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European education

Old Jun 5th 2004, 4:08 pm
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Default European education

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Last edited by occl; Jul 2nd 2004 at 8:35 pm.
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Old Jun 5th 2004, 4:35 pm
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Default Re: European education

I would not bank on US employers even knowing where Sweden is.. you more have to get you education evalated by a US company and converted to a US qualification level...they are a few... here is one:
www.wes.org
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Old Jun 5th 2004, 7:24 pm
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Originally posted by ray6
I would not bank on US employers even knowing where Sweden is.. you more have to get you education evalated by a US company and converted to a US qualification level...they are a few... here is one:
www.wes.org
Thank you.

Do you think it's necessary to have it translated when it's (the transcript) is written in English and with same terms as educations in the U.S.?

Ola
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Old Jun 5th 2004, 10:03 pm
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Ray6 is not suggesting that your qualification will need translating - he is saying that you may need to have it appraised by a company that specializes in reviewing foreign educational qualifications and providing a report stating what the equivalent US qualification would be.

I don't see that it's worth doing this in advance - if a company feels unsure about your MSBA when you apply for a job they can certainly use such a service to check that your qualifications are appropriate.

At least an MSBA has the same title in the US, unlike GCSEs, O Levels, A Levels etc. from the UK, which US empoyers are guaranteed not to know about.
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Old Jun 5th 2004, 10:20 pm
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Originally posted by dbj1000
Ray6 is not suggesting that your qualification will need translating - he is saying that you may need to have it appraised by a company that specializes in reviewing foreign educational qualifications and providing a report stating what the equivalent US qualification would be.

I don't see that it's worth doing this in advance - if a company feels unsure about your MSBA when you apply for a job they can certainly use such a service to check that your qualifications are appropriate.

At least an MSBA has the same title in the US, unlike GCSEs, O Levels, A Levels etc. from the UK, which US empoyers are guaranteed not to know about.
I see. Do you, or anyone else reading this, know how common it is that employers question European educations and want to do this kind of evaluations?

It would be very sad if my master degree would not be considered a master degree in the U.S., I mean, I've spent time and money on getting a masters and all of a sudden I can say goodbye to jobs requiring master degrees

Thanks once again,
Ola
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Old Jun 5th 2004, 11:36 pm
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Originally posted by occl
I see. Do you, or anyone else reading this, know how common it is that employers question European educations and want to do this kind of evaluations?

It would be very sad if my master degree would not be considered a master degree in the U.S., I mean, I've spent time and money on getting a masters and all of a sudden I can say goodbye to jobs requiring master degrees

Thanks once again,
Ola
Your college degree will be treated like a bachelors qualification. same applies to UK 4 yr bachelors degree, eg. MPharm. MChem, Mbiol. same applies to bachelors degrees from oxbrige that after 1 yrs experience are converted to Masters.

you'd be pushing your luck if you tried to sell it as a masters. get the experience first then later you could get away with calling it a masters.
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Old Jun 6th 2004, 1:32 am
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Originally posted by occl
I see. Do you, or anyone else reading this, know how common it is that employers question European educations and want to do this kind of evaluations?

It would be very sad if my master degree would not be considered a master degree in the U.S., I mean, I've spent time and money on getting a masters and all of a sudden I can say goodbye to jobs requiring master degrees

Thanks once again,
Ola
It depends on your profession. The education evaluation companies that Ray mentioned deal mostly with two types of people.

First students who want to continue their education in the States. The universities will want to know what level of education they have achieved in order to place them in the equivalent year.

The second are people with professional qualificiations which are similar, but rarely exactly the same as the US version. A good example of this would be architects.

From my experience, if you tell a company you have a particular qualification, they will rarely ask for transcripts. But that is just my experience, and I have led a sheltered life
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Old Jun 6th 2004, 11:56 am
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Originally posted by ScousePete
.... From my experience, if you tell a company you have a particular qualification, they will rarely ask for transcripts. But that is just my experience, and I have led a sheltered life.
Mine too, for the two jobs I have had since I came to the US, neither employer asked to see my degree certificate, much less a US evaluation of it, or even asked anything about either my degree or the University I studied at, ..... and my degree is directly relevant to my suitability for the job.
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Old Jun 6th 2004, 1:33 pm
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Pulaski and ScousePete, I'm glad to read your answers. That's exactly what I've heard from others too; they rarely ask for transcripts.

