Unimarconi Master via ENEB Thread

[Kalas]

Once it gets to the point of money changing hands this is no longer a strictly ENEB topic. This thread is meant is meant to catalog actual experiences and results from those that are actively pursuing Unimarconi degrees, not to clog it up with infinite speculation and baseless naysaying. If that is why you are here, do it in the ENEB Master Thread. 

I decided to pull the trigger on this and put a deposit down yesterday. I got proper confirmation that my payment was completed this time, unlike my original enrollment which just sent me to a blank page after charging my card. An autoresponder has been set up for the Unimarconi program, which is something I did not get with my ENEB degrees either. The key information from that email is below.

Within the next three days, you will receive an email with the registration form, where you will need to complete your personal information and upload the required documentation.


To speed up the process, please have the following documents ready:

• • • Identification document: ID card, residence card, or passport (front and back).
      
  • Provisional graduation certificate or university diploma.
    • Academic transcript (grade report).
      

️ Important: If you reside outside Europe, both the diploma and the transcript must be apostilled.

This confirms there will be no cost and delay sending physical copies of your documentation to Italy (Italy's postal service makes the USPS look good) and non-European residents (not credentials?) will have to get an apostille. ENEB is supposed to be taking care of sending your ENEB transcripts to Unimarconi so you should only need to do this to prove you have a real undergrad degree.

According to the doomsday clock in one of my emails from ENEB the price was supposed to have risen about 9 hours ago, but as of this posting it has not been changed yet. Prior experience with limited offers from ENEB would suggest it will get pulled in sometime in the next few days. https://eneb.com/accreditationusd/ 

The USD price is actually lower than the euro price this time by a little over $100, so it's probably cheaper to use the USD link even if you're paying in euros. There is an option to pay a deposit now to lock in the price and complete payment before studies begin. If you use the link on the sales page you will pay the higher euro price. This is the proper link to make the down payment at the USD price. https://eneb.com/reservofusd 

Reminder: there is reason to believe WES will evaluate the Unimarconi degree as the equivalent of a US RA Master's degree. https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ne-Courses

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, GCAS and Directors' Institute (a 650k INR online DBA in India) did not respond to inquiries on whether or not this degree would be accepted for entry into their doctoral programs. ENEB claims this will allow entry into all European doctoral programs. If that turns out to be accurate combining Unimarconi with UOC or GCAS would lead to a legitimate European doctorate for under US$10k. Right now my plan is to apply to UOC and GCAS after finishing this degree.

[cacoleman1983]

I think what will likely happen with Unimarconi in terms of Levillo 1 or Levillo 2 award will depend on what the status of the student is when admitted there. They may issue both for ENEB students based on rather or not one comes in with higher than a Bachelors degree. Those who enroll with just a Bachelors degree could have their ENEB work count towards the Master Levillo I while those with an already earned Masters could have their ENEB work count for the Master Levillo 2. It would make sense if this is the case. Either way, if any of the NACES evaluators or other foreign county evaluator equivalency rate these as an accredited Masters, this investment would be worth it for many graduates because both levels are still considered accredited and will be accepted for academic purposes regardless of how it rated in Italy unlike the Spanish propio.

[Kalas]

A PDF of How To Write A Better Thesis by David Evans, Paul Gruba and Justin Zobel is available as a free download. I plan to go through it before starting my Unimarconi program. 

https://x.com/ScholarshipfPhd/status/197...6935857539 

Writing a Scientific-Style Thesis by Dermot Burns is also available free here: 

https://x.com/ScholarshipfPhd/status/197...2342893697

Consider following that account on X if you are interested in graduate studies. From what I've seen there is a lot of useful information there for master's and doctoral studies.

Unimarconi said I would get the link to upload my documents and select which degree to pursue in about 3 days. It came 80some hours after I made the down payment. I find that to be acceptable and within a reasonable margin of error. Not that it matters in my case. I ordered a replacement undergrad degree from the registrar's office and need that to arrive before I get the apostille on it and an official transcript I already had. Plan A is to start on the 15th, hopefully I start on the 1st in a worst-case scenario.

[Kalas]

My replacement undergrad diploma is on the the way. Hopefully it will be here tomorrow or Friday.

