credit for foreign work experience

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by MGSmile, Aug 12, 2003.

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  1. MGSmile

    MGSmile New Member

    I have a 3 yr. Certificate in Dental Assisting from Germany. I am trying to get my BA in the US and was wondering if there is a DL College anyone can recommend, which gives credit for work/life experience from another country.

    I also have about 37 Credits from a US College in Multimedia.

    It looks Excelsior is my best bet right now (since I also have to be full time at my local college because of my Visa) for the degree, but sadly they don't do work/life experience credit or portfolio reviews.

    Would I have to be a full time student in order to get the credit for work/life experience or portfolio review - Or could I receive it somewhere else and then transfer everything to Excelsior?

    Looking forward to hearing some of your experiences....
     
  2. RKanarek

    RKanarek Member

    Greetings.

    Unless I'm very much mistaken, there are no distance options for studying dentistry, so, if becoming a dentist is your goal, you will have to make other arrangements. <g>

    I'm 99 44/100ths percent sure that Excelsior College (www.regents.edu) does accept "Portfolio Review" credit, they just don't do the portfolio reviewing themselves. Both Charter Oak State College (www.cosc.edu) and Thomas Edison State College (www.tesc.edu), your other two assessment college alternatives, will be happy to preform the review.

    Cordially,
    Richard Kanarek
     
  3. MGSmile

    MGSmile New Member

    No, I do not want to do anything in the Dental Field. My BA will be in Business or so...

    I am just surprised that it would not be counting towards anything, since it is a 3 year vocational program, which includes Accounting, Bookkeeping and Anatomy etc. (my local college told me they are no University Credits, which would be the only thing from a foreign country they accept!)

    Therefore I am hoping to receive at least some credit for it through work experience or similar.

    Would I need to get the german course descriptions in order to prove what the courses are about or are the translated and evaluated transcripts enough?
     
  4. MarkIsrael@aol.com

    [email protected] New Member

    Excelsior College uses Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc., http://www.ece.org, to evaluate foreign transcripts.

    The first step is to send your German Dental Assisting Certificate (with an English translation, and any other credentials you think may be credit-worthy) to ECE, and ask them to send a "subject analysis report" to Excelsior College.

    If ECE recommends credit for the certificate, then everything is very simple.

    If ECE recommends no credit for the certificate (which they may, because they may classify it as "vocational training" and not academic study), then you would have to begin a portfolio process with another US college. (Excelsior can recommend a college for you.)

    The portfolio process is much more complicated than what ECE does. It requires you to identify US college courses that you think your training is equivalent to, and to supply documentation for each of them.
     
  5. MGSmile

    MGSmile New Member

    Thank you Mark!
    I already sent off my stuff to ECE, but I have no results, yet.

    Yes, the portfolio review is what I was wondering about in case they will not grant me any credit (which I am expecting)!

    I am also looking into taking the US test for Dental Assistants., if they allow me to. Maybe that is worth some credit??

    Thanks,
    Monika
     

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