Education · Admissions
Academic translations for university admissions
Translate transcripts, diplomas, mark sheets, certificates, and other academic records into clear English for college and university applications. Always confirm whether your school also requires official delivery or a credential evaluation — this page explains the difference before you spend money on the wrong thing.
- Grades, credits, and course titles preserved
- Translation vs. evaluation, explained honestly
- Standard $16.99 · Express under 1 hour
Translation or evaluation? The short answer
If your school asks for an 'official English translation' or 'certified translation' of your academic records, that means a complete, word-for-word translation with a signed accuracy certification — that's what JukeLingo delivers. If it asks for a 'credential evaluation' (naming WES, ECE, SpanTran, or another NACES member), that's a different service that assesses what your foreign credential equals in the U.S. system — and evaluators themselves typically require an English translation of any document that isn't already in English.
So the sequence is: read your program's document instructions, order the translation when a translation is asked for (by the school or by your evaluator), and order the evaluation from an evaluator — JukeLingo doesn't perform evaluations.
Each admissions office decides what it accepts; the instructions on your program's application page control.
Academic documents we translate
Admissions and registrar offices work from a small set of document types. We translate all of them in full — including grading legends, stamps, and seals:
- Academic transcriptThe course-by-course record — the document registrars and evaluators read most closely.
- DiplomaThe degree award document, with seals and signatures translated and labeled.
- Mark sheetsPer-year or per-exam grade sheets, common in South Asian and other education systems.
- Degree certificateWhere your system issues the degree separately from the diploma or transcript.
- Enrollment and graduation certificatesProof-of-status letters some programs request alongside transcripts.
- Course descriptions and syllabiRequested for transfer credit and course-by-course review.
- Examination resultsSchool-leaving and national exam certificates.
- Recommendation lettersWhen your recommender wrote in another language.
How it works
Check the instructions
Confirm whether your school or evaluator wants a certified translation, an evaluation, or both — the helper below walks you through it.
Upload your records
Scan or photograph each document — including reverse sides and grading legends. You'll see the exact price before paying.
We translate everything
Course titles, grades, credit values, honors notations, stamps, and seals — carried over exactly, never converted.
Sign and submit
Your bilingual signer signs the prepared certification page (or a JukeLingo translator signs on Pro), and you submit per your program's instructions.
What you receive
The deliverable is the complete English translation of each academic record plus a certification page prepared for signature.
- Complete transcript translation
Every course, grade, and credit value — plus the grading legend, so the reader can interpret your scale.
- Faithful grade handling
Grades appear exactly as issued (percentages, 0–10 scales, letters). No GPA conversion — that's the evaluator's or university's job.
- Prepared certification page
The signed-accuracy statement schools and evaluators look for, pre-filled with the language pair and date.
- Digital delivery
Download and upload to your application portal, or print for mailed submissions — per your program's instructions.
Sample: a transcript with grades preserved
A fictional university transcript translated the way registrars and evaluators expect: course titles in clean English, grades exactly as issued on the original 0–10 scale, credits untouched, and the grading legend translated alongside. No GPA conversion — ever.
National University of San Ficticio — Office of the Registrar
Student: Lucía Ramírez Ejemplo · Student ID: 94-03127 · Program: Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering
| Course | Grade (0–10 scale) | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Calculus I | 8.7 | 6 |
| General Chemistry | 7.9 | 5 |
| Introduction to Engineering | 9.2 | 4 |
| Technical Drawing | 8.1 | 3 |
| Academic Writing | 8.5 | 3 |
Scale 0–10. Minimum passing grade: 6.0. 9.0–10 Outstanding; 8.0–8.9 Very good; 7.0–7.9 Good; 6.0–6.9 Satisfactory. One credit equals 16 contact hours.
An 8.7 stays an 8.7 — on the transcript's own 0–10 scale, with the grading legend translated so any reader can interpret it.
Credit values and contact-hour definitions are carried over exactly as the institution issued them.
Converting to a U.S. 4.0 GPA is credential evaluation — a separate service evaluators perform. A faithful translation never reinterprets your grades.
Sample document — all names, places, numbers, and records are fictional.
Grades, GPA, and credit handling
A certified translation carries your grades exactly as your institution issued them. It does not convert them to a U.S. 4.0 GPA and does not reassign credit hours — that conversion is credential evaluation, done by evaluators and admissions offices.
Education systems grade on very different scales — 0–10, 0–20, percentages, letter bands, class ranks. The translation's job is fidelity: your 8.6/10 stays an 8.6/10 in English, with the grading legend translated alongside it so the reader can interpret the scale the way your institution defined it.
