College Education in the US
 

Can anyone tell me if the US College system has a procedure in place for "Mature" applicants? As in people who are over 25?

For instance, if you are applying to a university in the UK and are a Mature Student, you don't have to have the same school qualifications as a fresh out of school person. It depends more on life experience, etc. You still have to take a few exams or whatever to get into the uni, but essentially its different.

Can anyone give advice on this?

Re: College Education in the US
 

    >Subject: College Education in the US
    >From: ukbritguyusa [email protected]
    >Date: 2/6/03 7:04 PM Eastern Standard Time
    >Message-id:
    >Can anyone tell me if the US College system has a procedure in place for
    >"Mature" applicants? As in people who are over 25?
    >For instance, if you are applying to a university in the UK and are a
    >Mature Student, you don't have to have the same school qualifications as
    >a fresh out of school person. It depends more on life experience, etc.
    >You still have to take a few exams or whatever to get into the uni, but
    >essentially its different.
    >Can anyone give advice on this?

A student is a student is a student. Only academic qualifications count. ie,
if you want a master's degree in history, you will need a bachelor's degree in
history. Perhaps exceptions can be made, eg, if you had a bachelor's in
say--archaeology, but you would need a bachelor's degree nonetheless...

Re: College Education in the US
 

"ukbritguyusa" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

    > Can anyone tell me if the US College system has a procedure in place for
    > "Mature" applicants? As in people who are over 25?
    > For instance, if you are applying to a university in the UK and are a
    > Mature Student, you don't have to have the same school qualifications as
    > a fresh out of school person. It depends more on life experience, etc.
    > You still have to take a few exams or whatever to get into the uni, but
    > essentially its different.
    > Can anyone give advice on this?

You will find all kinds of college and university admissions procedures in
the U.S., a huge variety. Generally, age is not a factor. I think you will
have to check them out one by one:

http://www.utexas.edu/world/univ/state/
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/cc/

At most community colleges, requirements for admission include not much more
than high school graduation or the equivalent. No examinations are
generally required, except for somthing like TOEFL for international
students.

I've actually been considering doing my Masters, or another Batchelors here (NY) too eventually, (I studied in England) and am in the same 'mature student' boat. It was interesting to hear how varied the requirements are across the country. I often worried that they wouldnt recognise my college and university qualifications, because they were foreign.

Re: College Education in the US
 

    >Subject: Re: College Education in the US
    >From: nathan barley [email protected]
    >Date: 2/6/03 9:30 PM Eastern Standard Time
    >Message-id:
    >I've actually been considering doing my Masters, or another Batchelors
    >here (NY) too eventually, (I studied in England) and am in the same
    >'mature student' boat. It was interesting to hear how varied the
    >requirements are across the country. I often worried that they
    >wouldnt recognise my college and university qualifications, because
    >they were foreign.

Ain't technology great? these days you could probably email the univ of your
choice and ask. Best thing is to get in touch with someone on the admissions
committee in the dept of choice. It could be that they may take you into the
Master's program directly or recommend that you take 2-3 courses before you can
be admitted. Schools are flexible that way. Just depends on which one it
is...you may have to go through the nonsense of the GRE, etc...but being
edjumacated in England, you would not take the TOEFL (which is the most absurd,
IMHO)

Re: College Education in the US
 

nathan barley wrote:
    > I've actually been considering doing my Masters, or another Batchelors
    > here (NY) too eventually, (I studied in England) and am in the same
    > 'mature student' boat. It was interesting to hear how varied the
    > requirements are across the country. I often worried that they
    > wouldnt recognise my college and university qualifications, because
    > they were foreign.

Universities know about degrees from foreign universities and they
know how to handle them. There are a lot of people from other countries
here getting a Masters or a PhD. So that shouldn't be a problem.

-Joe

You will still have to show you studied at a University in the UK. I went to Oxford, and had to have my degree "evaluated" by a "foreign degree verification person". Apparantly, Oxford was not a place they were familiar with, and i was asked where in Australia it was?
Still, most of us 'Aliens' be edumacated.

