lelou

Does any one know if the US high school diploma is equivalent to a Baccalaureate or GCSEs? Or A’ levels? Or something completely different lol.

I cant seem to find the info anywhere HELPPPP

mrsm

I asked a similar question last week - hope this helps a bit

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=185811

ArsNo2

You need official sites to give you exact equivalents, but if this helps the GCSEs are normally taken around the age of 16 - senior school in England lasts from age 11 to 16. Then people tend to go to Sixth Form College where they take 'A' Levels (Highers in Scotland) to get the required grade to enter College or University. That is normally completed by age 18.

My son, aged 11 when we arrived in US Feb 97, was put into your 6th Grade. Following through the US school system he was 18 when finishing with Senior High School i.e. Graduation. Therefore that brings him parrallel with A Level qualification.

Any good?

BritishInOhio

Bollocks, the standard that the kids in the US are at when they graduate high school at 18 is way, way lower than when the UK kids get their A-levels. I think the US kids when they graduate high school are at about GCSE level.
I was helping my sister-in-law with her maths homework last week and she is a senior and I swear I was doing her maths problems at GCSE level.

lelou

Seen as for the US high school diploma they study so many subjects, how many GCSEs would be equal to a High School diploma?

Anyone had any good experience with profesional qualification evalution people? Still have the links?

Thank you for your help so far

Stevie

I used Global Education Inc in Miami Beach. The process was easy (you download application forms from their website) and they were cheaper than some of the competition. They answer the 'phone, which was not true of others I tried. BUT the copy of the report that I asked to be mailed directly to my employer in the US was mailed to me by mistake, which caused a 2 week delay - not good when I'd paid extra for 24 hour processing! The link is http://www.globaledu.com/

I also looked at World Education Services (http://www.wes.org/index.asp?) who have a good website, and you can do most of the application online (you have to mail them documents, of course).

Whoever you use, you'll need notarised copies of all your original documents.

Hope this helps
Stevie

adamfdz

WES who i have used are totally hopeless. They evaluated my degree incorrectly and gave me a low "GPA". I wrote to them and complained and they changed my GPA by a lot. I wrote to the executive director and she told me they use their 'best judgement' when evaluating credentials. It turned out the person doing mine did not know what A-levels were, had no idea about an honours degree.
Really these credentail evaluators are just one more level of beurocratic crap to deal with. They are not worth the paper they are written on and as any Brit will tell you 99% of American "graduates" are really at about a high A-level in reality.
Some employers require an evaluation, but the good ones understand British university degrees, the rest probably think us Brits don't have universities.

BritishInOhio

You would not belive how may HR people have said "ohh I did'nt know you guys had universities over there, how many you got 2 or 3?" Seriously, and these are supposed to be educated, all be it US educated, people. No wounder it is so fustrating finding a job over here!!! Wankers!!

Duncs

How badly did WES cock up? What did they give you as a GPA equiv? A friend of mine who used to be an admissions officer at a major university which deals often with UK degrees told me they rate a UK 2/2 = 3.0-3.5 and 2/1 at 3.5-3.9 with a first as being the equiv of a 4.0. The problem is lots of people here dont understand how 65% can be a high mark as a strong 2/1 in the UK they assume you can get 90% figures but no one ever does in a UK course. No one in the 3 years i was at my Uni got a first and the highest marks i heard of were 72% which was pretty special.

interested in what they did as i am probably going to need to use them myself for my college applications.

regards,

Duncan

Stevie

I was applying for a job at a reputable US University. They took my qualifications seriously and knew what they mean. However, they still required an evaluation for the visa application, which I thought was ridiculous. The report contains more information about the agency employees and their qualifications than it does about me.

Stevie

adamfdz

It pisses me off too. It's as if some think there is nothing else in the world outside the borders of the USA......2 or 3 universities, give me a break!

adamfdz

I was 1% off a first and went to Oxford. They gave me a GPA of 3.11, then upgraded it to 3.69, wankers! When i wrote i said you have no idea how difficult getting into Oxford is, it took 4 A-levels at grade A. The thing is here, that a GPA of 3.69 is good, but not excellent, and that initially pissed me off as i was being compared to dickheads from community colleges with a GPA of 4.0! I had some moron redneck tell me that a 4.0 from the local community college was better than my Oxford GPA, because "we know what the standard is like at the community college, and have no idea what Oxford is like"....seriously, this is the ignorance you will be up against. As a general guide the UK government treat American masters like a good honours BA/B.Sc, an American BA like a pass degree in the UK and the associates like A-levels.
I think it is just out of ignorant spite the way they judge UK degree's.
Anyway, avoid WES like the plague they are seriously inept and useless.

Duncs

Thats bloody terrible a high 2/1 shoud have been more like a 3.9-4.0 at least you are at the top end of the curve there and a 3.69 puts you in the middle. I thought WES might be useless, Americans think they have a wonderful education system but in truth they turn out some ****ing idiots with GPA 3.75 and tell us we dont compare. I am already sick of being told that my three year bachelors in Law LL.B(hons) is not the equiv of a 4 year USA degree because it only took 3 years, even though law is one of the toughest subjects to get into in the UK and i was in the top 10% of A level grades to get a place to read law. Standards have slipped in the UK since i went to Uni but jesus i reckon the UK Govt assessment is about right.

thanks for the advice i will look for a better firm than WES.

regards,

Duncan

adamfdz

There is nothing i can do about it. Their reason why, was all my 1st year courses were either 'pass' or 'fail', and the WES idiots assign a GPA of 2.0 to pass or fail courses for some reason!! Yes, honestly. So even though i had mostly high A's in my individual subjects was awarded the low GPA due to their ineptitude. As i have found with most things educational here, if there isn't a box for the secretrey who looks at my degree to tick on her form, that person is incapable of any lateral thinking. I would suggest looking around for a different 'evaluation' service, in the loosest sense of evaluation as they are all opinions, and sending in a copy of the course syllabus you did.
Hope that helps some more...

AmerLisa

I would have to agree with this. When I first moved over to the UK I brought my then 15 year old daughter who had just finished her first year of high school in California. She was very far behind in everything. She was not prepared to take GCSE anything. I'm not here saying which system is better (already had that debate with British hubby) but its a very different system. A-levels would be more on par with an associates type degree or junior college.