Saturday, April 1, 2017

Translation of Transcripts to Include in Your PhD Application

Again, since I'm not from an English-speaking country, I had additional work to do to apply. Schools require that you send transcripts in English. So, if your transcripts are in another language, you have to translate them. But you shouldn't do the translation yourself, even if you are able to.

And there is not much guidance from schools about how you should proceed to translate your transcripts. In Brazil, there is something called "tradução juramentada", which is a translation made by an officially sworn professional. And I see that a lot of Brazilian applicants pay those professionals to translate transcripts. From what I've read, it seems a waste of time and money. Because the US do not usually require such a thing.

So, what worked for me? One school informed that the translation should be from a professional associated to ATA (American Translators Association). That really helped. Because now I could search for someone to do the work for me, in a way that is accepted by US schools.

All my transcripts and diplomas from my bachelor's degree, my MBA, and my Master of Science were translated by Rev.com. I found them to be cheaper than the "tradução juramentada" we have in Brazil. They were also fast, translations took about 1 day in most cases. The whole process is online. Ok, translations were not perfect, I could do a better job. But that's because I know what I studied. It's not easy to translate something you're not acquainted with. Many people would translate "fusão" as "fusion", for example. Because yeah, "fusão" can mean "fusion". But, in business, "fusão" takes another meaning: "merger". So, if there may be problems with your transcripts like that, I suggest you inform Rev's translator, so they know the best way to translate something they don't know.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you so much for this information. Even though my markscards are in English, many universities still ask for transcripts which mention equivalent score by US Standards. Every bit of information in your blog is very useful for PhD aspirants especially in business domain.

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