Re: College Education in the US
 

On 07 Feb 2003 01:09:43 GMT, [email protected] (Hnchoksi) wrote:

    >>Subject: College Education in the US
    >>From: ukbritguyusa [email protected]
    >>Date: 2/6/03 7:04 PM Eastern Standard Time
    >>Message-id:
    >>Can anyone tell me if the US College system has a procedure in place for
    >>"Mature" applicants? As in people who are over 25?
    >>For instance, if you are applying to a university in the UK and are a
    >>Mature Student, you don't have to have the same school qualifications as
    >>a fresh out of school person. It depends more on life experience, etc.
    >>You still have to take a few exams or whatever to get into the uni, but
    >>essentially its different.
    >>Can anyone give advice on this?
    > A student is a student is a student. Only academic qualifications count. ie,
    >if you want a master's degree in history, you will need a bachelor's degree in
    >history. Perhaps exceptions can be made, eg, if you had a bachelor's in
    >say--archaeology, but you would need a bachelor's degree nonetheless...

Probably you need a BS, but I have seen people with BS in Education
admitted the MS in Engineering, and lots of MS students in Computer
Science have BSs in other areas (which is part of the problem).

Re: College Education in the US
 

X-No-Archive: Yes

On Fri, 07 Feb 2003 16:45:25 +0000, adamfdz
wrote:
    > i was asked where in Australia it was?

I always thought Oxford was in Maryland, USA
(http://www.baydreaming.com/oxford.htm).
What a surprise to know there is another
Oxford in South America!

Re: College Education in the US
 

"adamfdz" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > You will still have to show you studied at a University in the UK. I
    > went to Oxford, and had to have my degree "evaluated" by a "foreign
    > degree verification person".

Most large universities have credential evaluation specialists in their
admissions departments. Some smaller places may require that you get an
independent credential evaluation from an agency. Someone has to make the
decision about the equivalence of the academic program, as educational
systems around the world vary quite a bit.

Apparantly, Oxford was not a place they
    > were familiar with, and i was asked where in Australia it was?

Who asked you that? It makes one wonder about the school.

    > Still, most of us 'Aliens' be edumacated.

    > Originally posted by nathan barley

    > I've actually been considering doing my Masters, or another Batchelors
    > here (NY) too eventually, (I studied in England) and am in the same
    > 'mature student' boat. It was interesting to hear how varied the
    > requirements are across the country. I often worried that they wouldnt
    > recognise my college and university qualifications, because they were
    > foreign.

I looked at various university courses and, apart from some very dubious private unis who will take anyone if they pay enough, you have to show at least the equivalent of a high school diploma to be accepted for a Bachelor's course of study, for a Masters you will need to have completed a Bachelor degree. You can have your professional qualifications, O and A levels, or GCSE's etc evaluated by one of the many foreign credential evaluation services, generally you will need a minimum of 2 A levels and 5 O levels (sorry don't know the "modern" equivalents). Be very wary of any that offer you entry based on life skills, they may not have proper academic accreditation and the ultimate degree may not be worth the huge amount of money they will charge you.

Re: College Education in the US
 

steppke wrote in
news:[email protected]:

    >
    > I looked at various university courses and, apart from some very dubious
    > private unis who will take anyone if they pay enough, you have to show
    > at least the equivalent of a high school diploma to be accepted for a
    > Bachelor's course of study, for a Masters you will need to have
    > completed a Bachelor degree. You can have your professional
    > qualifications, O and A levels, or GCSE's etc evaluated by one of the
    > many foreign credential evaluation services, generally you will need a
    > minimum of 2 A levels and 5 O levels (sorry don't know the "modern"
    > equivalents). Be very wary of any that offer you entry based on life
    > skills, they may not have proper academic accreditation and the ultimate
    > degree may not be worth the huge amount of money they will charge you.
    >
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com
    >

I have a Bachelors degree from the UK, and I've never had anyone question
it over here, although I think I would have to have it evaluated if I
wanted to do a higher degree. My wife on the other hand, isn't a college
graduate, and she paid ETS a largish sum to have them evaluate her
qualifications. They only gave 10 credits for each of her 2 A-levels and
nothing atall for her half-completed registered nurse training. We were
not very happy with that, especially as a friend of mine got 20 credits
for each A-level from the US Dept of Ed, back in the days when they used
to do evaluations themselves, before it was turned over to private
agencies. We asked the Dept of Ed, but they told us that there was nothing
we could do except try a different agency and pay all over again, which we
didn't do. They did give us a photocopy of part of a book, which did
suggest that A-levels should be worth 20 credits each, and not just 10. I
wonder if anyone else has any comments?

