Foreign degree conundrum.

[lidel]

Hello everyone.

I'm not sure where the best place is to post this, so I'm going to give it a try here. If anyone knows of a better option please let me know. This is a little out of the ordinary, but I know that some of you have quite a lot of experience with universities and study plans and may be able to give some valid suggestions. 

A little back story. I'm writing this for a friend. She is originally from Romania and completed a bachelor's of Arts in History, Literature and Theology from the Dunarea De Jos University, Galati, Romania back in 2000. This degree was to be a Romanian language teacher in her country as it is required for all students and was a great job option at the time. She got a job right out of university and taught middle school kids until 2005 when she moved to Canada and settled in an area where she was able to quickly get a job in the oilfields and lab industry. The pay was good, it didn't require a degree and she just went with it. She worked there for seven years, then left there and moved to a different area that is very small town and began raising her family. She was out of the workforce for a few years, but now her little fellow is school age and she is having a hard time finding employment that is more than the area minimum wage. Her degree has no use here, and the couple of people she has spoken with regarding updating her education have basically said that because her degree is from Romania she would need to start from scratch, and the one lady even said that her high school would be worth nothing here. This was from an area employment centre when she was looking into taking the early childhood education program certification. The response she has received has been pretty discouraging to hear and has prevented her from seeking out further education options. I'm trying to get some ideas to give her a boost. 

I don't know a darn thing about European universities and accreditation, but her university looks legitimate and lists numerous partnerships with other universities, including some in the United States and Canada. I'm encouraging her to apply for her transcript from Romania but am wondering if there are any other steps that she can take or strategies she can employ to maximize her existing education credits in the Canadian university system so she can upgrade into a degree that will have some use here. 

I'm just in the brainstorming stage of things and any ideas or sharing of similar experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance to anyone who gives input.

All the best.

Shawn

[rachel83az]

Does she need a specific degree or just a US/Canadian degree in general? Whether or not her Romanian degree is "legit", a shiny new degree from UMPI might be a good option. Whether or not she does have to start over completely from scratch, it'd only be about $3-5k for a degree if she can finish in 6-8 months.

[lidel]

Does she need a specific degree or just a US/Canadian degree in general? Whether or not her Romanian degree is "legit", a shiny new degree from UMPI might be a good option. Whether or not she does have to start over completely from scratch, it'd only be about $3-5k for a degree if she can finish in 6-8 months.

Hey there. She would ideally look into either the fields of health care or education and I think she wants to be able to transfer some of her existing education credits over to avoid starting from absolute scratch. You would think her existing degree would be able to satisfy some of the electives and general education credits at least, even if she still had to do the requirements for whatever major she chose. Based on what she is like, and what her areas of interest are I don't think an online option will work for her, but we do have some Brick and Mortar options the next town over. 

Another option that I threw at her was to try to get her bachelor's recognized in Canada even if the degree isn't employable to allow her access to a master's degree of some type. Not sure if that would be possible either at this point.

[rachel83az]

That's a shame because online really is the cheapest way to go these days!

For Master's degrees, check out the thread I posted a few days ago in the Graduate section. It's possible to get a Master's degree for free in Canada, but of course she'd need her Bachelor's degree evaluated as valid first.

[SteveFoerster]

Her degree has no use here, and the couple of people she has spoken with regarding updating her education have basically said that because her degree is from Romania she would need to start from scratch, and the one lady even said that her high school would be worth nothing here. 

If she gets her Romanian Bachelor's degree evaluated by an appropriate organization, she should be able to do a Master's degree through a Canadian university and be good to go.

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-service-...lency.html

[lidel]

That's a shame because online really is the cheapest way to go these days!

For Master's degrees, check out the thread I posted a few days ago in the Graduate section. It's possible to get a Master's degree for free in Canada, but of course she'd need her Bachelor's degree evaluated as valid first.

I agree completely. She sees me knocking out courses and rather than it calming her it makes her feel anxious about the lack of structure.

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Her degree has no use here, and the couple of people she has spoken with regarding updating her education have basically said that because her degree is from Romania she would need to start from scratch, and the one lady even said that her high school would be worth nothing here. 

If she gets her Romanian Bachelor's degree evaluated by an appropriate organization, she should be able to do a Master's degree through a Canadian university and be good to go.

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-service-...lency.html

That's a great link Steve, I'll forward it along to her as an option. I imagine that having her degree evaluated may even help her in getting credit recognized for another bachelor's program.

[ss20ts]

Does she need a specific degree or just a US/Canadian degree in general? Whether or not her Romanian degree is "legit", a shiny new degree from UMPI might be a good option. Whether or not she does have to start over completely from scratch, it'd only be about $3-5k for a degree if she can finish in 6-8 months.

Depending where in Canada, UMPI is also known. They have a huge program in Canada because they're right on the border.

[Alpha]

Her degree has no use here, and the couple of people she has spoken with regarding updating her education have basically said that because her degree is from Romania she would need to start from scratch, and the one lady even said that her high school would be worth nothing here. 

If she gets her Romanian Bachelor's degree evaluated by an appropriate organization, she should be able to do a Master's degree through a Canadian university and be good to go.

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-service-...lency.html

I would think that this is the best option to pursue at this time.

[lidel]

Her degree has no use here, and the couple of people she has spoken with regarding updating her education have basically said that because her degree is from Romania she would need to start from scratch, and the one lady even said that her high school would be worth nothing here. 

If she gets her Romanian Bachelor's degree evaluated by an appropriate organization, she should be able to do a Master's degree through a Canadian university and be good to go.

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-service-...lency.html

I would think that this is the best option to pursue at this time.

Yeah, it seems like this is the way to go for now. At the very least I'm hoping they would be able to give her partial credit for her existing education so that it can be put towards a more relevant bachelor's. I'm not 100% sure if it works that way or not, but fingers crossed.