Time for another edition of the ENEB gonna ENEB files. It's been a week since I made the down the payment and noticed no one has told me how I'm supposed to pay the $1775 I still owe for the degree. So I ask ENEB. You'll never guess what ENEB said. Go ahead, try. ENEB said "herp derp we no understand the monies ask Hotmart." I poop you not. So I asked Hotmart, apologized for how incredibly absurd this is and asked Hotmart to pass along my farting in ENEB's general direction. We've all had our share of WTF moments with ENEB, but I think this just might be the biggest one. Maybe I could understand not having an answer if I paid 9/1 and wanted to settle up on 9/3, but this is recockulous. ENEB wants my money, right?

[mancheseter24]

Please keep us updated, interested on this as well!

[Kalas]

This is going to be a big update, strap in.

On paying:
After taking a few days to get over the shock of ENEB blaming Hotmart for me not being told how to pay and Hotmart confirming this is an ID10T PEBKAC issue, I asked again on WhatsApp. The WhatsApp response said I will be asked for the final payment after my ID/transcript/diploma have gone through whatever the review process is. We'll see if that holds true. At this rate I might be able to finish the degree without anyone actually asking for the rest of the money! I know, I know, that's not going to happen, but after everything ENEB has put me through over the last couple years it's fun to think about it for a second or two.

On getting the notarization:
Hit the Benny Hill music!

My replacement degree got here late yesterday, after banks were closed. I found there are places you can go and services you can use to have someone show up at your place to do an instant notarization and apostille, but they carry a heavy premium. I was quoted anywhere from $180-220 to get a notarization and apostille from the private sector. If I was in a financial position to use $200 to make something go away because it's slightly inconvenient I probably wouldn't be doing this degree in the first place, would I?

Getting the apostille at the Secretary of State office is much more affordable. According to the website it's $1 per document plus a SASE to have the documents returned. BUUUUT...your documents have to be notarized before you can take them to the SOS (for me anyway, check your state's SOS website to verify price and process). In my state you can only book SOS appointments for apostille on Mondays and Wednesdays, so if I don't want to delay my start date even more I need the notarization now. Off to the library for the only free notary that works after 5PM. That's where it gets "fun."

My library system doesn't even have a notary, but they have some kind of secret librarian notary database to see there is another library 8 miles away that should always have a notary on duty at all times. Great, off I go.

I explain what I need at the front desk and she says she'll go get a notary. What greets me a few minutes later is a Karen with a resting Karen face that is already 90% of the way to being a meme. Sorry I made you put Candy Crush down and do work for 5 minutes. I work in this city so these ARE my tax dollars at work, cry me a fucking river.

So I explain that I need to have my degree and transcript notarized because I need the apostille because the Italians don't trust my American paperwork. In her lengthy monologue that amounted to "durr, me not know" she reveals that they just had training on this YESTERDAY. FML. She goes and asks 2 other notaries and none of them can figure out how they are supposed to notarize a document so it can be apostilled. Eventually they come to the conclusion that they can make a copy of the documents and notarize it as a true copy which sounded kinda sorta familiar from somewhere. Fine, let's do that. As long as Unimarconi accepts that I went to college I don't care. Since we're talking about printing something at a public library (that usually costs money) I mention that I didn't bring any money with me and ask if I need to come back. She says no, it's fine.

So we scan my diploma and transcript, print it and I write a bunch of stuff on it. She rambles about nothing and then mentions it'll be $10 for the notarization and keeps talking and I'm thinking "Notaries are always free at banks and libraries WTF?!?!" When finishing with both of the documents she again stresses that the notary is $10 and to come to the front desk before I leave.

Well, I still didn't bring any money, and I'm pissed that there is a charge for this on principle. I expect the notary to be free at a library the same way I expect borrowing books to be free if I bring them back on time. But I want to get this moving, so fine. I go to the desk, point out again that I didn't bring any money with me and offer to leave the notarized documents here until I come back with cash. Presumably because there were other people at the front desk she tells me it's fine and quickly shoos me out of there. So this Karen that makes 80 grand of my tax dollars to play Candy Crush in the back just tried to shake me down for $10 because I made her do work for a few minutes?!?!?!?  Whaaaat the fuuuuuuuuuck?!?!

The things I do to save 8 grand on a degree. My recommendation is go to a bank where you are more likely to encounter a competent notary that won't try to get money out of you when no one is looking. 

To the Secretary of State

I get an appointment 20 minutes after the place opens and they're still 20 mins late seeing me. More of my tax dollars hard at work. The lady at SOS that clearly doesn't care at all needs to be told that the 3 pages of my transcript that still look like they're on some weird kind of check paper despite being copies are one document. I'm not even surprised anymore. But then something good happens! Instead of taking my documents and expecting me to have a SASE for return shipping (which I actually brought with me) she did the apostille right there in about 2 minutes! Naturally, the winning streak stops at one. Putting the first page first is too hard for a government employee so now I have the gold official seal and staple making page 2 the first page of my transcript. It's like she's trolling me on purpose. Total cost: $2 for the apostille and almost $4 in stamps wasted on the SASE unless they decide to peel off. Throw in about 30 miles of driving it came to about $10 and 2 hours vs. $180+.

