Help with ENEB

[David1477]

Hi!

I don't quite have the time and patience to read through all the 274 pages about ENEB, so I hope you can help me. 

Situation:

I am currently doing my BSc in BA at UoPeople. I now have 99/120 credits and will graduate within the next year (3.9 GPA atm)

I live in Belarus and don't plan on working in academia/government jobs. 

I have some leftover time to study and would love to already use that towards a masters degree.

I got a 50% scholarship from UoPeople and transfered in 90 credits from Sophia, so I will manage to get my Bachelors for roughly 1.200$, which I am very happy with.

Regarding a masters degree, the only really affordable option I found was WorldQuant University. I suck at math and programming and don't particularly like either of them very much, so that program seems to be a bad fit. 

An MBA at UoPeople costs 4.800$, Nexford costs roughly 4.000$, RA accredited US online MBAs and online MBAs from the UK start from around 10k$.

Regarding the quality of education and the value on the job market, I feel like, in my current situation, I will get the highest ROI from an ENEB MBA. Employers here won't know either of these schools and whether I have an MBA from UoPeople, Eastern University, or ENEB will probably make such a small difference that it doesn't make up for the price difference.

Now regarding ENEB:

As I understood it: I could sign up for the ENEB MBA for something like 260 Euros via the ambassador link. Then I would get access to the courses and could start studying.

If I want the test version of the MBA, I need to pay something like 400 Euros. If I just do the assignments, there seem to be no additional costs.

1. I read that some people joined eneb without a completed bachelors degree, so can I just buy the program and start now, as long as I finish the MBA after I completed my BSc in BA ?

2. If I just buy the ambassador link and work through the courses and assignments until I finished them all, I can then choose to buy an official transcript and degree certificate from Universidad Isabel 1, right? 

3. So, ultimately, I would just pay the 260 Euros + maybe 300-500 Euros for the transcript and Isabel 1 degree, or are there any other costs I should plan for if I do the assignment based version?

4. If it ever becomes relevant to me in the future, this transcript and Isabel 1 degree could then be sent to a US evaluation agency to obtain RA graduate credit that I could transfer into a US MBA program, or is that not possible anymore?

5. In addition to this: within the European Union, ENEB credits count as official credits for a masters degree, just the degree itself does not count as a masters degree, so if I would like to do a masters program in the EU I could potentially use these 60 ECTS as well?

6. How much time do I have to complete the ENEB MBA ? If I don't manage to do it in this time (for example because my graduation from UoPeople somehow takes longer), what would be the price to extend my study period?

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I hope someone here digged through all of the ENEB discussion and is willing to help me, so I can understand all of these details and make the right decision.

[bjcheung77]

In brief, a very short answer... That's 6 yes's for me! Queue Simon Howell to hit the golden buzzer...

[David1477]

Thanks a lot for the quick feedback!

[karehiro]

I can confirm for you that you can be accepted to ENEB without a Bachelor's since that was the case for me. They only required that if I didn't have a Bachelor's yet that I have 5 years of work experience. Just send them an email before applying detailing your work history and that will be sufficient.

Also, the price of it entirely depends on if they're running discounts/specials or not. I didn't have to pay extra for the exam because I lsigned up when they were offering the 2 Masters with the exam option where the total payment for me was approximately $260. That's of course not counting physical diplomas or Hague Apostille which would be extra. If you send an email and request the exam option before applying, I doubt that you'll need to pay extra for that option since they gave me the choice for either path with the same price.

[David1477]

I can confirm for you that you can be accepted to ENEB without a Bachelor's since that was the case for me. They only required that if I didn't have a Bachelor's yet that I have 5 years of work experience. Just send them an email before applying detailing your work history and that will be sufficient.

Also, the price of it entirely depends on if they're running discounts/specials or not. I didn't have to pay extra for the exam because I lsigned up when they were offering the 2 Masters with the exam option where the total payment for me was approximately $260. That's of course not counting physical diplomas or Hague Apostille which would be extra. If you send an email and request the exam option before applying, I doubt that you'll need to pay extra for that option since they gave me the choice for either path with the same price.

Thanks for sharing this experience!

So, the exam option is just one final exam for the whole degree, right ?

This would only give me one single grade for all courses. If I want a transcript, that wouldn't work, would it ?

Also, the assignment based masters has something like a 10-20 page paper per course, right ?

The exam option seems sketchy and I believe it would be noticable on the transcript.

[bjcheung77]

Basically...That's another 4 yes's for me, queue Simon for me again! BTW, I didn't do the exam option because it was too 'easy', I also didn't email them beforehand because I didn't know that was an option. Anyways, long story short, I took 3 from them, and then when they had this last special, took another 4.

