What To Do If Your High School Diploma Is Not Equivalent To A US Diploma

Many people move to the US to study or work. Colleges and employers will usually ask them to prove their education, including high school.

Will your high school diploma from another country be accepted in the US? It depends on who is asking.

The college you apply to, the employer hiring you, or a state licensing board decides whether your foreign diploma counts.

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As A Foreign Student, Is Your High School Diploma Acceptable In The US?

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The first step is usually a credential evaluation. It compares your secondary school diploma and transcripts with a US high school diploma.

Federal student aid rules, for example, accept a foreign diploma only if it is equivalent to a U.S. high school diploma. A college may judge that itself or ask you to use an evaluation service.

Evaluations are usually done by private credential evaluation companies for a fee. Ask the school or employer which service it accepts before you pay.

Start by asking the high school you attended for official copies of your diploma and transcripts. These show that you attended and finished the program.

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What To Do In Order To Qualify For Work Or Study In The US

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If the evaluation finds your diploma is not equivalent to a US high school diploma, you have two main options.

The first is to take the GED test. Pass all four subjects and you earn a high school equivalency credential, which colleges and employers widely accept in place of a diploma.

You don’t have to be a US citizen to take the GED. Age, residency and ID rules are set by each state, so check your state’s page on GED.com (Texas shown as an example).

The second option, if the evaluation shows specific gaps, is to take adult education or night classes to fill them. You can then send the new credits and your diploma back to the evaluator for an updated report.

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Needing an evaluation does not mean your home country’s education is weaker. School systems simply differ, and US schools and employers need a way to compare them.

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