To the ENEBmobile

I get back, scan everything and get ready to upload it. Oh, but I can't upload more than 1 file for the diploma and transcript. Come on now. You guys wanted the apostille so that means it's at least 2 pages no matter what. Find something to combine them into one file online, fine, moving on.  Reenter a bunch of information ENEB already has and things that are supposed to be done for me automatically through the incredible power of the ENEB/Unimarconi Superfriends Team-Up (or so the email said)...and then I am asked for my Birth Population. My WHAT? Yes, my Birth Population. Was I born as conjoined triplets and eat my brothers as a toddler? WTF? It was asked after DOB and wouldn't take numbers so I put city of birth in it, no idea if that's what they wanted or not. Keep going and now I require the name of the University Directorate. Do you mean the president? I didn't even know who that was when I went there. Why the hell would they care about that anyway? It wanted letters so I put my majors in it. Again, no idea if that was what they wanted or not. 

No. Clearly, the answer to that question is no. 

The sales page said I could start on any date from the 1st-15th, but on the website it only asked which month I wanted to start. I said November. The way this page worded it I got the impression you could ONLY start on the 15th of the month you pick. We'll see, I have no idea what Engrish to believe anymore.

On further studies:
Looking at local universities (well, not local local, but less than an hour drive) there are fully-funded programs in math, physics and CIS (which can basically be done as Data Science with 3 electives and a second comprehensive exam from what I read). So I start brainstorming ideas for topics I can use for a Big Data thesis that could naturally transition into any of these fields. After a couple hours I have some ideas (and probably 20,000 pages to read for the literature review T_T). Then I start thinking I better make sure I CAN do this, because this is ENEB we're talking about. 

I asked ENEB via WhatsApp if there was a process I need to go through to have someone at Unimarconi sign off on my research, especially since something that intersects 3 STEM fields is going to require some work on the part of the supervisor. Without giving a direct answer (which should always be interpreted as "blow it out your ass") I was told it is "a practical case study, very similar to the projects in ENEB's programmes." That is one of the most Orwellian non-answers to a direct question I have ever seen in my life and gives no confidence that I will be writing something with any utility beyond getting the degree. It's a level 7 degree so you should still be able to use it to get into doctoral programs at open universities in Europe, but you should plan on getting a couple papers published on your own if you're applying to a doctoral program that can say no. I'm choosing to look at it as an opportunity to show doctoral programs how much I have surpassed (will have had surpassed if you're going to be Grammar National Socialist about it) Unimarconi's Level 7 education.

This is still a cheap upgrade for minimal work if you already have the ENEB degree. I can't see any reason to do the Unimarconi MBA over SMC's unless you're just using it to get into UOC or want to try your luck with another cheap doctorate ASAP. If you need a master in Sales Leadership or HR for a promotion/raise this would probably fit the bill with minimal work. I have no idea if a doctorate in HR means more money but I'd be surprised if a doctorate in Sales Leadership is even a thing. Making money and moving up in sales comes from generating money, not from degrees.

The price not going up yet makes me think ENEB isn't selling as many of these as they hoped, making me think it's more likely that people already in will be offered an upgrade path to a Livello 2 or doctorate at a reasonable price for Black Friday. That is entirely speculation on my part and has not been mentioned by anyone at ENEB or Unimarconi.

[PearsonOTHMQualifi7654]

Thank you for this update!

Thoughts:

• The government employees and tax dollar comments are hilarious.
  
• Apostilled pages out of order has happened to me as well in the past. Glad it was not a one off. 
  
• Adobe does let us combine multiple PDFs into 1, although recently I have found this feature to have changed and is super cumbersome than it was just a few months ago.
  
• Unimarconi diplomas I have seen, state the student's place of birth, "(Name of Student), born in (name of city), (name of country)". - That's probably what "Birth Population" refers to.
  
• The name of the University directorate, maybe they'd be happy with the name of the Dean (or "Rector")?
  
• I noticed the clever use of "National Socialist" instead of the other four-letter word for it. (I've found that most people don't know "National Socialist Party" was the full name that is known in the four-letter format).
  