I've decided not to do the exam, Physical Diploma/Hague Apostille, nor the academic evaluations as these are for filling knowledge and learning gaps I may have in specific industries (they're all management/strategy classes geared for specific industries, it doesn't really teach specific classes in those industries).

[hsufeng]

Actually I don't think that university in EU would accept credits from previous learning. like credits transfer. Unless you study in the same university and get some credits in advance. Maybe few university would accept.... but really few... especially ECTS from isabel 1... Not a good university.

[OtterDen]

Actually I don't think that university in EU would accept credits from previous learning. like credits transfer. Unless you study in the same university and get some credits in advance. Maybe few university would accept.... but really few... especially ECTS from isabel 1... Not a good university.

There are multiple UK (not EU member after Brexit?) universities accept ENEB students into their MBA top-up program. This saves them one year from the originally two year full MBA program. Check out this link: https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/UK...ion_Routes

[nykorn]

Actually I don't think that university in EU would accept credits from previous learning. like credits transfer. Unless you study in the same university and get some credits in advance. Maybe few university would accept.... but really few... especially ECTS from isabel 1... Not a good university.

Not sure about transfer credits, but some universities in the EU accepted ENEB as entrance into Master's (or was it PhD?) studies, I think one was Slovenia but can't remember. It's on the ENEB wiki. Obviously, most countries haven't been tried.

Many countries in Europe don't like accepting ECTS from Spain, it is because Spain is seen as having lower academic standards (apparently they were really bad in education in the 1980s) and part of the issue is that Spanish ECTS are worth less time per hour than ECTS of many other European countries. The other issue is many countries have a law stating that if there is no final thesis (with a thesis defense) then it doesn't count as a degree, regardless of where you got it from.

On top of that, most countries in general don't want to accept any transfer credits from any other country, I couldn't even transfer my credits from Iceland to Sweden and they are both Nordic countries and my credits were for Icelandic language classes! Germany is notorious for not accepting degrees from outside of Germany. And the ranking of the school doesn't matter, your credits are never going to automatically transfer just because they're from a famous school like the University of Tokyo or Harvard, it is an issue with that they deem the curriculum to be different from their own curriculum. It is not simply because it's credits from ENEB or Isabel or that the ranking is good or poor.

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As for the OP's questions:

1. ENEB might or might not ask you for proof of your Bachelor's. If they do ask you can also enter through experience via volunteer work, a portfolio or something else.

2. You can choose to buy a physical copy of the official transcript, which you can get with a notarization and apostille. For most people this is useless, you can just print a digital diploma yourself. In my case I found that some Asian countries want an apostille for visa purposes. If you want a physical diploma, wait to buy it until a holiday sale, they do stuff like Chinese New Years, Black Friday and so on sales.

3. Yes. If you wait for sales you may be able to get it for cheaper than that but they ARE raising their prices every few months overall.

4. Still possible but only with certain foreign credit evaluator services. And the most favorable result is an "accredited Bachelor's degree", all the Master's evaluations are not valid for immigration / visas because they either appear as "unaccredited" or they are "accredited" but the evaluation company itself is not a valid company to use for immigration. If you want to keep this option open, my advice is to get the American foreign credit evaluation as soon as possible from an agency that either does not ever let your results expire, or that lets your results automatically renew (without a new evaluation) if you order a fresh copy of a previous result. The issue is that if the evaluator ever stops evaluating ENEB, you will no longer have any valid non-expired proof that it is worth a degree.

5. The opposite is generally true for the EU. It counts as a degree and no foreign credit evaluation is needed, unlike in outside of the EU. However it is not a degree that is valid for entrance into PhD studies because it does not contain a final thesis with a thesis defense. It is a degree meant for the workforce, not for academia.

It is actually usually harder to get credits to transfer than it is to use a finished degree to get into another school. I have gone to 6 universities and basically none of them accepted transfer credits unless I was transferring in from the same state or prefecture - they all had weird rules like that "Japanese 1" doesn't transfer in to "Japanese: Beginner" despite them using the same exact textbook, or that credits that would have transferred in now don't because I took the courses over 5 years ago.

6. 12 months for 1 ENEB degree. I'm not sure of the price to extend, I think it used to be 60 Euro for 6 months or something like that but that was years ago. Most people who extend just buy a second Master's course and get it extended that way.

7. I was registered for 3 courses. They gave me 3 separate exams, and then they gave me a 4th exam which was all courses put into 1 exam. Most people seem to get 1 exam for all courses. You're correct, each section inside the course is given the same one grade on the transcript if you take the exam. I have never had an employer ever ask to see my transcript. When they have seen it for visa purposes, none have ever said anything about any of my grades, and I even have degrees which are only "pass/fail" and no grade or GPA (so every grade on the transcript simply says "pass"), it has never been an issue.

