This guide asks important questions that should be answered when pursuing the services of a credentials evaluation provider.
Institutional Responsibility
Colleges and universities that admit students with educational backgrounds from outside of the United States need to have trained admissions staff and adequate resources to evaluate foreign educational credentials accurately. While credential assessment is normally done in-house, it is also outsourced, entirely, or an "as needed" basis.
When searching for and selecting an outside credential evaluation service provider it is important to have your institutional needs clearly defined and to seek service providers whose capabilities match those needs. This document offers guidelines for service provider selection and
Foreign Degree Evaluation in USA.
General Guidelines
In general, translation services only translate documents from one language to another without applying interpretative judgment, while credential evaluation services apply informed judgments to the interpretation of credentials and determination of the equivalency of educational programs, degrees awarded, and/or grades achieved to international and/or US standards.
Choosing a foreign educational credential evaluation program is similar to choosing other professional service providers. Criteria for selecting a service provider begin with whether the provider can meet the specific needs of your institution.
Further selection criteria typically include an amount of general factors such as level of preparedness, performance and price. Intangible factors likewise incorporate their flexibility, and the ease with which you can do business with them.
Research Options
There currently is not any single, comprehensive source of all foreign credential evaluation service providers.
Seek out providers on the internet. Using search strings such as "foreign credential evaluation service" or "educational credential evaluators" will yield a number of firms and associations.
You may be able to determine from information on their web sites what areas of expertise and knowledge a credential evaluator has and whether there might be a match with your institution's needs.
Talk to colleagues at institutions you feel would have similar institutional needs, or who have experience in working with evaluation services. Ask for recommendations.
Ask service providers for a list of customers whom you can contact. Talk to several, particularly institutions whose needs you feel might be similar to your own institution's needs.
Compare the responses and information received from each of the credential evaluation providers contacted to the needs of your institution. If anything is unclear or more information is needed, contact the service provider(s) again.
If you need an outside opinion, engage an unbiased international admission consultant or an experienced colleague to assist in the process.
Questions to Ask Providers
What kinds of evaluation services does the provider offer?
For what purposes do they evaluate, e.g., secondary, college/university, English as a Second Language, professional licensure, and/or immigration? Do they specialize? Does the organization provide printed information about the scope of its services, procedures used for requesting an evaluation, and evaluation policies?
How does the provider's evaluation staff get trained and stay current?
Training may include, but need not be limited to, in-house training, participation in professional conferences, participation in training and workshops programs offered by professional organizations, research on country educational systems, etc. What opportunities does the staff have for professional development? Are evaluators knowledgeable about the credentials which the institution needs evaluated?
What reference components and resources are available to support evaluation?
Does a library be had by the organization of standard references in international education having an emphasis on credentials evaluation? Does the library contain resource material on the countries/credentials that your institution commonly needs evaluated? How current are the resources in the library? How is the library created and maintained? How often are references updated? Does the organization conduct primary research? How and how often?
How long will it take to get credentials evaluated?
What is the standard turn-around time required for
Credential Evaluation Services in USA? Are there periods during the year when the processing time may be faster/slower than the standard? Does the needs be met by the turnaround time of the institution?
What are the evaluation processing fees?
Are there different services/different levels of service available? How do the fees compare to the financial resources of the institution's applicants? How do the fees compare with those of other evaluation services? How and by whom are fees to be paid? What are the terms of payment, e.g., upon receipt of invoice, 30 days, etc? If the institution needs information that is not usually part of an evaluation agency's standard evaluation report, how should the report be customized? Are there extra fees for customization?
What documents does a service provider require to complete an evaluation?
On what type of documentation is an evaluation based? Does a list end up being had by the service provider of specific documents for specific countries/levels of study, etc? What are the provider's policies regarding photocopies, original, or official credentials? How do the organization's documentation policies compare with the institution's policies on documentation required for domestic applicants?