Understanding the Verification Process

Overview

The verification process involves several other of Liaison's processes, including:

Processing official transcripts and foreign evaluations.
Reviewing and verifying entered coursework.
Calculating select CAS GPAs.

Review each of the sections below to learn more about each process.

Official Transcripts and Foreign Evaluations

When official transcripts and foreign evaluations are received by Liaison, they are posted to the applicant's application. The Processing team sorts, opens, scans, digitizes, authenticates, and posts the official transcripts and evaluations to the applicant's application. If necessary, personal information such as social security numbers is redacted. Once the transcript or evaluation is posted to the applicant's application, a Received Date is given. Note that it can take up to five business days for a transcript or evaluation to post to an application from the date we receive it.

Electronic Transcripts

Liaison partners with National Student Clearinghouse and Parchment to accept electronic domestic (i.e., US and English Canadian) transcripts. After an applicant places a transcript order, they receive an order confirmation email. The electronic transcript is sent to Liaison, and the Processing team sorts and posts the official transcripts to the applicant's application. Note that using this service does not expedite the processing of transcripts.

Electronic Foreign Evaluations

Liaison partners with World Education Services (WES), Inc. and Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc. to accept electronic foreign evaluations. Applicants request an electronic evaluation and specify which CAS to send the evaluation to. Once WES or ECE completes their evaluation, it is sent to Liaison, and the Processing team sorts and posts the official evaluation to the applicant's application.

Applicant Official Transcript and Foreign Evaluation Communications

Verification

There are two types of verification Liaison offers: Full Verification and Verification Lite. These are optional services; contact a member of your account team to learn if your CAS uses verification and, if so, which type.

Full Verification

Full verification is the process of ensuring that all of an applicant's coursework is entered correctly and consistently. Since credit values, grade values, and course subjects vary widely from school to school, programs need some type of standardization so they can accurately compare applicants. This standardization is achieved by using the applicant's coursework to create a standard set of GPAs, ensuring they are compared to other applicants fairly and equally.

Several things happen during verification:

All components of coursework, including terms, term type (i.e., quarter or semester-based system), course prefixes, titles, subjects, attempted credits, grades, and classifications (i.e., repeated courses, test scores, honors level, etc.), are compared to the official transcripts received.
Each course entered in the Transcript Entry section is placed under a specific course subject category.
Each grade entered in the Transcript Entry section is converted to a CAS grade value.
GPAs are calculated using the converted grade values.
Degrees are authenticated.

Once verification is completed, the applicant's application status will move from Complete to Verified.

If mistakes are found, our Verification staff will note the changes in the Verified Credits and Verified Grade columns in WebAdMIT's Electronic Transcript panel and any GPAs calculated will use these values. If significant mistakes are found in the applicant's coursework during the verification process, their application will be undelivered (i.e., returned to them for corrections).

Verification Lite

In Verification Lite, applicants must submit their official transcripts to the CAS, and then Liaison's Verification team manually enters the applicant's transcript GPA.

A CAS may also allow applicants to enter coursework, but that coursework is not verified; only the transcript GPAs and degrees are verified.

Applicant Verification Communications

CAS GPA Calculations

Each CAS determines if they will calculate GPAs and if so, which GPAs they would like to have calculated based on their transcript entry requirements. This is an optional service; contact a member of your account team to learn if your CAS offers GPA calculations.

GPAs you may see include:

Academic Year*: GPAs calculated based on the academic year an applicant completed coursework (e.g., senior year, undergraduate, overall).
Official ECE/WES: GPAs calculated for foreign transcript evaluations by Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc. and World Education Services (WES), Inc.
School*: GPAs calculated based on coursework completed at each school entered in Colleges Attended.
Subject*: GPAs calculated based on the course subjects assigned to an applicant's coursework (e.g., science, mathematics, English).
Transcript: this GPA calculation is typically used for CASs that do not collect coursework. Instead, the Verification team enters the applicant's GPA based upon the official transcripts received.

*If the CAS does not require any transcript entry, then this GPA is not available.

If your CAS offers verification, then your CAS-calculated GPAs only include verified coursework and are automatically updated when new coursework is verified, such as during Academic Update (AU).

If you believe a GPA was calculated incorrectly:

Note that all courses are listed with semester credits; if a course was originally listed as unit or quarter credits, it will be converted to semester credits. The standard conversion ratio is 1 quarter credit equals 0.667 semester credits.
Identify the area you believe is causing the incorrect calculation (e.g., Post-Baccalaureate Science GPA) and calculate the GPA yourself using the GPA calculator.
If, after calculating the GPA, you still believe there is an error, email the Client Support Specialist team at outcomessupport@liaisonedu.com with the problematic area and your calculations, and they can review your request.