UCSF School of Pharmacy

Foreign Academic Records

If you attended any college or university outside the U.S. (except for Canadian schools where English was the language of instruction), you must be able to provide official copies of your academic records to UCSF. These include transcripts (aka marks reports), degree certificates, and other academic documents.

Since gathering these materials can be a time-consuming process, we strongly recommend that you begin this process as early as possible.

Guidelines for Submitting Academic Records

1. You must submit records for all schools you have attended: Failure to report all academic institutions attended in both the PharmCAS application and the UCSF Supplemental application is grounds for the immediate cancellation of your application and/or withdrawal of any admission offers that may have been made. If discovery of unlisted enrollment is made after a student matriculates, the student is subject to dismissal from the university.

2. The type of record determines where it should be sent:

   1. Official copies of transcripts for all college-level work completed at a U.S. institution, or a Canadian school where English is the language of instruction, must be sent to the mailing address for PharmCAS. See the PharmCAS mailing address.
   2. Official copies of transcripts (sometimes called "marks reports") for all college-level work from schools outside of the U.S. or at a Canadian school where English is not the language of instruction should be sent from the issuing institution directly to our office at UCSF.
   3. If applicable, official copies of degree certificates must also be submitted and should be sent from the issuing institution directly to our office at UCSF.
   4. A World Education Services (WES) credential evaluation and course-by-course evaluation should be submitted as part of your Supplemental Application.

3. We can only accept "official" copies of these documents: To be considered official, documents must be received in an envelope sealed by the issuing institution and must bear all appropriate stamps, seals, chops, signatures, or marks. The documents must also be sent directly from the issuing institution to PharmCAS or to our office at UCSF as described in item 2 above. Documents forwarded by other individuals or submitted by the applicant are not considered official.

4. Submit English Translations: If the original language of the documents is not English, you must submit official copies, both in the original language and in English. The issuing institution must provide the English translation. Outside translations and translations completed by the applicant are not accepted.
5. Education Abroad Programs (EAP): If the course work taken outside of the U.S. was part of a formal EAP program administered by a U.S. college or university, you do not have to submit separate transcripts for this course work. You should follow the instructions for submitting transcripts for the PharmCAS application.

The materials outlined above are required by the University to verify your academic record. This verification is a separate requirement from that which determines if you have met our prerequisites with the course work listed in these documents. Additional materials are required to determine if the course work can be applied toward our prerequisites. For details, see Verifying Your Prerequisite Course Work from a Foreign College or University

Outside Evaluations

The School of Pharmacy accepts evaluations only from World Education Services (WES).

At this time evaluations from other services are not accepted, but the School of Pharmacy has initiated contact with other evaluation services and will post updated information as it becomes available.

To request an evaluation, or for questions about procedures, required documents, or costs, contact World Education Services.

Points to consider:

1. Official Documents Still Required: The WES evaluations cannot be submitted in lieu of official documents.

   Applicants must still also submit an official copy of all required materials (in both English and the original language) outlined above.

   In the rare situation when it is verified that an official English translation is unobtainable, the translation made by WES may be accepted without an official English translation from the issuing institution. These cases will be reviewed on an individual basis and will not exempt an applicant from any deadlines or minimum eligibility requirements.

   WES will provide a copy of the documents evaluated to compare to the official copies submitted as part of the supplemental application packet.

2. Verifying Academic History: It is necessary to verify the accuracy and authenticity of all applicants' prior academic records in a format that can be used and understood by the admissions review committee. This includes, but is not limited to, a transliteration (word to word translation) of subjects studied, grades awarded, degrees earned, institutions attended, and relative U.S. equivalents. In most cases, submitting both the credential evaluation and the course-by-course evaluation offered by WES will provide this information.
3. Prerequisite Standing: When reviewing course work to determine if the course work can be applied towards the pharmacy prerequisites, detailed information not available on a transcript or marks report is necessary. The WES course-by-course evaluation will only be able to provide some of these additional details. If you wish to apply this course work towards prerequisites, you must also submit official course descriptions in English along with your supplemental application. At times, additional information, such as course syllabi, may also be required. If this information cannot be provided, the course work in question cannot be used towards fulfilling the prerequisites.

All outside assessments are subject to review and approval by the UCSF School of Pharmacy. This includes, but is not limited to, decisions regarding acceptable credit, prerequisite fulfillment, GPA calculations, degree equivalencies, minimum passing grade levels, etc. The UCSF School of Pharmacy is not obligated to accept the conclusion of any outside evaluation. Furthermore, the above applies only to applications to the PharmD program. Applicants to other programs at UCSF or other University of California campuses must contact the program in question to determine its policy on the evaluation of foreign academic records.

Go To: Submitting Transcripts for the UCSF Supplemental Application