As for the thesis, I think it's a plus to take it very seriously for future admission to a doctorate program.  My impression from the campaign is that the theis is more of a business oriented project, so they are not pressing students to do super critical in-depth research.  However, I think that the way you are approaching it is only going to help one excel in formulating a thesis, so that when you are eventually doing the doctoral dissertation, it's on familiar ground.

As I am now working through the UNISEB process, and completing my round of Bachelor's degree(s), I am getting a taste of what an "ENEB upgrade" feels like.

I realized that I do want to eventually do this academic transfer to Unimarconi and call that master's, a master in "Strategic Marketing" instead of "Sales Leadership and Strategic Marketing".  Reason being, I am in already in sales. Sales results tend to send a strong message on CVs and speak for themselves, more than degrees. 

What I have done at ENEB, would then turn into something like this:

ENEB - Master of Team Management and Leadership  ----> Unimarconi Master 1 Livello, Strategic Marketing
ENEB MBA + Master in Financial Markets and Asset Management ----> UNISEB Titulo Propio Master, Business Administration
If UNISEB ever convalidated the Financial Markets and Asset Management part to one of their current degree programs -----> UNISEB Titulo Propio Master, Finance and Markets

[Kalas]

It's been two full business days in Spain since I submitted my docs and nothing from ENEB/Unimarconi yet. I'm assuming they'll say something if my attempts to decode the Engrish were wrong. If you're going to make me read nonsensical Engrish, at least have the decency to make it funny.


Dream on tiny grass. Dream on.

It is curious that cheaper European degrees feel the need to have at least two areas of study. 11 out of the 14 degrees ENEB has now have at least two areas of study. I remember most/all of the degrees that were cut having two areas of focus, like Business and Something Else Communication or Management and Team Management. 8 of Unimarconi's 12 degrees not in this offer have at least 2 areas of study, and 2 of the 4 that don't are both MBAs. Throw the ENEB collab degrees in and it goes to 12 of 16.

A couple years ago I got on a propio kick and went around the net looking for other schools like ENEB that might offer a high return per dollar spent after finding the right evaluator. I don't remember which school, but I saw a "master's degree" in financial, computational and some other kind of mathematics that claimed 12 ECTS. So that's not even one real class in each type of math the degree covers? It's almost like the chintzier the degree gets the more names of things have to be crammed into it to overhype its value. At least in the case of UOC's doctorates they are supposed to be interdisciplinary areas of study so a list of things they encompass is unavoidable. It's not like there is one word that means law, political science and economics. I'd rather have my Unimarconi degree say Big Data or Analytics than Applied Big Data and Analytics.

I'm finding out it's a lot easier to say I'm going to write a semi-useful interdisciplinary paper that could pass for a master's thesis and use that to get into a fully funded doctoral program than it is to actually write it. Shocking, I know. I got 88 pages into this book on statistical learning and, while I did not come across a single word I did not know, I had no idea what anything I read actually meant. So I asked my old buddy MechaGrok to recommend some books that would help me understand book 1 of the 30 I was planning on using for this paper. I got a list of 14 massive books with the shortest one being 800some pages.   Uncle told me there'd be days like this and I didn't believe him.

My optimistic/delusional plan was to knock out this paper and the Unimarconi paper by the end of the year and try to start the fully funded programs in the spring (application deadlines are for ze weak!) but that is seeming less and less plausible. Even if I put all of my energy into writing a thesis-like paper, and considering that I'm probably going to have to teach myself at least a few 300 and 400 level math and physics undergrad classes along the way, I'd be a marginal candidate applying to programs with acceptance rates in the 5-40% range, depending on how many people apply and the available funding each year. 

Maybe it would make more sense to plead sincerity and legitimate academic interest in the GCAS interview, do the Mathematical Sciences PhD there and then apply to the American schools to build on doctoral research I have already done. The GCAS program is supposed to take three years. As I'm thinking out loud I'm putting one more year into finishing a doctorate (if I can find a way to get in with the Unimarconi degree) than I would by making myself a marginal candidate with a statistical probability of success under a coin flip. I also have no idea if they would hold my "amateur" research done on my own with no faculty support against me for not meeting some standard I don't know exists or if they would be pleased by the initiative. Probably some combination of both. At least they wouldn't be able to say this 40something guy is just going to quit anyway once he realizes how much work it is and/or he just wants easy access to scantily clad co-eds. As one of my profs pointed out during my undergrad, co-eds wearing almost no clothing is supposed to be one of the perks (economics was 100% sausage party all four years), but it's not enough if your heart isn't already into it.

