<p>This is probably going to be a very weird question, so please bear with me.</p>
<p>I'm a U.S. citizen that has been living abroad for most of his life. For the sake of not having to go into details "abroad" is a post-Soviet state with a still Soviet educational system.</p>
<p>For personal reasons, I ended up having to go to college here, which would be fine if the education didn't suck. I don't mean I didn't enjoy it or anything, it's just that my college (and the almost all of the other ones in this country) was a joke. I went through with it because I thought I could just start over. So I got a job 2 years into the program and just made the education secondary.</p>
<p>Now I want to apply for undergrad again in the US, the problem is many of the colleges I'd like to attend don't offer second bachelors. The reason I want a second bachelors is because I don't find my knowledge is sufficient enough for a masters program and I'm not sure what I want to study. My ultimate goal is to get a masters at some point.</p>
<p>My question is, can I just tell the colleges that my first degree is moot? That it has no value? I just want to start over somewhere where I can actually get a real education and not learn 8th grade programming over the course of 2 years.</p>
<p>I know this might sound very alien to you, but trust me when I say the degree is worthless.</p>
<p>If you guys have any other suggestions on what I can doe, that would be great as well. Even if you think I could apply for a graduate program by taking some extra courses, I'm up for anything at this point.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>You should submit your academic records for evaluation by [World</a> Education Services - International Education Intelligence](<a href=“http://www.wes.org%5DWorld”>http://www.wes.org) or another recognized evaluation service. That way you will know what your degree is equivalent to in the US, and if the degree is not equivalent to anything here, you will know which courses are equivalent to something. Most colleges and universities here will recognize an evaluation from WES for transfer application and grad school application purposes.</p>
<p>You can’t “nullify” your degree. However, if you look around a bit, you will find that there are plenty of decent colleges and universities here that do admit second bachelor’s candidates, and there are plenty of decent institutions that admit students with international degrees to graduate programs. In either case, you should expect to pay the full cost of your studies yourself. The only financial aid that might be available for that second bachelor’s will be unsubsidized Federal loans. If you are truly lucky, there might be a teaching or research assistantship available for a graduate program.</p>
<p>Are you still outside the US? If so, your best source of information and assistance will be at the closest office of [EducationUSA</a> | Study Abroad, Student Visa, University Fairs, College Applications and Study in the U.S. / America](<a href=“http://www.educationusa.state.gov%5DEducationUSA”>http://www.educationusa.state.gov) The counselors there are expert at helping people who have been educated in the system of that country find good places to study in the US. If no one in that office has worked with a US citizen recently, they have colleagues in other offices who have. EducationUSA is a not-for-profit organization, and the staff pride themselves on providing accurate, unbiased information. If the ones in that country are as competent as the people I used to work with in South America, you will be in good hands.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
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<p>By full cost do you mean the 40+ grand a year? Because from what I understand most schools provide students with scholarships that halves the cost.</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>However, if you move back to the US, get a job, and establish residency in a state where you intend to study eventually, your costs won’t be 40+ grand each year at a public university. They will be even less if you start at a community college, or if you enroll part-time and just take the classes that are most necessary to catch up in your professional field.</p>
<p>It is simply not true that “most schools provide students with scholarships that halves the cost”. Nationwide, most students and their families pay the full cost of their educations with a combination of current income, savings, and loans. Very few colleges and universities have the wherewithal to offer generous financial aid packages. The ones that do get a lot of free press right here at CC. To learn more about what student aid is and what it isn’t, you should spend some time in the Financial Aid Forum, at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) , and at [Project</a> on Student Debt: Home](<a href=“http://www.projectonstudentdebt.org%5DProject”>http://www.projectonstudentdebt.org)</p>
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