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 Post subject: Quality of GIA
PostPosted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 9:57 am 
Hello,

I am very interested to do the GG course, offered by GIA. How is it with the quality and the price (positive and negative aspects). Can anyone give me an overview about the GIA and the final examination.

In compare, how is it with the IGI Belgium and the HRD school ? Does anyone have experience ?

Greetings


Mathias


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 1:32 am 
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I would like to hear some comments and opinions too...as Im still yet to decide which school suits my needs better. can anyone out there share their two cents? will be appreaciated...
this forum is quite quiet btw -_-"


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 4:28 am 
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I have posted my own impressions in another thread in the 'Gemmological association of Great-Britain' forum very recently.

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PostPosted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 9:10 am 
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Hi Mathias :D
I think there are few persons who can give a complete overview on all gemological school courses.
I can share my personal opinion only.
First I think it’s useful to talk about an important matter before: on site education and distance education.
I think on site it’s the best way due to direct contact among teacher and student, unfortunately it can be impossible to take for some locations far from education centers.
I’ve got all the IGI Antwerp on site courses in Italy, and my teacher was a GIA instructor before he has attend to IGI.
Later I’ve bought on ebay all the GIA courses (not the latest but recent) in order to have much informations and make a comparsion.
All IGI courses are intense and developed in order to provide for the best education with the minimum time. Thus are formally complete but basically oriented to the jeweller. Some field like the spectroscope use are less covered than, for example the gems identification through microscope observation.
Beside differences among courses provided by the well known GIA, IGI, GEM-A, HRD and others I think the most important thing is to do PRACTICE, PRACTICE & PRACTICE.
There are of course differences among courses provided by each institute, for what I know, as an example GEM-A develops the spectroscope use deeply than GIA or IGI., maybe can be useless for you but IGI has a diamond rough course while the others not, at the end I think they’re all good. I think the most important thing is WHAT you will do AFTER the courses: PRACTICE, PRACTICE & PRACTICE and continuous updating of knowledge is ESSENTIAL.
Today, as this forum easily shows, we can get a lot of useful informations from the net.
My suggestion is: look around for course informations (hope someone else will give help, there are some posts here before) and choose which you consider the best suitable for your personal needs.
BUY a list of FUNDAMENTAL books/bibles (I think many users here would give MANY suggestions).
Don’t be miserly when you have to buy gemological equipments.
Then, of course, continuous PRACTICE every day.
Fell free, however to ask here for all your doubts.
just my ONLY two cents.
Ciao e buona fortuna.!*


alberto

(*bye and good luck!)


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:40 pm 
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Greetings,

I have only studied with GIA. From what I have read GIA is expensive compared to other schools. They also cater to the retail segment of the industry. If you are looking to work in a jewelry store in the US, retailers seek the G.G. graduate.

If you are interested in writing, research working in a lab etc. FGA is considered the premiere qualification at a reasonable cost. There are several other schools that are comparable to the Great Britian school as far as teaching theory and more hands on work with rough and stones.

This forum is a great place because we have graduates from all the gemological schools so I am sure you will hear from many of them about their experiences.

No school will offer everything you need. Becoming a Graduate of any Gemology school is just the beginning. When I became a G.G. I had a revelation that there was way more about Gemology that I did not know. But it sure has been fun learning :lol:

Good Luck in what ever you direction you choose. Working in this industry or just as a hobby is a real kick :P

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 12:52 am 
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Hi,
I agree that continuous practice is very important after one finishes the course.
anyway, just want to ask abit more...
when my objective is to work for myself and becoming a diamond buyer and a distributor?? which school would better cater my needs?? unfortunately,I have no background in gemology, thus want to take the course.

cheers 8)


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 7:57 am 
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Hi Has
From my experience in gemology and presently doing a diamond grading course - I would not start with diamonds, I would start with gem i.d. It is useful to have a basic knowledge and you will learn how to use instruments even if you don't need those too much re diamonds. Don't forget, there are still schools which use a microscope for grading and not just a loupe, you need to handle tweezers etc. This was taught in gem i.d. where I learnt.
Yet I'm no expert and my experience is this of a beginner.
Ursula


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 8:47 am 
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HAS wrote:
Hi,
I agree that continuous practice is very important after one finishes the course.
anyway, just want to ask abit more...
when my objective is to work for myself and becoming a diamond buyer and a distributor?? which school would better cater my needs?? unfortunately,I have no background in gemology, thus want to take the course.

cheers 8)


hi,
i think it would be great to have all courses and get a GG but, if you're interested ONLY in diamonds peraphs it would be a good thing to take diamond courses from more than one institution (i suggest GIA, IGI & HRD).
Diamonds and colored stones are in fact 2 far worlds in the market. often diamantaires don't know and don't interested at colored at all. the same we can say about many colored stones traders, often they hate diamonds indeed. this suggestion is ONLY for your intention/needs, of course.
As usual, my 2cents ONLY.
ciao
Alberto


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:22 am 
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Thank you for the replies..
I'd like to learn them both (diamond and colored stones) but I just want to focus on diamond first.
Ursula, did you suggest to take gemID first because I have no gemology background at all? or because you from your experience the gemID course is good as an introductory course (to get the feel of what I am going to learn at diamond), therefore will make me understand diamond better?
Sorry if im asking too much, this all is new for me and I just want to avoid making the wrong decision :)

gnites


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 12:15 pm 
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I think the reason Diamonds is usually offered first is because it is far easier to grasp the properties of one gem over a 6 month period than 2000 mineral varieties, no?


