It's a good school, really!
September 27, 2007 5:37 PM   Subscribe

How can I prove to the Feds that my British university is actually a good one?

I am applying for some government jobs on usajobs.gov, and want to qualify based on education. I spent my junior year of college abroad at the University of Bristol, in England.


"*To qualify based on education, submit copy of transcript or list of courses with credit hours, major(s), and grade-point average or class ranking. Application materials will not be returned. You can receive credit for education received outside the United States if you provide evidence that it is comparable to an accredited educational institution in the United States when you apply."

Does anyone have experience with this? How much proof do they need? Should I just include a link to the University website and a wikipedia excerpt or something?

Thanks!
posted by allen8219 to Work & Money (9 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Someone at the school that you graduated from can probably take care of this. At my school it was the office of the Vice President (Academic).
posted by winston at 5:44 PM on September 27, 2007


If it's just one year spent abroad and you got a degree from the US, I wouldn't think you need to do anything to prove the credentials.
posted by acoutu at 5:50 PM on September 27, 2007


Response by poster: @winston, So it was the Academic VP at your American school that did it? Did they send a letter or something?

I am looking for something I could include in an online application, or really more like a bajillion online applications, as I am casting a pretty wide net with this job search...
posted by allen8219 at 5:59 PM on September 27, 2007


Best answer: Aren't the credits effectively transferred to the institution that gave you your degree?

In any case no, I don't think printing out a Wikipedia page will impress anyone. (The opposite in my opinion.) Look into the international accreditations of the institution.
posted by loiseau at 6:21 PM on September 27, 2007


Did the credit transfer to your US uni? if so, don't worry.
posted by k8t at 6:38 PM on September 27, 2007


There are transcript translation/validation services you can use. You pay them something like $150 and then they give you a nice little certificate saying that the UK actually has those crazy universities just like us and they translate your grades (horrendously). I used these people. I know when I was applying to law school there was one other acceptable company, but I can't remember who.
posted by whoaali at 6:42 PM on September 27, 2007


Best answer: The key is accredited. Is the program you took classes from accredited? You could call both Bristol and your US school to find this out.
posted by garlic at 8:21 PM on September 27, 2007


Best answer: It seems to me that this is really aimed at people who have qualifications fully completed at a foreign university.

In your case, if your degree was issued by your local university and you can put LLB (Harvard) or BSc (UCLA) or whatever after your name, then it's all OK, it's all been taken care of already. This would mean that the study at Bristol was credited directly into your degree and the accreditation work has already been done, by your local university, and what you really have is a degree from your local university.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 9:15 PM on September 27, 2007


15 years ago when I needed to start a masters at a US university, I wrote to my undergraduate institution in the UK -- the University of Bristol -- and they provided me with a letter certifying my qualifications, their accreditation, and the equivalence of the degree to a US undergraduate degree. They do it quite a lot I would imagine.
posted by idb at 6:13 AM on September 28, 2007


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