Russian University Diplom Respected?

International Students
1

<p>Just wanted to know what the perception of a Russian Diplom was. My wife graduated from what I have read is a very prestigious linguistics college in St Petersburg(Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia). She received a dual degree in Linguistics and teaching. They don't receive letter grades like in the U.S. but numbers, from 1-5, 5 being the highest mark attainable. Well she received all 5's. I am curious how a U.S. college, or an evaulation organization like <a href="http://www.wes.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.wes.org&lt;/a>, <a href="http://www.ece.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.ece.org&lt;/a>, will evaluate this. She received a 114/120 on her iBT Toefl. So her native tongue is Russian and she speaks fluent English, German, and French. A very handy wife to have in Europe :P</p>

<p>She is currently preparing for her GRE.
Her interest is in International Relations and she feels she should go right into a master's program. We currently live outside of the U.S so we are looking into Online master's programs. Is this a mistake? I could probably get us back to the Washington DC area next summer. I work for the Department of State, Foreign Service and we are on assignment in germany until summer 2008. If I thought she had a chance at getting accepted to a well respected college like Georgetown or American than I would see about getting us back to the states. I am just concerned than these colleges won't recognize her acedemic degree and grades. Does anyone have any experience with what I am talking about or can anyone comment?</p>

2

<p>comment (no direct experience):</p>

<p>Top US programs can be very international and most admissions committees are more knowledgeable about foreign qualifications than one might think.</p>

<p>If her degree is legitimate and her grades are top-notch, than they will acknowledge it without bias.</p>

<p>I think if she gets good GRE scores, then she definitely has a chance towards some top programs. It's great that she's fluent in 4 diplomatic languages. Russian is particularily good...</p>

<p>Online master's programs are probably not a good idea. I get the impression that you two don't want to seperate during her studies, limiting you to Washington, DC schools in the US or online degrees if you stayed in Germany. That makes it more difficult. She could just stay in Germany with you for now and apply to Georgetown/American/others from there. If she gets in then that'll be great....</p>