ERAUs recognition of transcripts

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Planenut

New Member
I attended a college that closed down for good just 2 months prior to my graduation which would have earned me an AS degree. I struggled to obtain my transcripts, and kept ERAU updated for 3 months as the State of California's Dept of Education gave me excuses for not having my transcripts in the mail. I finally had them in my hand yesterday, and Fed-Ex'ed them to the Daytona Beach campus' Admissions Dept.

What I'm concerned about is accreditation of the school I attended. This school's education was based on a specific core, not an academic educational curriculum. I completed 103 units and earned a GPA well over the min standard that ERAU frowns upon, but the school was Nationally Accredited. As far as I'm aware, the schools that are more reputable and regionally accredited are less likely to recognize credits from a private post-secondary vocational business college similar to the one I attended, especially if they shut down because of money problems. These are only things I've heard throughout the grapevine, so it may just be hog-wash. I read up on the student catalog for 2001 and didn't see anything that suggested I would be denied admission based on my educational history.

I asked about this to the Admissions Rep, and she said it doesn't matter as long as it's credible - that is from an accredited school with credits that can be transferred.

My major will be Aerospace Engineering, and the credits I'm transferring are computer network engineering and administration as well as plenty of GE credits.

Can anyone here give me any experiences on transferring credits from non-academic colleges and universities to ERAU?

For those who are from my area, I went to Masters Institute in San Jose. They were having money problems, and the CEO took off. Some other guy took over and shut it all down in about 1 month. That happened in March, and I've been looking around to finish up since then.

I'm hoping ERAU will accept me based on my GPA and letters of recommendation, as well as everything else I've send including my essay.

Erik.
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I formerly worked in admissions a few years back and I can give you some guidelines as to how it was done then. I worked in their extended campus admssions office (also located in Daytona), but the guidelines for the main campus are along the same lines with a few differences.

They have an accreditation book that lists every school that is accredited. It is not published by ERAU, but by an outside accrediting authority. If your school is listed in that book, then it is considered accredited. There is also a section of the book that lists schools that are no longer open. It also gives dates that the school earned their accreditation and also if there was a period when they fell short of the standards and lost accreditation. Now, if this school is in the book, and they were accredited when you were in attendance, then you are golden as far as that is concerned. They will review each course on your transcript and the course description for that course must pretty much match a specific course description for an ERAU course in order to gain credit (if you have a passing grade, that is).

Then there is the matter of semester hours. Riddle credit is in semester hours (most classes are 3 sh). A lot of times technical schools are given in quarter hours, etc. They follow a formula to convert quarter to semester and the credit from your school has to equal whatever the semester hours for the Riddle course is. I think there is some sort of waiver if it is close.

What concerns me is that your transcripts were actually in your possession. Transcripts have to be sent directly from your school (or in this case, the State of California) to the University. They cannot accept a transcript that was ever in your possession, sealed envelope or no sealed envelope.

However, all bets are off if this isn't what Riddle considers an accredited institution. If it is not, then you don't even have to send in your transcripts or list it on your applicaiton. If it isn't accredited, then it should not be used in your admission decision. They should consider you based on everything else you have provided.

As someone who finished their Riddle degree non-traditionally, I can provide a little info. on how to finish an ERAU degree in an expeitious manner. This is nothing official, just trying to help with what I remember.
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Sammy,

A non-traditional student is someone who isn't entering college straight out of high school. I didn't start until I was 23. Usually they have a few years of work experience or military service. My degree was completed through a combination of night time community college, ERAU, and I tested out of several classes. I worked 40 hrs. a week and still completed my degree well within 4 years.
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Yeah, of course it is. There is one guy in my ground school is like 30 (or somewhere up there) who actually works as a mechanic on our ramp and is taking classes to become a pilot. Then there are many people that were in the Navy/AirForce, etc. who are here getting their degrees and the military paying for it.
 
I already have a bachelors degree and did not want to go through another four years of college. Do you think that such a program is available for me? How much would it cost? How long would it take?
 
This is from the 2000-2001 undergraudate catalog of page 18:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Transcripts

The Admissions office accepts either a secondary school diploma or the General Education Development Certificate (GED). An official transcript or GED score report must be sent directly from the issuing institution to Embry-Riddle.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This information is under the Standardized Testing and English Language Proficiency catagory of the "Admission To The Residential Campuses" chapter. In the following pages under the Transfer Student Applicant rules, there are no areas that indicate that transcripts from post secondary institutions must be sent from the issuing institution. I did have my HS transcripts sent from the school itself because I knew it would be a reliable process, and I was following the above requirements.

ERAU knew my situation with the school that shut down, and how they were not about to just go out of their way to send transcripts. They also knew that I was fighting the state tooth & nail for my transcripts, and that if they were available, they were likely to be sent to my home. That was the only way I could get ahold of them, and I did after a long time. I think the university knows this. I Fed-Ex'ed them to the school, and they told me they would start the review process this week. I'll sure be glad when it's over with and I can move on.
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Erik.

[ June 30, 2001: Message edited by: Erik R ]
 
Marc,

I'm glad Riddle accepted most of your credits. I cannot give an explanation as to why they accepted transcripts that had been in your possesion. I never claimed any advice as being official.

Good luck to you Erik. Post an update later on when you hear the outcome.

Sammy, the non-traditional degree is offered through ERAU's extended campus. I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for or not. Extended campus centers are located around the U.S., usually at military bases. Most (if any) of the extended campus centers do not offer any sort of flight training. It is purely classroom leading to AS, BS and MS degrees. There are plusses and minuses to either route. There tends to be some students from the main campus that feel the degrees are not the same (because they are A LOT cheaper). I don't think you can go the non-traditional route straight out of high school. You are also limited to just a few majors at an extended campus center. I completed my degree half at the main campus, 1/4 through testing and the last 1/4 at an ERAU extended campus center at Delta Headquarters in Atlanta. True, they are different experiences. The main campus is a traditional college campus with the traditional college experience. The extended campus is almost always night time, weekend classes. I felt the advantage to the extended campus is that most of the students in my classes had several (+) years of actual airline/aviation experience which made the classes a whole lot more interesting. When it's all said and done, my diploma looks exactly like my husband's who graduated from the main campus. As a student who attended class at DB and EC, I don't feel cheated by the experience. Feel free to email me (slytherins@excite.com) and I'll help you out as much as possible.

[ June 30, 2001: Message edited by: November ]
 
Thanks for the advise and info November, and others.

Marc, when are you heading out to DB? I'm unsure if I'm going to be able to visit the campus, but I'm still going to try before at least the end of July. BTW, how long did it take for you to be accepted from the time you sent in your transcripts? Are you flying into DAB or MCO when you go this Fall? If I go, it's going to be MCO for me because it's much cheaper flying into that airport than DAB. See ya there (hopefully)

Erik.
 
I hate to argue with an ex-admissions officer of ERAU, November, because you probably know a hell of a lot more than I do about the process.

However, I have to disagree with you about the transcripts thing. All the schools I attended would only send transcripts through regular mail and I needed them to get there ASAP. So, I walked into the schools, got sealed transcipts in envelopes and FedExed them to ERAU. All my transcripts were accepted and almost 95% of my classes were transferred. Maybe ERAU has changed their policy about "handling" of transcripts.

[ June 30, 2001: Message edited by: Marc ]
 
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