Co-written by Kimberly Hajec and Margaret Wenger of Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE)
Kim has been a Client Solutions Manager at ECE for almost two years. Her special focus is working with recruitment agents. She has over 15 years of experience in international recruitment, admissions, and immigration advising.
Margaret has worked for ECE since 1990 and currently holds the position of Senior Director of Evaluation. Her focus is on ECE policy development, quality assurance, and digitalization strategies. She also serves on the board of directors for the Groningen Declaration Network.
Helping a student obtain a credential evaluation to apply for admission at a U.S. or Canadian university can be confusing. As a recruitment agent, you want to help your students through that process. It’s one important step in the admissions process that you need to guide them through. How can you do that when you’re unsure of the process yourself? What documents do your students need to submit? How can documents be sent to the company completing the evaluation report? Let’s dive in and get you the answers you need!
What is the process to apply for a credential evaluation?
Most evaluation companies will have their own application for the student to complete. At ECE, students will:
Create an account using an email address and password
Answer basic biographical information (name, date of birth, mailing address, etc.)
List their educational history which includes:
information on all the institutions the student attended
how long they studied at each institution
the country where the institution is located
the degrees or credentials awarded
Pick the report type they need (we encourage students to figure out what report type they need by reviewing their institution’s requirements prior to beginning our online application)
Pay for the report and submit their documents to the evaluation company
What documents do students need to submit?
The documents students need to submit include their complete transcript from each institution listed on their application and any degree certificates that they received. Typically, the student will need to submit the documents in the original language accompanied with an English translation. Some evaluation companies require an English translation that was completed by a translation company. At ECE, the student can translate their own transcripts into English if it is a word-for-word translation and in the same format as the original document. Or, they can pay for a translation waiver, which means they do not need to submit any English translation of their educational credentials.
In order to complete the evaluation report, in most cases official documentation for the study completed is required. The format and method of transmission varies depending on the country, institution, and program, but ECE’s overall philosophy is to require the most official, secure documentation that is in keeping with the standards of the country in which the student was educated. For many countries, this is either original documents that were issued to the student, or documents in sealed envelopes to be opened by ECE. We are able to receive many official documents electronically, and, in some cases, are able to accept copies of documents that can be verified online. Because the global political, economic, and cultural realities are constantly changing, we update our documentation requirements to reflect those realities. We encourage students to carefully review our documentation requirements before submitting their applications for evaluation reports. After completing the report, ECE returns most original documents to the students.
Are scanned copies of documents acceptable?
We get this question a lot. At ECE, we are researching services all the time that offer online, shareable documents through secure websites. Like any type of document - photocopies, scans, or originals - the origin of the document is important. In addition to many institutions issuing electronic documents, there are also third parties that issue or re-issue verified official documents electronically. Check with the evaluation company where your students are applying to see if they work with any services that are available online. At ECE, we accept documents through providers like Electronic Transcript Exchange (ETX), Digitary, My eQuals, TrueCopy, and Worldwide Transcripts. Also, if the institution is unable to provide paper documents, we try to work with students to accept alternatives. In some cases, ECE may be able to accept secure documents directly from a verifiable email address of the institution, or uploaded scans of documents that can be verified on institutional databases.
Any additional suggestions?
When helping your students apply for a credential evaluation, always research the company they’re thinking of using. Hopefully, the company has clear, concise instructions on how to apply for an evaluation report and how to send in the required documents. Don’t be afraid to ask questions if you don’t understand something. At ECE, we have a customer service team that is ready to answer all your students’ questions, and we also have an institution support team that provides support and guidance to recruitment agents that choose to work with ECE.
Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE), a non-profit organization located in the United States, reviews academic achievements by individuals from other countries and converts them to the U.S. or Canadian system. ECE is a charter member of NACES and a recipient of the Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Ethics.