on some other evaluator would I then deal with the problem of getting my credential evaluated there... and I'd be asking why they didn't use either AACRAO or a NACES member agency since either of those is pretty much "the gold standard" of foreign credential evaluation.

If you're worried about making sure you select the best (i.e., most often used) NACES member agency, then just do an informal, private survey of your own. Send an email off to a dozen or so colleges/universities... or more, if you want. Ask them which foreign credential evaluator they use. If 8 out of 12 specify a particular NACES member agency, then choose that one. Spend the money for an evaluation from that one, plus an evaluation from AACRAO. Put them both in a file folder for later use whenever you should happen to need them, and stop worrying about it. Life is short!

 

Originally posted by laferney
So to say that NACES member's are the only ones to trust is just plain wrong.

Just a correction-the above quote is posted by MichaelR
Senior Member. I tend to agree with you (DesELMS) that NACES and AACRAO are the way to go. I didn't find AICE as useful as MichaelR's post would imply.
While there are other well-meaning organizations that have members that do evals (NAFSA ,European Association for International Education to name 2) if universities don't use or recognize them then they're not of much value.

 

What I was saying is that there are other evaluation groups out there that are legitimate. I will admit that NACES has the most acceptance (even over AACRAO).
And that certain NACES members have more reconginion than other NACES members, but for the most part they all had to jump over the same hurdles to get in, and they all had to start somewhere, which is as an independent shop not affiliated with anyone except for maybe there membership in AACRAO and NAFSA.

 

Yes and their services may be perfectly fine for immigration requirements, personal reasons or general employment-but unless a university specifically requests it be done by them then NACES or AACRAO is the way to go. And your point is well taken that all agencies start out "unaccredited" or unknown. It's just that with all the fake schools and evaluations services out there one must be cautious. I guess I should have said "accepted" rather that to use "legitimate" as I'm sure many of these agencies are sincere in their efforts. DesElms "bottom line" sums up the best way to go.