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 10:38 am 
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I did gem i.d. first where we covered diamond in general, then I did a synthetic & treatment i.d. course at another school. In the synthetics course we also covered synthetic diamonds, simulants as well as treatments.
Due to the experience handling stones in gem i.d. and learning how to use instruments I feel more comfortable handling the diamonds. I know what I'm looking at when I see inclusions and how to describe them. Most of us in the course have done gem i.d. previously or have experience with gemstones due to family business.
This is only a 4 week course. It is not a correspondence course. We use a microscope for grading. I understand that at DGem they use a proportion scope for grading and otherwise only work with a loupe. No microscope.
Ursula


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 11:14 am 
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When I was there they used a microscope for diamond grading.


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:14 am 
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Hi Barbra

DGem course seem to have changed considerably over the years from what our teacher said. All because of students requests.
Was your teacher Herr Mertens?
I did not do diamonds at Dgem. A classmate told me that they used proportion scope and loupe.
The diamond course I'm doing at present is just a time filler. It is not my interest at all. My interest are colored stones.
I've done a course re treatments & synthetics recently with AIGS as this subject was not covered enough IMO in Idar-Oberstein.
The course at AIGS was excellent. It gave me a lot more confidence to go out and to buy stones. It doesn't mean that I would never make a mistake.
Ursula


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 Post subject: careful!
PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 5:54 pm 
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We should be careful about characterizing entire courses based on old knowledge. It was once said in a public forum by a very famous gemologist that GIA doesn't teach the difference between different types of solution-process corundum. When this person was a student, that was true. It is no longer true.

Of course, the information presented fit right into the theme that this person was attempting to develop- that GIA is a less serious, less in-depth course than others. I dislike the characterization of GIA as a "retail" gemology course. I don't think that is accurate, and as a colored-stone dealer I have to say that my needs have been very well-met by GIA's courses. There is a vast store of knowledge in the GG course materials that do not relate in any way to "retail" gemology. Virtually all of the retail-focused information is in the first two courses- diamond essentials and colored stone essentials.

There is no doubt that on your way to an FGA designation you will study crystal structure more in-depth than those who choose to study with GIA. But some in our realm interpolate this to mean that GIA is a "simple" course all-around which is not the case. I doubt very seriously that anyone covers the latest treatment methods as well as GIA. I just did my Gem ID lab at GIA Bangkok, and coupled with my experience buying stones in Chanthaburi I can tell you that current, relevant material on the latest treatment methods is explored fully. Perhaps Gem-A covers this material just as well but it wouldn't seem to fit with their emphasis on the scientific side of gemology.

And of course AIGS gets all the credit for being the be-all, end-all in colored stones- but we shouldn't forget that the current organization is falling apart at the seams and today's AIGS bears little resemblance to the AIGS of only a few short months ago because the staff appears to be fleeing a sinking ship.

One of the reasons that GIA is a good choice for me is because they have the marketplace presence and the organizational structure to maintain their standards. I think that Gem-A has this as well and perhaps I will study with them when I finish my GG. The two courses complement each other well according to people with whom I have spoken who have both diplomas.

We shouldn't forget that gemology is always in flux and we can't expect the coursework to remain the same. This should be pointed out more often in discussions of this nature and more new students (and potential students) should understand the ramifications of change on their gemological education.

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 Post subject: Re: careful!
PostPosted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:24 pm 
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davegimchee wrote:
We should be careful about characterizing entire courses based on old knowledge............................We shouldn't forget that gemology is always in flux and we can't expect the coursework to remain the same. This should be pointed out more often in discussions of this nature and more new students (and potential students) should understand the ramifications of change on their gemological education.

Do you mind if I have this entire post calligraphied and framed for my wall??? You very eloquently put into words what often I find myself trying explain when ever I find myself having to defend the GG to either people who have a "competing" degree or, worse yet, to GGs who either did it by correspondence (and weren't able to access all the benefits easily) or did the program some time ago --- some of those people are quite famous and are friends!

The one drawback to the GG program that I see is that the written tests on the reading materials are not demanding at all, even though the material and lectures are very rich in information and a wonderful guide to further research - I found that the instructors were always willing to teach more than what was in the syllabus if interest was shown or to point to where one could delve deeper.

And having done both programs, I can highly recommend that the GG and FGA compliment each other completely, but regardless of that, it is up to the gemologist to keep current and keep expanding one's knowledge base - those degrees just give a firm base to build on.


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