Evaluation of German Credentials in general & "Fachwirt" in particular

Dear All,

I have my “Abitur” (Senior Highschool), a 2,5 year “Ausbildung” (apprenticeship including vocational school) and an “Aussenhandelsfachwirt” (Business Administrator / Specialist in Foreign Trade) which is a 2 year continued education and in the same category as a German bachelor as per the German Federal Education Regulations.

I already got a general evaluation for my credentials from IERF and they gave me 30 credits for my “Abitur” but none for my “Ausbildung” and also none for my “Aussenhandelsfachwirt”. I think the problem was that both of the latter certificates only show the class names and the respective grades but not what topics were touched in these classes.

Since then I was able to retrieve an official and original confirmation (in German) from my vocational school about the topics taught with letter head and signature. But the Academy responsible for the “Aussenhandelsfachwirt” only refers to the official regulations on their website. Those are in German, a pdf and neither with a letter head nor with a signature. The related certificate refers to those regulations though.

I am just in the middle of the admissions process for WGU (Western Govenors University). For that I need to get a course-by-course evaluation of my German credentials.

My question is: Does anyone know if evaluation services would take such additional information, not mentioned on the actual certificate, into consideration? Does it make sense to get this one letter from my vocational school and the regulations for my "Aussenhandelsfachwirt" translated and submitted to the evaluation service?

I sure hope that all my learning and ongoing education was not in vain only because our credentials are written differently from the US credentials.

Thanks a lot for your help in advance

Daniela

 

no man i dont need that one

 

My Danish friend faced the same issues with translation to US equivalency. He was frustrated with the process to the point he took the GED and went back to school and received an Associates degree from a US school (currently pursuing bachelor). He thought he had the equivalent of a US bachelors degree but they didn't see it that way. Please keep us informed on how they translate the German transcript!

 

I recently (this year) used both IERF and AACRAO for evaluating two non-USA degrees (a research master's degree and a PhD). The evaluations were almost identical in terms of the final summation of equivalence. AACRAO was much more expeditious in completing the process, around 7 weeks compared to IERF's almost 12 weeks. The cost was also very similar, iirc, one was about $10 more that the other.

 

Thank you everyone for your messages. Unfortunately I thought I would receive an email if I get any replies to my post but that was not the case. (I guess I have to check my settings) That's why am replying so late. Sorry for that.

So meanwhile I got my credentials translated, evaluated and sent to WGU.

IERF confirmed that my "Abitur" is worth 30 credits but did only mention the courses I attended in my “Ausbildung” (apprenticeship including vocational school) and an “Aussenhandelsfachwirt” (Business Administrator / Specialist in Foreign Trade) and the regarding grades without actually evaluating how many credits they are worth.
I didn't feel very well with that result but it came even worse.

WGU only applied 8 credits of the 30 IERF said my Abitur was worth!!

And if that was not enough they even denied my admission.

Honestly I am speechless.

My Admission Counselor confirmed that I did fairly well in the assessment test and my TOEFL test score was 110 of 120.
So the only reason why they would not admit me is a.) that I was honest enough to say that I can only can commit to 10-15 hours learning a week (now I feel stupid - I should have lied) and that I did not have enough transferrable credits.
Which is stupid too (in my mind) because I would be paying for the education I still have to take, right?

I will officially appeal the transferrable credit evaluation of WGU (because I did have most of the General Education content in Highschool) and hope that the admissions office will change their mind but if that doesn't work I will have to figure out a plan B.

Any (affordable) suggestions?

Thanks again for your help.

Daniela

 

I can only suggest you look for alternate degree options including the big three schools.

Re foreign learning; I had 5 years of college (part time) in the UK. Excelsior required I send them to ECE. So what I did was to create a report that included my work experience, a list of all courses I took, the number of hours in each course, my exam scores, list of textbooks used (if any) in each course, copies of certificates, copy of transcripts, and my recomended semester hours for each course. Also included section explaining how part time study worked (each course was 9-months long x 3 hours per week) and described course content, homework and exam grading scale. ECE gave me pretty much what I asked for and Excelsior accepted ECE recommendations in full.

Also I know of other students that had 'A' levels from the UK and that were accepted as lower level general education courses by CSUDH.

 

Hi Daniela,

That is a very interesting topic for me, as I have a similar career - Abitur (senior high school diploma), Ausbildung (vocational training) and then a 3 year course as Betriebswirt at the Verwaltungsakademie - they translate it as Graduate in Business Administration.

Which course where you applying for and why does it have to be WGU? I studied a MSc through the University of Liverpool, and the admitted me without any problems. The only "problem" was that when I changed after my postgraduate certificate in International Accounting and Finance (after half of the modules needed for the MSc) into the MBA I did not get an exemption for the Finance and Accounting for Managers module due to my lack of an Bachelor - although the university evaluated my previous qualification as roughly equivalent...

All this said, would it be maybe worth to look at UK degrees? They should be due to the proximity be more familiar with other European degrees, and the resulting degree should be accepted without problems in the USA? Or does it have to be a US degree for other reasons?

Cheers,
Sven

 

At Ian,

Thank you for the suggestion and the link. I am "shopping" around already - just in case my appeal doesn't bring the wanted result - and I will definitely look into the list of schools / universities. A few I already ruled out before I decided on WGU but there are some on there I did not check out yet.

And if I really have to apply somewhere else I will definitely try what you did and put everything together like that. Even though I don't have that detailed information about my education anymore. My Senior HighSchool Diploma was in 1995 and my latest education, the "Fachwirt" was in 2007.

Have a great day

Daniela

 

At Sven,

I was applying for the Bachelor of Science in Business Management. WGU is a non-profit university and they charge a flat fee per semester of USD 3,000.00 which is pretty affordable compared to some others. In addition they are competency based. So even if you don't get the credit through former education you can test out of a course if you think you know enough about that topic. And they are accredited by 4 different accreditation institutes. So it all sounded pretty good to me but that is worth nothing if I cannot get in, right?

I didn't think of UK degrees yet (will check it out) but I looked into German online education. They offer an international bachelor too and the tests can be taken at any Goethe-Instutute. As I live close to San Francisco that would be doable for me.

The only thing I do not know for sure is if the German bachelor would also be accepted in the H-1B Visa process. At the moment I have an E1 Visa but if I would ever want to change my employer (and eventually that will be the case as the branch here in San Francisco is pretty small and there is not much space for growth) I would need that new employer to sponsor me a H-1B Visa.

QUOTE (H-1B Specialty Occupations, DOD Cooperative Research and Development Project Workers, and Fashion Models | USCIS)
For you to qualify to accept a job offer in a specialty occupation you must meet one of the following criteria:

•Have completed a U.S. bachelor’s or higher degree required by the specific specialty occupation from an accredited college or university
•Hold a foreign degree that is the equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s or higher degree in the specialty occupation
•Hold an unrestricted state license, registration, or certification which authorizes you to fully practice the specialty occupation and be engaged in that specialty in the state of intended employment
•Have education, training, or progressively responsible experience in the specialty that is equivalent to the completion of such a degree, and have recognition of expertise in the specialty through progressively responsible positions directly related to the specialty.**
UNQUOTE

So I figured, that an employer would feel more comfortable hiring me and sponsoring a H-1B visa if I had an actual American bachelor.

As I said: I am working on a plan B and C - still hoping that I get admitted to WGU.

Thanks again for your suggestions and support.

Daniela