Credential Evaluation Terms Explained: Degree Equivalency, Academic Evaluation and What They Mean

The credential evaluation industry uses several terms almost interchangeably, and the overlap causes real confusion — people order the wrong report, or assume two services are different when they are the same thing. This article defines each term plainly and explains which one applies to your situation.

Degree equivalency

Degree equivalency is the conclusion of an evaluation: the statement that your foreign qualification corresponds to a particular U.S. award. “Equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree in civil engineering” is a degree equivalency statement.

It is not a separate product you buy. It is the finding a credential evaluation produces. If a provider offers you a “degree equivalency service” and a “credential evaluation” as two different things, ask what actually differs between them.

Academic evaluation

An academic evaluation is a credential evaluation performed for an educational purpose — university admission, transfer credit, or entry to a graduate programme. The analysis is the same; the term simply signals the context and usually implies a course-by-course report, because admissions offices need subject-level detail.

International credential evaluation

This is simply a credential evaluation where the qualification originates outside the United States — which is true of essentially every credential evaluation. The word “international” adds no additional service.

Foreign degree evaluation

Another synonym for the same process. “Foreign,” “international” and “overseas” all describe the same thing: a qualification awarded outside the U.S. being compared to the U.S. system.

So what actually differs between reports?

Not the terminology — the scope. There are genuinely only two decisions that change what you receive:

Whatever a provider calls its service, ask one question: does the report include a subject-level breakdown with credit hours and GPA? That answer, not the product name, tells you what you are buying.

A note on terms that should raise an eyebrow

There is no government-approved evaluator list in the United States. USCIS does not accredit, approve or endorse evaluation companies, so “USCIS approved evaluation” describes a status that does not exist. Similarly, no evaluator can guarantee that a petition or application will be accepted — the deciding authority is always the institution receiving the report.