Int'l Student- New to CLEP, DSST, STRAIGHTERLINE etc- & can't decide

[yaserhu]

Come on Desmond! British education? You mean Scottish, right?

yaserhu, you are taking classes at Heriot-Watt University but I am assuming you now think you will be better off with a US bachelors degree instead of the Executive Certificate or Diploma in Management? If you do decide to apply to a US college then unlike Desmond and myself with our Irish and Scottish high school classes, none of your Canadian high school classes will transfer. I forget whom it was, but another member confirmed this.

I used World Education Services to evaluate my Scottish qualifications and you simply ask them to forward the transcript they create to the US school(s) you wish to apply to. There are others out there though, like Educational Credential Evaluators. In your case the classes you have taken at Heriot-Watt University will be evaluated for their US equivalency and then it is up to the accepting university to decide what they will apply these classes as. The evaluation is not cheap - I paid around $300 but I did have over 100 credits to transfer, although the cost is the same no matter how many classes they evaluate.

You should look at the wiki to start familiarizing yourself with some degree plans and the different ways of getting there. In fact, mbruz just posted a first attempt at a BSBA in Marketing plan yesterday.

You had concerns about Straighterline not holding the same value as other tests but they are taken online using your webcam and a proctor, so they have the same value as any other test. I see there is a CLEP test center in Dubai and several DSST sites too, so you should be good to go with either of those.

Thanks Alba for the info. I am planning to take the US Bachelor now- and continue after that my study towards completeing the rest of the MBA requirements of Heriot Watt. So a US Bachelor degree followed by a UK (Scottish) MBA

When i am ready to consider credit transfer- may be in a month or two from now- i will consult the above contacts or any recommended by the colleges and evaluate whether it's worth trying or not because that $ 300 might save time and effort- although not guaranteed, but i might try. It actually depends on my progress with CLEP or DSST.
Thank you for the links and the new Post that i didn't see before

Yes Amideast is a centre i've been to before- so that's added value

[AlbaTiVo]

Scottish! By the way my Irish High school and my FETAC level 5 courses did not transfer in as any credit. a year wasted?

But your FETAC level 6 did and you had to complete level 5 to get there I need to post a thread so that anyone searching Google can maybe get a hit as I could not find anything on Scottish high school transferring to the US. I ended up with 27 credits for Highers (5th year) and Certificate of Sixth Year Studies (6th Year), which are now called Advanced Highers. They also told me that although they did not transfer, 5 of my 8 Ordinary Grades were the equivalent of a US high school diploma.

[AlbaTiVo]

It sounds like you are on the right track yaserhu. I have a cousin that has lived and taught in Abu Dhabi for years now and he loves it - beautiful part of the world you live in.

[yaserhu]

It sounds like you are on the right track yaserhu. I have a cousin that has lived and taught in Abu Dhabi for years now and he loves it - beautiful part of the world you live in.

Thanks Alba- every place has its pros and cons and you get used to it. But i have to admit it is a very hot place

@ EI2 How come FETAC didn't contribute to credits? Or did they?

[clep3705]

I gave my name, address, and date of birth, nothing else. If you move around a lot, you need to keep track of what addresses you used when.

[EI2HCB]

that's worth noting thank you.


Yasser next step, is to apply to a U.S evaluation agency to have your current education examined and that information forwarded to a College of your choice there are three main evaluation agencies, Each college chooses the one they want to use, e.g Excelsior now only takes evaluations from ECE based in Milwaukee Wisconsin, others will brief you on what other agencies the big three take??? The procedure at Excelsior is changing, The NEW (unannounced) procedure everything changes in July this year is that you supply your documents to ECE and they examine them (takes about 30 days) they then will send them to Excelsior for examination. Excelsior notes receipt and then examines them (another 30 days) they then issue a preliminary review (international students need to take an English test). You then have six months (this may change) to enroll once you do enroll they reexamine your previous qualifications officially and award you credit on your transcript ( Another 30 days ...... I'm waiting right now) Once you have your official transcript you can then begin to use CLEPs and DSST against the requirements of your degree. You can do all the Gen Ed CLEPs and DSSTs and have them apply to your preliminary degree. There is an issue in that certain CELPs and DSST are viewed as duplicate depending on the advisor. There isn't a published policy about which CLEPs are view in this way currently although we may see one in the future.

[yaserhu]

that's worth noting thank you.


Yasser next step, is to apply to a U.S evaluation agency to have your current education examined and that information forwarded to a College of your choice there are three main evaluation agencies, Each college chooses the one they want to use, e.g Excelsior now only takes evaluations from ECE based in Milwaukee Wisconsin, others will brief you on what other agencies the big three take??? The procedure at Excelsior is changing, The NEW (unannounced) procedure everything changes in July this year is that you supply your documents to ECE and they examine them (takes about 30 days) they then will send them to Excelsior for examination. Excelsior notes receipt and then examines them (another 30 days) they then issue a preliminary review (international students need to take an English test). You then have six months (this may change) to enroll once you do enroll they reexamine your previous qualifications officially and award you credit on your transcript ( Another 30 days ...... I'm waiting right now) Once you have your official transcript you can then begin to use CLEPs and DSST against the requirements of your degree. You can do all the Gen Ed CLEPs and DSSTs and have them apply to your preliminary degree. There is an issue in that certain CELPs and DSST are viewed as duplicate depending on the advisor. There isn't a published policy about which CLEPs are view in this way currently although we may see one in the future.

This is very important advise. Then it would be efficient to start applying now and enrolling regardless of the outcome of how many credits will i be awarded, because the process of application and evaluation for International student is already a lengthy one and is likely to get more complicated over the next few months. So i think i am better off applying in June and submitting all necessary documents i do possess now; and as i progress with CLEP or DSST request transcripts to be forwarded to the college

Thanks for this, because i would have been frustrated if i really progressed well on exams but had to wait for a long period of time just for credential evaluation.

I hope i am thinking in the right track