I often say that one of the most time-consuming aspects of international credentials evaluation is the grading scale conversion. At the institutions where I have worked, including Transcript Research, we rarely utilize a single grading scale for an entire country. As more countries offer dual degree programs, international universities, transnational education, education system structural changes, and increased growth in the private education sector, grading scales will continue to evolve and change across the globe. As a result, we will continue to spend considerable time researching the grading scale used at that institution for that program at that moment in time...

Choosing a private evaluation company can be a stressful experience since each company has its own criteria, equivalencies, grading scales, and other methodologies, and they also have different goals than educational institutions in that they provide evaluations for professional licensing, employment, immigration, as well as educational purposes. With respect to private evaluation companies, an excellent place to start would be with the members of AICE (Association of International Credentials Evaluators) or NACES (National Association of Credential Evaluation Services), two private associations that have membership requirements, codes of ethics, high standards, and publish and present extensively in the field of international education. Institutions and students using these affiliated...