Converting grades inside a translation would misrepresent the source document — and admissions offices notice. When a program wants U.S.-style grades, it asks for a course-by-course evaluation, which is exactly the service evaluators exist to provide.
The same goes for credits: contact hours, ECTS points, or units are translated as issued, with their labels intact, so an evaluator or registrar can do the mapping with full information.
'Official documents' vs. 'certified translation'
'Official' usually describes how a document reaches the school — issued by your institution, often in a sealed envelope or sent directly. 'Certified' describes the translation — a signed statement that the English rendering is complete and accurate. A document can need both.
A typical requirement reads: 'official transcripts in the original language, accompanied by a certified English translation.' That means the school wants institution-issued records and a certified translation of them — two separate properties of your submission.
Sealed records deserve special care. If your registrar issued a sealed envelope intended for the university, don't open it to translate the contents — that usually breaks its 'official' status. Request an additional student copy for translation, or ask the admissions office how they want translations of sealed records handled.
How schools want translations delivered
Most programs accept uploads to their application portal; some want records sent directly by your institution or evaluator. The program's instructions control — check before you submit.
Common patterns: undergraduate applications typically collect documents through application portals; graduate programs often want transcripts uploaded for review and official records sent only after admission; programs requiring evaluation usually have the evaluator deliver its report directly.
Whatever the channel, keep both versions together: the original-language record and its certified translation travel as a pair. And keep your own copies — you'll reuse them for future applications, visas, and employment.
About WES and other evaluators
World Education Services (WES) and other NACES-member evaluators determine the U.S. equivalency of foreign credentials. JukeLingo doesn't perform evaluations, and evaluators don't certify translations — the services complement each other.
An evaluation typically verifies your documents with the issuing institution and reports degree equivalency; course-by-course reports add U.S.-style grade and credit conversion. Schools name a required evaluator (or a list) when they want this.
Each evaluator publishes its own document requirements — which records it needs, whether they must arrive directly from your institution, and what it requires for translations. Many accept certified translations submitted with your documents; confirm your evaluator's current instructions before ordering, because the evaluator's checklist controls.
Certified translation vs. credential evaluation
These are complementary services, not substitutes — and ordering the wrong one wastes weeks.
| Certified translation | Credential evaluation | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Renders your documents into English, word for word, with a signed accuracy certification. Your grades and credits stay exactly as issued. | Assesses what your foreign credential is equivalent to in the U.S. system — degree equivalency, and in course-by-course reports, U.S.-style grades and credit hours. |
| Who performs it | A translation service like JukeLingo, or any competent translator willing to certify. | Evaluation agencies — WES, ECE, SpanTran, and other members of NACES or similar associations. |
| What the instructions say | 'Certified English translation', 'official English translation'. | 'Credential evaluation', 'course-by-course evaluation', 'WES evaluation required'. |
| How they interact | Evaluators typically require an English translation of any document not already in English — many accept certified translations. | The evaluation is built on your original documents plus translations, and is usually sent to the school directly. |
JukeLingo performs translations only. If your program names an evaluator, you'll likely need both — confirm the evaluator's own document and translation requirements before ordering anything.
What does your school ask for?
Pick the wording that matches your program's instructions and we'll point you at the right next step — even when that step isn't us.
Common admissions translation mistakes
Ordering the wrong service
A translation when the school wanted an evaluation — or an evaluation when it only wanted a translation. Read the exact wording first; the helper above decodes it.
Converting grades to a U.S. scale
A translation that 'helpfully' converts your 8.6/10 to a 3.4 GPA misrepresents the source document. Grades stay as issued.
Translating the diploma but not the transcript
Programs usually want the course-by-course record. Check whether transcripts, mark sheets, or both are on the list.
Opening a sealed registrar envelope
Sealed means sealed — opening it to translate the contents usually voids its official status. Get a student copy translated instead.
Skipping the grading legend or reverse side
The legend is how a U.S. reader interprets your scale. If it's printed on the back, the back gets translated.
Waiting until the deadline week
Translation is fast (Express is under an hour) — but evaluations and institution-sent documents take weeks. Sequence accordingly.
How JukeLingo quality control works
Academic records are dense, tabular, and unforgiving of shortcuts. Every order runs through a layered pipeline: complete-document translation, automated completeness checks tuned for tables and grade fields, and flagging rules that route edge cases — illegible entries, mismatched source language — to human review before delivery.
Pro orders add a human layer: a JukeLingo translator reviews the translation and signs the certification personally, covered by the Pro Translation Guarantee (60 days, translation-related rejections — details in our refund policy).
