High school diplomas?

[aikorob]

Guys,
what did you do about proving your wife graduated? Did you have her high school diploma evaluated like the university transcript or just translated?
Nata wants to take some courses at the local tech college, but they want to shuffle her into Adult Ed/ GED prep cycle before she can take anything she needs.
And no; the Master's degree she has from Odessa does not count.

[mendeleyev]

Not sure they can force that issue. The purpose in founding/chartering community colleges was to open the experience to students who would never make it to a University. That is what makes them so attractive to adults today. State charters guide the process and make allowances for exceptions and that is why some beginning level ourses allow a student to enter with the acceptance of the instructor.

I imagine they're want to do that because of language issues.

Depending on the school and their academic track, she likely either graduated at the end of 10th grade or 11th grade if college/university qualified. Your community college may be under the mistaken impression that since Russia doesn't have 12 grade levels that somehow she's missed things which need to be made up first when in fact she may have graduated ahead of where Western kids were academically at that same time.

http://www.foreigndocuments.com/docs/school_en.html is one place to have the HS transcripts translated and certified and there are excellent translators on this site, if they do this type of work?

[Tamara]

Guys,
what did you do about proving your wife graduated? Did you have her high school diploma evaluated like the university transcript or just translated?
Nata wants to take some courses at the local tech college, but they want to shuffle her into Adult Ed/ GED prep cycle before she can take anything she needs.
And no; the Master's degree she has from Odessa does not count.

Your wife will need to have her High School Diploma translated, it does not need to be evaluated.  Her Master's Diploma should be translated and evaluated as well.  When applying to any local college, she will need to provide her High School Diploma even if she already holds higher level of education.
 
When applying to Northeastern University in Boston, I had to provide the translation of my High School diploma and evaluation of two other diplomas I had at the time: BA and MA from Russia. Northeastern University transferred many credits.  So I am surprised to hear Master's degree does not count.  Maybe not in full, but they can transfer some credits. Make sure you inquire at couple colleges and universities.
 
It is extremely important to have the Diploma translation done right.  Translation of many subjects can be rendered differently and the closer it is to US curriculum, the higher chances to have better evaluation and later get more credits transferred.

Did she pass TOEFL (test of English as foreign language) with high enough scores?  The ones who do not are usually put through prep cycle.

[aikorob]

Thanks Tamara,
Translation of the diploma is what we figured.

I guess I was not clear----her Master's degree had no bearing on whether she had to go through adult/GED courses or not.

[Tamara]

Thanks Tamara,
Translation of the diploma is what we figured.
I guess I was not clear----her Master's degree had no bearing on whether she had to go through adult/GED courses or not.

You are very welcome.    I hope you did some research to find the fastest way for Nata to study.  Best of luck to you, guys!