Quebec electrodynamic DEC (CEGEP) equivalency in the USA

I am completely lost in regards to the equivalency of my diploma. Should I call it a bachelor degree? a honours degree or else??

I got my 3 year CEGEP DEC (collegial study diploma) from the province of Quebec in electrodynamic back in 1994 . It is now called industrial electronic .

I am trying to find out what is the equivalency here in the US not only for possible school future project but also for new work eligibility.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

CEGEP DEC appears (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEGEP) to be equivalent to a US associate's degree.

But appearances can be deceiving.

 

Thanks Decimon but the Associate is a 2 years degree while mine is a 3 years degree (DEC) , which is why the confusion.

 

Hi,

I just went through the process, it's really not the way it works. As you already know, you don't have a bachelor, and High school in the US is one year longer. What counts is 2 things,
1 is the number of years of education
2 how it transfers locally in universities.

Unfortunately, when evaluated it will only come back as 30 credits. So not even as an associate. A professional DEC (3 years) in Quebec can only be transferred to specific bachelors and they only credit 30 hours. That's how it works and that is why when evaluated you will only get 30 credits.

See it like this:
1. Your DEC general education (2 years) counts for 0, even if we do 1 year extra, when accepted in universities we still have to do 4 years.
2. Hence your 1-year professional training = 1 year of a bachelor.

Basically, Quebec invented an odd system that while providing a stronger base education to the population serve little purpose outside of Quebec. If you are trying to move to the US using a work visa requiring a bachelor, your degree won't cut it.

 

Thanks Toronto for the information. As far as I can remember, I did more than 1 year of professional training (was done throughout the 3 years degree) but if you went through it, I am taking your word.
Mind to ask you what did you "transfer" from?

p.s. I am already in the US and went through the working visa without problem.

 

Well either your work visa was acquired without the need for a bachelor or the rules have changed and you were lucky when you did it.

It doesn't really matter if you had more professional courses, other DEC students go to university after 2 years. You would after 3. You could have stayed 7 years doing other courses in cegep, but a cegep is not an university. they will only confer 30 credits for your earned degree.

I'm not clear what you want to do with it. If it's for your Resume, call it an associate, nobody will ask questions. If you want to transfer to a US university, then you need to get it evaluated by a NACES accredited organization. I did it with a company called SpanTran.

 

Thanks Toronto,

So associate it is for resume and yes, I will go through a NACES acc. organization just for the sake of seeing where I can go with it. I am not sure if going through a full 4 years of school is worth it at this point.

 

Well, I just finished my bachelor online, part-time in 1 year. There is another forum that can help you with that.. it's not hard to find (I'm not sure I'm allowed to link to it). That's the great thing about the US system.

Example, just for testing out French, you can get 12-18 credits. a well earned 1 hour. You would already be at 42 credits.

 

Athabasca is accredited in both Canada and the US: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-Athabasca-3-year-bachelors-degree?highlight=CEGEP

 

FYI - for work eligibility only (aka H1B visa), evaluators can treat 3 years of experience as equal to 1 year of college. So if some one has a 3-year degree from UK or India and has 3 years of experience, this can be evaluated as the equivalent of a 4-year US college. This is strictly for work eligibility only, and can not be used for higher education etc.

https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/About%20Us/Electronic%20Reading%20Room/Policies_and_Manuals/H1-B_Training_Material_and_Guidance.pdf
(Look under the "Education Evaluation Requirements" section.)

 

As in Quebec there is only 11 years of education before CEGEP, the first year of CEGEP counts as year 12 in the US or Ontario. Most credential evaluators will give you a community college equivalency for this degree. Send it to WES or ECE for evaluation if you need a certified evaluation document.