- Course-by-course fidelity — titles, grades, credits, legends
- Tables rendered as clean labeled fields, not garbled columns
- Automated completeness checks on every order
- Edge cases held for human review before delivery
- Pro Translation Guarantee on Pro orders
Which plan for admissions?
All plans deliver the same complete translation and certification page — pick by deadline and by who signs.
- Standard · $16.99 · 24 hours
Application season pacing: Standard
Ready within 24 hours. Right for most applicants working ahead of a deadline, with a bilingual signer available.
Choose Standard - Express · $32.99 · Under 1 hour
Portal closes tonight: Express
Under an hour from upload to download when the deadline is now.
Choose Express - Pro · $39.99 · 24 hours
No bilingual signer: Pro
A JukeLingo translator certifies and signs — useful when you're applying from a campus where nobody can attest to both languages.
Choose Pro
Pricing is per page — a multi-page transcript bills by its page count, the exact total shows before you pay, and the certification page is always included.
Choose your delivery speed and signer.
Ready-to-Sign is the most affordable option when you have a qualified bilingual signer. Choose Pro when you want a designated JukeLingo translator to review and sign the certification.
Volume discounts apply automatically at 2, 3, and 5+ documents.
- Full English translation
- Prepared certification page
- Professionally formatted for official use
- Everything included with Standard
- Translation begins immediately
- Priority processing
- Best for urgent deadlines
- Full English translation
- Signed certification with timestamp
- Best when you do not have a bilingual signer
- Covered by the Pro Translation Guarantee
University translation FAQ
Do universities accept JukeLingo translations?
Many schools accept certified translations like ours where their instructions call for a certified English translation. Each admissions office sets its own document rules, so follow your program's application instructions — they control what's accepted.
Is JukeLingo a credential evaluator like WES?
No. We provide certified translations only. Credential evaluation — assessing U.S. equivalency of your degree or courses — is performed by evaluators such as WES, ECE, or other NACES members. The two services complement each other; evaluators typically also require English translations.
Do you convert my grades to a U.S. GPA?
No, deliberately. A certified translation reproduces your grades exactly as issued, with the grading legend translated so readers can interpret your scale. GPA conversion is credential evaluation, which is the evaluator's or university's job.
What is a mark sheet?
A per-year or per-examination grade sheet issued in many education systems, especially in South Asia. Programs that ask for 'all mark sheets' want each year's or exam's sheet — and each one that isn't in English needs a certified translation.
My transcript is in a sealed envelope. Can you translate it?
Don't open a sealed envelope your registrar issued for the university — that usually voids its official status. Request an additional student copy from your institution for translation, or ask the admissions office how they want sealed-record translations handled.
How much does a transcript translation cost?
Standard is $16.99 per page; a longer transcript bills by its page count. Express (under 1 hour) is $32.99 per page and Pro (translator-signed) is $39.99 per page. You see the exact total before paying.
Do I submit the original-language records too?
Usually yes — schools typically want the original-language record and the certified translation together. Follow your program's instructions on how each should arrive.
Can I translate my own transcript?
It's discouraged, and some schools disallow it outright. The certification's value is an attestation from someone without a stake in your application. A bilingual signer on Standard or Express — or a JukeLingo translator on Pro — keeps the certification credible.
Can I upload the translated documents myself?
Often yes during application review — most portals accept applicant uploads of transcripts and translations. Some schools later require official records sent directly by your institution or evaluator after admission. A correct translation doesn't make an unofficial copy official, so follow both sets of delivery instructions.
Do I need both my diploma and transcript translated?
Check your program's document list. Many programs want the course-by-course transcript above all; some also require the diploma or degree certificate, and systems that issue separate mark sheets may need each sheet. Translate what the list names — no more, no less.
Can you translate handwritten or stamped records?
Yes. Handwritten entries, registrar stamps, and seals are translated and labeled as such, and anything genuinely unreadable is marked illegible rather than guessed. Older mark sheets and ledger-style records are a routine part of academic translation work.
Get your records ready for admissions
Upload your transcript, diploma, or mark sheets now — Standard is $16.99 per document, with Express in under an hour when the portal deadline is tonight.
Upload My Document →Sources
The guidance on this page is compiled from the official resources below. Requirements change — the receiving authority's current instructions always control.
- NACES — National Association of Credential Evaluation Services — the association most U.S. schools reference for evaluators
- World Education Services (WES) — the most commonly named evaluator; publishes per-country document requirements
- EducationUSA (U.S. Department of State) — official guidance for international applicants to U.S. institutions
Last reviewed 2026-08-17 · Reviewed by the JukeLingo translation operations team against the cited official sources