This topic pertains to applicants who attended foreign and French-Canadian schools. These instructions do not apply to applicants who attended a foreign school as part of a study abroad program. See Study Abroad and Overseas US Transcripts for more information on reporting your study abroad experience.
Canadian Schools
English-Canadian Transcripts
Canadian schools that provide English transcripts are not considered foreign. Transcripts from these schools must be sent to VMCAS. We accept but do not require foreign evaluations from Canadian schools that provide transcripts in English. Please see the US and English-Canadian Transcripts section for information on reporting that coursework.
French-Canadian Transcripts
Canadian schools that issue transcripts in French are considered foreign and must be reported like any other foreign school. We cannot accept original Canadian transcripts which are written in French. However, foreign evaluations for these schools should be sent to VMCAS.
Caribbean Medical Schools
All Caribbean medical schools are considered foreign institutions and are not US accredited, even if they have offices in the US or allow US licensing. This includes Ross University of School of Medicine as well as Caribbean medical schools who participate in the VMCAS application. Do not send transcripts from these schools to VMCAS, as they will be discarded.
Note that a foreign credential evaluation from World Education Service (WES) is required and should be sent directly to VMCAS.
Documenting Foreign Coursework
If you attended a foreign school or earned your degree outside of the United States, you must submit your foreign coursework to a US-based evaluation service for a course-by-course US equivalency report. This report should then be sent directly to VMCAS from the evaluation service.
Contact a foreign transcript evaluation service as early as possible. See below for more information about vendors and accepted formats. Services can take several weeks to process your transcript(s) once received.
Do not send foreign transcripts to VMCAS, including those printed in English or translated into English; they will be discarded.
Foreign Evaluation Vendors
VMCAS only accepts electronic foreign evaluations from World Education Services (WES), Inc.
Requesting a WES Foreign Credential Evaluation
You must order WES electronic evaluations directly through the VMCAS application. If you do not order through the application, your evaluation will not be accepted.
- Enter your schools in the Colleges Attended section.
- Navigate to the Academic Records page and click Order next to the foreign institution under Official Evaluations. If you don’t see your school listed, it means you didn’t enter it as a foreign institution – return to the Colleges Attended section to fix this.
- Select Yes to indicate you are ordering an electronic international coursework evaluation. Then, click the WES button.
- Click Visit WES.
- VMCAS is pre-selected for you (if not, select from the drop-down). Follow the prompts to order your transcript evaluation.
- Once you’ve requested the evaluation, return to the application and click Yes to indicate you were able to request the evaluation. When WES completes your evaluation, they'll send it to us electronically.
