G'day Everyone,

I am a newcomer to the forum and thought I'd take the time to introduce myself after spending the last week lurking around picking up all sorts of great tips from the many helpful threads and members.

I recently moved to the US from Australia with my US born wife and have spent the last two years getting my permanent residency status in order. Now that that has been taken care of I need to concentrate on furthering my education. Although I am currently employed fulltime in a good position with a large company I have found that future prospects are limited without a degree. So, at the age of 40+ and having been out of school for over 20 years I find that I am studying again.

That is not to say that I ever stopped studying. I have a Diploma of Business - Frontline Management and a Diploma of Training and Assessment Systems through the Australian education system. Unfortunately I have found that these qualifications do not translate directly to anything recognizable in the US. They do assist with the portfolio submissions I need to make but I have found that without a degree from a US College employers and potential employers do not put a lot of weight on what I currently have.

So to make a long story short, I have formulated a plan and expect to spend quite a bit of time at IC and the forum. I will try not to ask too many dumb questions but it is amazing how much people take for granted. For instance, when I got my drivers license over here I was told that most 6th graders could pass the written test yet I had to study for it and forget a lot of what I had learned and been doing over the last 25 years. So not having gone through the US education system and not having lived it my entire life I feel that a lot of what would be common knowledge to the average citizen will remain foreign to me. So please be gentle when I do ask what may seem to be obvious to everyone else.

Well that is my story so far. I will share with you my progress as I take this journey and look forward to spending time here at the forum.

Regards

__________________
Ron

Excelsior-BS Operations Management

Completed:
Excelsior Courses - 4 - 3 "A"s and 1 "P" - 10 Credits (3 UL)
CLEP Exams - 14 - 14 "P"s - 57 Credits
DANTES Exams - 5 - 5 "A"s - 15 Credits (3 UL)
APICS Exams - 5 - 5 "P"s - 15 Credits (12 UL)
Certiport (MOS+IC3) - 8 - 8 "P"s - 8 Credits

Welcome Ron to Instantcert and the United States, we are all glad to have you! Ask any questions you want, no matter how you feel about them, there are no dumb questions. Let us know how you are doing along your journey, we care. Good luck with your studies. We all look forward to hearing from you.

__________________
Dawn
Taking the Road Less Traveled
The Journey of A Thousand Miles Starts with The First CLEP
BS-Psychology - Excelsior College
Enrolled in the School of Business, BS in Accounting
After MIS I'll be halfway there!
72 CLEP Credits, 21 DSST Credits, 25 ECE Credits (Including Inf Lit), 6 TESC Credits, 2 FEMA Credits = 126 Total
Withholding 6 Credits for Accounting = 120 for Psychology
12 credits completed toward my accounting degree

Ron,

First of all, WELCOME to IC! As they say down under, "good on ya" for making the decision to further your education in the US! There are LOTS of age 40+ students here, so you're not alone in that regard at all.

We're all here to help you and encourage you along the way, so just let us know when you have any questions or concerns. As you've probably seen from all the posts, this is a very friendly and helpful bunch!

Good luck in your studies and welcome to the USA,

JoAnne

P.S. My screen name should give you a clue as to what country MY husband is from!

__________________
ShotoJuku +
A.S., B.S., M.S.

Always be ready to release your mind and be willing to listen to the advice of others. Remain flexible. - Gichin Funakoshi

Ron,
Welcome to IC. You have probably already done this but I thought I would throw my 2 cents in.
Back in my earlier life when I was an Army Recruiter (I don't recommend that job to anyone by the way), We used to deal with a lot of people from different countries who wanted to join. I found that we usually ended up sending in their Degrees, diplomas, transcripts etc. from their native country to get them translated to US credit. Most of the time their foreign degrees would translate to a US degree. I was wondering if you ever got your Ausie schools translated over here in the US? Maybe you don't have to take certain courses and actually be very close to a US degree.

__________________
Excelsior College
AAS Computer Tech - April 2009
BSLS Admin/Mngmt - Dec 2009 Maybe Earlier

Passed so far since joining InstantCert:
CLEP
12L Spanish - 77/50
6 L Freshman Comp. - 51/50
6 L Social Science & Hist - 54/50
3 L Info Sys & Comp App - 56/50
3 L Intro Sociology - 61/50
3 L Prin of Mngmt - 68/50
3 L US History I - 52/50
3 L US History II - 59/50
DSST
3 U Civil War & Reconstruction - 59/47
3 U Drug and Alcohol - 49/49
3 L Here's to Your Hlth - 56/48
3 L Intro To Comp - 56/45
3 L Prin of Sup - 51/46
3 L Technical Writing 61/48
Central Texas College
3 L English Comp I "A"
1 L Academic Research "A" (Info Literacy Substitute)
Excelsior College:
3 L Biology- "B"
3 L College Math- "A"

Quote: There are no stupid questions, only stupid people. "Mr. Garrison"