Your Guide To Getting Your Transcripts Evaluated for Education in the US

Over one million foreign students take admissions in various colleges and universities in the United States every year. This is more than double of its nearest rival United Kingdom which accommodates little less than half a million students every year. The United States has for the last many decades been the most popular education hub in the world especially for higher studies and it is unlikely to be dethroned anytime soon.

What makes the United States a dream destination for many international students is the advanced course curriculum, the best faculty in the world, and the number of research opportunities that students have access to. You can’t find any other destination in the world that invites students from as many diverse backgrounds as the United States. During any admission season, there are students of more than 150 nations that make their way through the corridors of the hundreds of top educational institutions in the country. On offer is one of the most enriching learning experiences for them.

Staggering as these numbers are, they also point to the level of competition that International students have to go through to secure admissions in the most prestigious institutions. It’s really a race to a better future for the students coming from different parts of the world and you will need to be on your toes to drive yourself towards success in all this. When you are applying for admissions to these top institutions you will be asked to present your educational transcripts. That’s where transcripts evaluation services come in and offer you a ‘hassle-free experience. We stress on word hassle-free as admissions to the top colleges and universities in the US can be quite different from a cakewalk and an overwhelming experience to many.

What Is Transcript Evaluation and Why It is Important?

As we have already mentioned students from 150 plus countries apply for admission in the US. If you are to put yourself in the shoes of these educational institutions you’d realize the scale of the challenge they face while shortlisting students that game come from diverse educational systems with every country in the world having its own grading systems. The course curriculum, educational standards, and marketing systems are specific to each country and it is next to impossible for the institutions to put them into a common platform without putting these through a standardized evaluation process.

Since there is a lot of ambiguity in the way students are graded in different countries in the world transcripts evaluation have to be carried out in order to bring in the past educational qualification of the students and their experiences to a US equivalent. While some institutions do carry out their own transcript evaluations, most of them leave it to third-party transcripts evaluation service. It is thus important for you to verify with the institution you are applying for their guidelines with respect to transcript evaluations.

Types of Transcript Evaluations

There are two types of transcript evaluations – Document by Document Evaluations and Course by Course. Let us now look at which one you’d need for admission to the colleges and universities in the United States –

Course by Course – This is what you’d mostly need when you are applying for admissions in the various colleges and universities in the United States. As the name suggests this evaluation would convert every course that you have taken in your home country or any other country in the world into an equivalent GPA and Grade Scale.There are several other aspects of background that are covered in this evaluation including –
- Years of attendance and location of institution attended
- Descriptions of the programs attended and duration of study
- Profile of the institutions attended and their accreditation status
- List of subjects studied in the program
- Credit hours based on the lectures attended, lab experience etc.
Document by Document – This applies more for candidates who are looking to immigrate to the United States. As the name suggests here points are awarded to the Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D program that you have attended in your home country. But here it is important for you to have a degree equivalent to a degree awarded in the United States. Document by document transcript evaluation would include –
- US equivalence for all your credentials – degree, diploma, certificate etc.
- Years of attendance and location of institution attended
- Descriptions of the programs attended and duration of study
- Profile of the institutions attended and their accreditation status

How Long Does It Take?

This is one of the most important things to remember when you are choosing a transcript evaluation service. On average, it would take about 2 weeks of time for a service provider to complete the evaluation if you are coming from one of the major countries in the world. The process can take longer for students from certain countries in the world and stretch up to 3 or even four weeks. If your transcripts are in a language other than English this process may be further delayed due to the need of a word to word translations. Hence, it is important that you get started with this process as soon as you plan to apply for admissions as during the busy admission season these service providers are stretched and often have to turn down on students who knock on the door at the last minute.

To sum up, transcript evaluations are one of the first and major steps to increasing your odds of securing admissions to an institution of your choice. Naturally, you will have to be extremely choosy when it comes to choosing a transcripts evaluation service provider. They should be approved by the United States Department of Education for their transcripts evaluation reports to be accepted by the institutions that you apply for. There are several service providers who lure you with extremely low prices but they cut corners jeopardizing your admission. Stay away from them and get your transcripts evaluated by a top-rated transcripts evaluation service provider.