Education Document Translation for the United States

The evaluation report: WES, ECE and the other NACES members

No government body in the United States recognises foreign diplomas. Universities and employers instead rely on reports drawn up by independent evaluation agencies, most of which sit under the NACES umbrella; WES and ECE are the best known of them. The report shows what a Turkish diploma corresponds to in the American system and, in most cases, converts the marks course by course. Which agency’s report will be accepted is a matter for the university; an agency one school accepts may carry no weight at another. The first step, then, is to see which agencies the school you are applying to actually lists.

The type of report matters as well. A summary report showing only the equivalent of the degree and a detailed report giving a course-by-course breakdown are priced differently and serve different ends. Postgraduate applications usually call for the detailed one. Buying the wrong type means starting the whole process again.

Why the documents are asked for, and how

Evaluation agencies most often want the document not from the applicant but directly from the university that awarded it, so that its source can be verified. The diploma gives the degree and the academic transcript the breakdown of courses and credits; since mark conversion rests entirely on the transcript, any gap there feeds straight through into the report. A student certificate shows current enrolment. Language proficiency is a separate threshold, set by the university itself, and stands apart from the evaluation report.

Party	What it does
Evaluation agency	Reports the equivalent of the degree and the marks
University admissions office	Takes the admission decision, sets the report type
USCIS	Looks for a statement of accuracy on the visa and status side

The most common mistake

In American applications the most widespread error is failing to attach a signed statement of accuracy to the translation. As the country has no sworn translator regime, that statement is the only formal assurance a translation carries; without it the translation counts as being of uncertain origin. The second frequent error is ordering the wrong type of report – a summary report is bought, the school wants the detailed one, and the process begins again. The third is the applicant sending the document to the agency in person; with no way of verifying the source, the file simply waits.

Where translation fits into the process

The translation has to be ready before the evaluation application is made, since the agency reads the document in English. The right order is this: gather the originals and any reverse sides, complete the certification step if one is needed, translate the entire text into English and attach the statement of accuracy, and only then apply for the evaluation. You can see what is expected document by document on our document pages, and how other countries handle matters in our country guide.

Who sends the document to the agency

The rule most often confused about American evaluation agencies is who the document is supposed to come from. Many agencies expect the diploma and academic transcript directly from the awarding university rather than from the applicant; that is how the source of the document gets verified. Some Turkish universities send them in a sealed envelope, others through an electronic channel. Talking to your university’s student affairs office in advance about which method it uses takes the most uncertain part out of the process.

Where the translation belongs in that chain is a separate question, and it should also be asked. Some agencies want the translation to be inside the package coming from the university; others accept it from the applicant separately. That distinction decides when you should have the translation prepared. Proceed on the wrong assumption and send the document yourself, and the agency may turn the file away without opening it, which puts you back at the beginning.

• Find out first who the agency expects the document from.
• Confirm the despatch method your university uses.
• Ask whether the translation is to be part of the package.
• Choose the report type according to the school’s list.

A further distinction in American applications is the one between an evaluation report and a university’s own review. Some schools ask for no external report and read the documents through their own international admissions unit. In that case the fee paid for the report and the time spent waiting for it go to waste. So the first step is to check, one by one, whether the schools you are applying to want a report at all; the list varies from school to school.

On mark conversion the expectation is equally clear: without the scale description on the academic transcript, no four-point equivalent can be worked out. In Turkish transcripts that description often sits on a separate page and gets forgotten. Information on how course credits are calculated also affects the conversion; where it exists, it belongs in the translation.

At the visa stage the expectation is a different one, and the signed statement of accuracy comes to the fore; keeping the same set of translations together with that statement will make life easier later on.

When budgeting for American applications, three separate items have to be counted: the translation, the evaluation report and the school’s own application fee. These are independent pieces of work on different timetables. The report process is the least predictable of the three because it involves verifying the documents, so the other two items need to be planned around it. If you are applying to more than one school, the report may have to be sent to each of them separately, and that creates another item. Listing these details at the outset avoids running into an unexpected cost halfway through and keeps the application timetable realistic.

Since the report process and the application timetable run separately, starting early is decisive. You can look at our pricing page and upload your documents to request a quotation.

What is described here reflects common practice; national legislation and institutional habits can change. Before deciding, it is worth looking at the institution’s own published guidance.