I have had several interviewers take one glance at my Swedish school's NAME and assume it was a fake school, or employers glanced at my American school's degree DIPLOMA and assumed it was fake because there was no school seal on it and they stamped my degree title on slanted. But none of those guys ever even saw the transcript.

8. Yes there is a paper, but I believe they changed the rules for them recently so I'm not sure how long they have to be now. Some people had been putting in illustrations which took up a lot of space in the page count.

[Jakob]

Actually I don't think that university in EU would accept credits from previous learning. like credits transfer. Unless you study in the same university and get some credits in advance. Maybe few university would accept.... but really few... especially ECTS from isabel 1... Not a good university.

Not sure about transfer credits, but some universities in the EU accepted ENEB as entrance into Master's (or was it PhD?) studies, I think one was Slovenia but can't remember. It's on the ENEB wiki. Obviously, most countries haven't been tried.

Many countries in Europe don't like accepting ECTS from Spain, it is because Spain is seen as having lower academic standards (apparently they were really bad in education in the 1980s) and part of the issue is that Spanish ECTS are worth less time per hour than ECTS of many other European countries. The other issue is many countries have a law stating that if there is no final thesis (with a thesis defense) then it doesn't count as a degree, regardless of where you got it from.

On top of that, most countries in general don't want to accept any transfer credits from any other country, I couldn't even transfer my credits from Iceland to Sweden and they are both Nordic countries and my credits were for Icelandic language classes! Germany is notorious for not accepting degrees from outside of Germany. And the ranking of the school doesn't matter, your credits are never going to automatically transfer just because they're from a famous school like the University of Tokyo or Harvard, it is an issue with that they deem the curriculum to be different from their own curriculum. It is not simply because it's credits from ENEB or Isabel or that the ranking is good or poor.

---

As for the OP's questions:

1. ENEB might or might not ask you for proof of your Bachelor's. If they do ask you can also enter through experience via volunteer work, a portfolio or something else.

2. You can choose to buy a physical copy of the official transcript, which you can get with a notarization and apostille. For most people this is useless, you can just print a digital diploma yourself. In my case I found that some Asian countries want an apostille for visa purposes. If you want a physical diploma, wait to buy it until a holiday sale, they do stuff like Chinese New Years, Black Friday and so on sales.

3. Yes. If you wait for sales you may be able to get it for cheaper than that but they ARE raising their prices every few months overall.

4. Still possible but only with certain foreign credit evaluator services. And the most favorable result is an "accredited Bachelor's degree", all the Master's evaluations are not valid for immigration / visas because they either appear as "unaccredited" or they are "accredited" but the evaluation company itself is not a valid company to use for immigration. If you want to keep this option open, my advice is to get the American foreign credit evaluation as soon as possible from an agency that either does not ever let your results expire, or that lets your results automatically renew (without a new evaluation) if you order a fresh copy of a previous result. The issue is that if the evaluator ever stops evaluating ENEB, you will no longer have any valid non-expired proof that it is worth a degree.

5. The opposite is generally true for the EU. It counts as a degree and no foreign credit evaluation is needed, unlike in outside of the EU. However it is not a degree that is valid for entrance into PhD studies because it does not contain a final thesis with a thesis defense. It is a degree meant for the workforce, not for academia.

It is actually usually harder to get credits to transfer than it is to use a finished degree to get into another school. I have gone to 6 universities and basically none of them accepted transfer credits unless I was transferring in from the same state or prefecture - they all had weird rules like that "Japanese 1" doesn't transfer in to "Japanese: Beginner" despite them using the same exact textbook, or that credits that would have transferred in now don't because I took the courses over 5 years ago.

6. 12 months for 1 ENEB degree. I'm not sure of the price to extend, I think it used to be 60 Euro for 6 months or something like that but that was years ago. Most people who extend just buy a second Master's course and get it extended that way.

7. I was registered for 3 courses. They gave me 3 separate exams, and then they gave me a 4th exam which was all courses put into 1 exam. Most people seem to get 1 exam for all courses. You're correct, each section inside the course is given the same one grade on the transcript if you take the exam. I have never had an employer ever ask to see my transcript. When they have seen it for visa purposes, none have ever said anything about any of my grades, and I even have degrees which are only "pass/fail" and no grade or GPA (so every grade on the transcript simply says "pass"), it has never been an issue.

I have had several interviewers take one glance at my Swedish school's NAME and assume it was a fake school, or employers glanced at my American school's degree DIPLOMA and assumed it was fake because there was no school seal on it and they stamped my degree title on slanted. But none of those guys ever even saw the transcript.

8. Yes there is a paper, but I believe they changed the rules for them recently so I'm not sure how long they have to be now. Some people had been putting in illustrations which took up a lot of space in the page count.

Can you use the ENEB degree as title behind your name? MA Master of Arts? Or not at all?