I'm hoping I'll be able to the get the paper for Unimarconi done within a month once I find out what I need to do. I did the exams at ENEB because the contrived case studies sucked the life out of me and made my eyes glaze over. To say nothing of finding scholarly articles to back up points that are obvious. For example, due to this company's entire talent pool being comprised of two women, if they don't know how to do something some other company has to be contracted to do it and it will cost money. How am I supposed to find a scholarly article that says something so obvious? Oh, I better not be "lazy" and put that in a paragraph like someone with a middle school reading level, better use some silly infographic that was in the ENEB textbook instead or the rubric that leaked said I should lose points for writing like an adult. I'm tempted to have a bot do it with a bunch of sources that don't exist just to see if anyone actually reads it.   Like ENEB not asking for the rest of the money, it's fun to think about it for a couple seconds before accepting the absurdity of the premise and moving on.

I know Pearson is in the middle of a couple different things and other people were thinking about doing it in a few months. As a reminder, you have 1 year to start after paying the deposit. While they don't always go away when ENEB said they will the first time, historically all offers for non-ENEB degrees have seen price increases and/or ceased to exist. We're 2 weeks away from ENEB's Black November. The promised price increase to $3300 actually happening on Nov. 1 followed by 20 emails hyping a "sale" that is higher than the current price would fit ENEB's historical pattern for outside degrees. Be comfortable with the risk of paying an extra grand if you're waiting to see how things go with me. I would expect the price to be higher or for the opportunity to be gone by the time I write the paper, get it accepted by Unimarconi, do the comprehensive exam, wait who knows how long for that to get put into a database so my degree/transcript can be issued and get an evaluation from WES.

[PearsonOTHMQualifi7654]

Well, I have done it. 

Kalas mentioned how "historically all offers for Non-ENEB degrees have seen price increases and/or ceased to exist" - Fact
On the ENEB webpage today, there's no mention of these Accredited Master's - Fact (the pages still exist, they just aren't displayed any longer)

I decided to move ahead with the upgrade

I see this is a way to get closure to my ENEB experience. The UNISEB Validation for the Business Administration part from ENEB, and then upgrading the remainder from the MBA + Financial Markets and Asset Management, and the Team Management and Leadership modules, to a Unimarconi Master di Livello 1, is how I would like to reconcile all of this. From all of the previous ENEB coursework, only 7 modules directly line up with the Unimarconi Livello 1 anyway, so I am not exactly losing anything.

ENEB MBA + Master in Financial Markets and Asset Management ----> UNISEB - Titulo Propio Master, Business Administration
ENEB - Master of Team Management and Leadership  ----> Unimarconi - Master di 1 Livello, Sales Leadership and Strategic Marketing

Summmary

1. The ENEB Diplomas are supported with Ui1 Diplomas, which certify the ECTS for the hours and the specialization. 
   
2. UNISEB promises a titulo propio degree that is issued by Ui1 instead of a university certification, and is valid for 15 ECTS transfer to Official programs (Depending on the Receiving University)
   
3. Unimarconi Academic Transfer is to attain an accredited, official master's degree that is recognized by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR)
   

As I will have a full UK MBA next year, I don't need to rely on this transfer for further study. 
Besides, my doctoral studies will not be in business. I will go back and do a Master's in a different field before I pursue a doctorate.

[PearsonOTHMQualifi7654]

After making the payment arrangement last Friday, I received an email today from Academy@eneb.com to register for the Unimarconi degree program.

I uploaded the Bachelor's degree and transcript. They wanted a passport or an ID *Front and Back).  As a passport is inside a booklet, I don't know why they are asking for a front and back. I decided to upload a driver's license (front and back) instead, as it has my abbreviated middle initial, and so it matches up with all my other educational documents.

The page does not allow more than two files for the ID section. I didn't get to upload my passport. I even scanned the front and back cover for good measure, but I didn't get to use it.

I then completed the registration form and chose the degree program as well as the starting month.

For "Birth Population", I put the city I was born in.  
For "Final Note" in the degree section, I put "First Division" for the final grade average
For University Directorate, I put the name of the School Director/Dean

As for the apostille that was supposedly required for the degree and transcript, apparently it is necessary if the degree was completed outside of the EU.
My degree was completed from an institution within the EU.  Interestingly the landing page however, wanted to know my location.

As I am an American, maybe they'll want an apostille regardless. I will deal with that if it comes up.
I got to choose the "Call" I chose November as the next available cohort.

Looking forward to completing this degree, as I am doing both Unimarconi and UNISEB.