Thursday, July 23, 2009

"We don't accept your credits"

I am currently enrolled with Penn Foster College which is accredited.
UMUC already accepted credits from PFC. Because I am sick of doing everything online I thought I could take advantage of MyCAA and transfer over to UMUC. So I went there told them that I want to get enrolled with them and they told me upfront that they can't accept my credits from Penn Foster because they are not regional accredited. I wanted to know if they are serious because on the Penn Foster Website the UMUC shows up in the list of the Universities that already accepted Credits from them.
They told me they don't have to accept any credits if they do not want to and on top of that they want the GED and TOEFL. I have graduated from school in 1994, went to Vocational School and graduated there in 1995 went on to get the next higher diploma and dropped out later on. However, I have two School Diplomas and they want the GED? What the heck?
Than some woman joined the conversation. She told me that the GED from foreign spouses would not be accepted anymore. I was like "You gotta be kidding me, if that's true I'm going straight to the media. The GED from foreign soldiers is accepted, they don't even have to bring the TOEFL but UMUC would not accept the GED from foreign born spouses? If that's the case that'd be discrimination!"

So they called some other guy asking if it's true that they would not accept the GED from foreign born spouses and he says that they only reject it if you don't bring the TOEFL which is still kind of messed up. Some spanish speaking Soldier with very little English does not have to proof that he is capable to follow College classes but we have to.
Further on they told me that they would have accepted Credits if I had finished German school instead of transferring to an American Online College. I don't get it. They rather accept a foreign degree instead of an American degree? Dang... shouldn't it be the other way around?

I don't get the system, can they really reject any credits you've earned, even though the University/College is accredited? They can make you start from the scratch? If thats true it is the most unfair system I have ever seen in my life!

Long story short, I'm going to use the MyCAA money to finish my German Diploma. It seems like it's the better choice instead of joining UMUC at all!

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4 comments:

Vivienne said...

From what you write, they don't know about their own rules, because they called other persons to have their input. Maybe you just caught somewhat incompetent people?
That you need the GED & TOEFL sounds reasonable as far as I can judge it (considering your mother tongue isn't english and they need some "written proof"), but that they won't accept yours because of your nation is of course discrimination.
Maybe they were also confused with your german schools? just think of the number of diplomas we have and the 'simple' system with the high school. What exactly is your type of school diploma if I may ask?

Don't get too upset, they're not worth it...

Sandra said...

I guess the whole confusion started with the new UMUC catalog. They said the wording is different and that another foreign spouse was not accepted because of it. Later on it turned out that she refused to take the TOEFL because she already had the GED and thought that should be proof enough of her English proficiency.

However, what upsets me is that they said upfront "Oh we don't accept your credits" without even looking at anything at all. They did not ask for any of my diplomas, grades, just told me "Hey, we don't accept credits from Penn Foster..."
Than they showed what kind of mathematics is expected for the GED instead of answering any of my questions that I originally wanted to ask.

I know what I have to do for the GED (if I have to take it), I want to know what kind of classes I have to take if I want to become this or that. I want to know how it works, how long different classes take, how long it usually takes to graduate and this and that.

@Vivienne: When I am done with Penn Foster I have a certificate in Business Administration. The guys at the UMUC office told me that I should take the Certificate first and then go on with the Associates Degree if I'd decide to get enrolled with UMUC.

Sandra said...

This post has been removed by the author.

Sandra said...

@CN Heidelberg: Actually Penn Foster said that UMUC accepted their credits:

http://www.pennfostercollege.edu/transfer-credit.html