I'm gonna market myself as having a MSBA. That's what it says in my degree and that's the education I have with Swedish standards and hey I got my degree in Sweden not the U.S.

It would not be a lie to this since it says MSBA in the transcript (my school has a very internaitonal image and even issues the transcript in an English version, and on that it says "Master in Science of Business Administration"). If any employer for some reasons want an evaluation, then I might be screwed but there could never be any legal consequences of this.

May I ask what your educations are?

Thanks guys,
Ola
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Old Jun 6th 2004, 1:56 pm
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You wouldn't be "screwed" even if they sent your qualifications for evaluation. Companies are free to decide whether or not they accept the qualifications you have for a particular job.

Ignore Gross and his dire warnings about your course not being equivalent to a Masters - he's just a very bitter little man.

In my case my company had my qualifications professionally evaluated and then exercised their own discretion. My situation was not too different from yours - I took a 3 year Batchelor's degree, then skipped my Masters and enrolled straight into a PhD. Although I have not finished my PhD (and likely never will) my company was more than happy to credit me with a Masters, which was only important when it came to setting my starting salary anyway.

But as Pulaski says, it's not often that a company will actually feel the need to directly evaluate your qualifications - in most cases it's far more important whether they see you as the right person for the job.
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Old Jun 7th 2004, 12:43 am
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Originally posted by dbj1000

Ignore Gross and his dire warnings about your course not being equivalent to a Masters - he's just a very bitter little man.

my comments were based on what i've seen at my place of work.
he can enrol for a PhD directly, but that is another matter.

the main determinant in the US will be if you did the exchange thingy in a grad school or not. if your exchange was in a grad school then you can easily convince employers its a master's. if not, tough luck.
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Old Jun 7th 2004, 2:18 am
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Originally posted by Gross50
my comments were based on what i've seen at my place of work.
he can enrol for a PhD directly, but that is another matter.

the main determinant in the US will be if you did the exchange thingy in a grad school or not. if your exchange was in a grad school then you can easily convince employers its a master's. if not, tough luck.
What? What are you talking about Gross? "Exchange thingy"?

Somehow I don't think you have any first-hand experience of higher degrees. Feel free to flame away and tell me how you earned your Masters from the school of hard knocks though
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Old Jun 7th 2004, 2:48 am
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Originally posted by Gross50
my comments were based on what i've seen at my place of work.
he can enrol for a PhD directly, but that is another matter.

the main determinant in the US will be if you did the exchange thingy in a grad school or not. if your exchange was in a grad school then you can easily convince employers its a master's. if not, tough luck.
What are you basing this on? I work for a college teaching chemistry, and can say any day of the week all US masters degrees, except for a few ivy league places are nothing higher than a UK honours degree. Mainly due to the high emphasis of a taught class, with little or no hands on lab work.

The two systems are highly different and are not easily compared or converted. I would say a Swedish MSBA is easily as good as any ivy league degree.
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Old Jun 7th 2004, 2:52 am
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Originally posted by occl
Pulaski and ScousePete, I'm glad to read your answers. That's exactly what I've heard from others too; they rarely ask for transcripts.

I'm gonna market myself as having a MSBA. That's what it says in my degree and that's the education I have with Swedish standards and hey I got my degree in Sweden not the U.S.

It would not be a lie to this since it says MSBA in the transcript (my school has a very internaitonal image and even issues the transcript in an English version, and on that it says "Master in Science of Business Administration"). If any employer for some reasons want an evaluation, then I might be screwed but there could never be any legal consequences of this.

May I ask what your educations are?

Thanks guys,
Ola
You go ahead Ola, I don't think you will have any problems. Nearly all US employers will be delighted to have a european trained member of staff, those that aren't are simply jealous or feel threatened.

Forget the evaulation, they are shite anyway. WES are a non-regulated and non-accountable independent company, who only offer and i qoute "their best judgement of a qualification". You will pay upwards of $100 for something that is useless. For an employer good references and good experience count many fold more than an 'evaluation' although i hate to call it that.

Good luck!!!!
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Old Jun 7th 2004, 2:57 am
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Originally posted by Muswell Hill


The two systems are highly different and are not easily compared or converted. I would say a Swedish MSBA is easily as good as any ivy league degree.
his question was will US employers consider his qualifications as a graduate degree or a bachelors. nobody has questioned the quality of his qualifications.

dbj, he spent a semester or two in the US. he was an exchange student. i simply asked whether he was a graduate exchange student or undergraduate in a US college.
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