Educational Equivalency Evaluation: How It Works in 2024?

Written by Jeremy Yan | 09/06/2024

(Educational Equivalency Evaluation)

Coming to the US from your home country and having a foreign education background isn’t always easy.

Alghough you've had the education of high school or college in your home country, you are still asked to show educational equivalency evaluation for things like immigration, employment, military, and furthering your education.

Founded by an immigrant just like you, AET knows your pain and struggles in the US.

So what is educational equivalency evaluation exactly? How does it work?

This article will break down these questions for you.

Table of Contents:

What is educational equivalency evaluation?
What are the types of educational evaluations?
How to use educational equivalency evaluation?
Where can you evaluate your frogien credentials?
Conclusion

What is educational equivalency evaluation?

Educational Equivalency Evaluation, also known as foreign Credential evaluation or educational evaluation, is a service provided by professional evaluation agencies to evaluate educational backgrounds, grades, etc. obtained outside the US.

The purpose of educational equivalency evaluation is to make your foreign degree equivalent to US degree.

What are the types of educational evaluations?

In general, there are two commonly used types of educational evaluations:

Foreign Degree Evaluation (Diploma Evaluation/Document by Document)
This report includes U.S. degree equivalency only. It's a basic evaluation that often satisfies requirements for employment and immigration.
Transcript Evaluation (Course by Course)
This most complete report includes U.S. degree equivalency, credits, grades, and GPA. It's recommended for college admission, determining transfer credits or applying for an advanced degree, licensing, USCIS RFE, and more.

Click “What is Foreign Credential Evaluation?” for more information.

How to use educational equivalency evaluation?

1. Look for jobs

In this case, your employer may ask you to show an academic equivalency evaluationn report, in order to give you a job offer. They don’t want to mistaken the valuable education background you have gotten and you also want to show them that your education is the same as those who have degrees here in the US.

(Use Credential Evaluation for Employment)

For example, “high school diploma” is an American term for secondary education and it actually has various names in other countries, such as “bachiller” in Latin America and WASSCE (West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination) in West Africa. And it is the minimum educational requirement for lots of employers in this country.

Overall, to have your education evaluated is important because it will provide you the equal opportunities as Americans have.

Go to “Credential Evaluation for Employment” for more information.

2. Apply for immigration

When you are applying for an immigration visa, a non-immigration visa like H1B, or a green card, USCIS mostly will want you to demonstrate your educational background, such as diplomas, degrees, and transcripts. If you only have a degree from your home country, then USCIS may ask you to provide an USCIS approved education evaluation to showcase you have an equivalency of a US degree.

(Use Credential Evaluation for Immigration)

For instance, an H1b visa requires you to have at least a US bachelor’s degree or its equivalent. An USCIS approved education evaluation can provide evidence that you either have a U.S bachelor’s degree or that your foreign degree is equivalent to a particular U.S degree.

Overall, to have your education evaluated is important because it will provide you the equal opportunities as Americans have.

Go to “Education Evaluation for H1B” or "Education Credential Evaluation for Immigration" for more information.

3. Apply for the Military

According to US.GOV, the education requirments to join the Military is that "You must have a high school or general equivalency diploma (GED) to enlist in the military."

If you want to be an officer, then you must have a four-year college degree.

(Use Credential Evaluation for the Military)

That said, if you have a foreign education background, you may need to use credential evaluation for the application.

It's important to have your foriegn education evaluated because it will provide you the equal opportunities as Americans have.

4. Apply for school

With the help of educational equivalency evaluation, school admission will easily understand your academic achievement from your home country.

Take your advanced degree as an example; credentials in this are called bachelor’s or master’s degrees in the US. Same as different names for high school diploma, Licentiate, Magister, Benke or Zhuanke are all used to represent post-secondary education in other countries.

(Use Credential Evaluation for Education)

For this reason, you may have to use an education credential evaluation to show the university that you have had an equivalence to meet the academic requirements for admission.

Go to “Credential Evaluation for Education” for more information.

Where can you evaluate your frogien credentials?

After knowing what purposes you can the education credential evaluation for, now you might be thinking to find a trusted agency for this matter. Both USCIS and US Department of Education note that private or non-governmental entities can be your educational evaluators.

Here are 5 best education credential evaluations agencies:

They can all meet your needs for employment, immigration, military application, and education.

If you live in Florida, California or Texas, we also listed the following educational evaluators to save your searching time:

Conclusion

Today, we covered the definition of educational equivalency evaluation, its 4 main purposes, as well as recommending you some trusted agencies for this matter, and we sincerely hope you can utilize the evaluation report to fulfill your American Dream.

Our owner, Jeremy Yan, an immigrant just like you, who is also the Director of Evaluation, worked for a prominent NACES agency for 10+ years as a senior associate director. He was just like you, coming to the US from a foreign country to better his life. And that’s why he wanted to help people like you by providing fast, cheap, affordable and reliable education credential evaluation services.

With 15 years of experience, we have evaluated tens of thousands of Foreign Credential Evaluations with 0 RFE or rejection from USCIS.

Besides that, to increase acceptance, we may include 2nd major or minors when your clients have cumulatively enough credits for a particular major to match your offered positions.

Contact us today for a FREE estimate!

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Jeremy Yan, President & Director of Evaluation at AET

Immigrated to the U.S. back in 1998, Mr. Yan had worked for over 10 years in a prominent NACES (National Association of Credential Evaluation Services) company as a senior associate director and team leader. He has completed hundreds of thousands of foreign credential evaluation of documents from numerous foreign countries for various universities, licensing boards, U.S. government, and immigration services. He is a leading expert at American Education and Translation Services and was invited several times to be a keynote speaker to hundreds of admission counselors of U.S. universities.