Re: College Education in the US
 

i got my bech. degree evaluated from WES www.wes.org for 125 dollars. I was granted 96 credit hours with 3.96 overall GPA against my degree. and that evaluation is accepted here

Re: College Education in the US
 

There is also organizations you can mail your transcripts to, a small fee,
and they will mail you transcripts valid for whatever school you are
applying to. I know about this because a friend of mine transfered to school
here, and they only recognized like 20 of 60 credits, so she sent her
transcripts to this place and they gave her more credits. I have no clue
about the name of the place though.


"Joachim Feise" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > nathan barley wrote:
    > > I've actually been considering doing my Masters, or another Batchelors
    > > here (NY) too eventually, (I studied in England) and am in the same
    > > 'mature student' boat. It was interesting to hear how varied the
    > > requirements are across the country. I often worried that they
    > > wouldnt recognise my college and university qualifications, because
    > > they were foreign.
    > Universities know about degrees from foreign universities and they
    > know how to handle them. There are a lot of people from other countries
    > here getting a Masters or a PhD. So that shouldn't be a problem.
    > -Joe

I live in New Jersey and have been investigating returning to college as a mature student. I've discovered that one of the private universities, "Bloomfield College" in the New York metropolitan area (15 miles West of Manhatten) *does* encourage what is termed for mature students here as "adult learners" and will take into account and award "Credit For Life Experience" as do many British higher education colleges.

Unfortunately, the college itself does not award scholarships or grants to international students, you normally have to be resident for at least a year in the US as a non-student to qualify; however there may be other awards, grants or scholarships available from other sources - perhaps the college can give info in this regard.
Look up "Adult Learners" & click on "We can help you attain your goals" here:

http://www.bloomfield.edu

To get your GCSE's/"O" Levels evaluated, you can do it via:

http://www.wes.org

Hope this helps.

That was exactly the sort of reply I was looking for, thanks for that.

In the UK, all you have to do to try and get a university place is to take a year long "Access" Course or retake some A-Levels. It seems to be easier to enter Higher Education in the UK than in the US? Is that fair to say?

I will let you know what I find on the website you suggested.

Thanks again.

Re: College Education in the US
 

"ukbritguyusa" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

    > That was exactly the sort of reply I was looking for, thanks for that.
    > In the UK, all you have to do to try and get a university place is to
    > take a year long "Access" Course or retake some A-Levels. It seems to
    > be easier to enter Higher Education in the UK than in the US? Is that
    > fair to say?

It depends on what your question actually is. First, what does "easier"
mean? Does it refer at all to funding, or paperwork? That would certainly
make a difference for a U.K. person. Let's assume you are speaking purely
of academic qualification.

Is it easier for a U.K. citizen to enter higher education in the U.K. than
for a U.S. citizen to enter higher education in the U.S.?

I doubt it. There are many colleges in the U.S. that will accept entering
students with a high school diploma, or even without a high school diploma,
just a G.E.D. or other test of equivalency. There is no such thing as an
"Access" course, simply to enter higher education. I have never heard of a
school requesting more from an applicant because the high school diploma is,
let's say, 30 years old. (In fact, high school education was probably
better 30 years ago than today.)

Of course, these colleges may not be of the quality that you really want.
The more competitive colleges require SAT scores, letter of recommendation,
etc.

Is it easier for a U.K. citizen to enter higher education in the U.K. than
for a U.K. citizen to enter higher education in the U.S.?

Maybe. However, the differences will have to do with establishing high
school graduation equivalence to the satisfaction of the school's admissions
office.

College in the USA
 

Hmmmm. you haven't also registered at UKMancoll have you?

Here are some links to get help towards course fees & scholarships in the US:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/2001/11...holarships.htm

This one here might be more useful to you: have you heard of the Fullbright Commission, which is like an educational exchange programme for UK/US students. Also links to student work placements in the US:

http://www.fullbright.co.uk

Hope this helps!

If not, do a UK Access course then train to be a teacher, better still - nurse, Occupational Therapist or Speech Therapist. The NHS pays for the course fees. You will easily find a sponsor in the USA, Canada, Oz, NZ as there is a worldwide shortage with an ageing population. See for example:

http://www.cot.org.uk (Once you have been sponsored & get your Green Card you can change career!).