Document by Document vs Course by Course Credential Evaluation

The core difference

A document-by-document report confirms your credential exists, is genuine, and states its US equivalent, for example equivalent to a Bachelor's degree in the United States. A course-by-course report does that too, then goes further and lists every individual course you took, converts each grade to a US letter grade and credit value, and calculates a cumulative GPA on the 4.0 scale.

What a document-by-document report is for

This report suits situations where an institution only needs to confirm your degree level, not your individual grades or GPA. Employers checking that a candidate holds a genuine bachelor's degree, or processes that need a general equivalency statement, commonly accept this format. It is the cheaper and faster of the two options at most evaluators.

What a course-by-course report is for

Graduate admissions committees, undergraduate transfer offices awarding credit for prior coursework, and licensing boards almost always require course-by-course, because they need your GPA and your subject-level course history, not only a degree-level statement. If your target program's application asks for a GPA calculation or a US GPA equivalent, order this report type, not document-by-document.

What each report shows on the page

A document-by-document report is short: your name, the institution you attended, the credential name and date awarded, and a plain-English statement of the US equivalency, for example equivalent to a Bachelor of Science degree. A course-by-course report starts the same way, then adds a full table listing every course title you completed, its credit or unit value, your original grade, the converted US letter grade, and a cumulative GPA on the 4.0 scale at the end. WES describes its course-by-course report as including a list of all courses completed at the post-secondary level with a US semester credit and grade equivalent for each one.

A middle option: general evaluation with GPA

ECE also sells a General with GPA report, priced between its General and Course by Course options. It gives a calculated GPA without listing every individual course, useful if a program asks for a GPA number specifically but does not need the full course breakdown. Not every evaluator offers this middle tier, WES splits its options strictly into document-by-document and course-by-course.

Same idea, different names across evaluators

Evaluators do not always use the same labels for the same report. WES calls its basic option Document-by-Document. ECE calls its equivalent option General. Both describe a report that confirms your degree and its US equivalency without listing individual courses. When your target program's instructions use generic language like credential evaluation or degree equivalency rather than naming an exact evaluator's report, match it to whichever evaluator's basic-tier option, not the detailed course-level one.

Price and turnaround by evaluator (2026)

Source: WES evaluations and fees and ECE services and fees , current as of 2026. Prices exclude delivery and rush fees, and other NACES member agencies set their own separate fee schedules.

How to tell which one your program wants

Read your target program's application instructions or international admissions page directly. Look for the specific phrase they use. Course-by-course, detailed evaluation, or GPA calculation all point to the course-by-course report. General evaluation, degree equivalency, or a plain mention of credential evaluation without further detail often means document-by-document is acceptable, but confirm directly if the page reads as ambiguous.

Contact the admissions office before you pay for either report if the instructions do not specify a type. Ordering the wrong report wastes the fee and the days it took to process, and you need to order and pay for the correct one separately afterward.

Ordering the wrong report

Evaluators generally do not convert a document-by-document report into a course-by-course one after the fact. You order and pay for a new report from your existing file, though some evaluators charge less for this since your documents are already on record. Confirm the reorder policy and fee with your evaluator before assuming a mistake is a quick fix.

Applying to schools with different requirements

If one program on your list accepts document-by-document and another requires course-by-course, order the course-by-course report and send it to both. A course-by-course report contains everything a document-by-document report shows plus more detail, so a program that only asked for the basic version generally accepts the more thorough one too. Confirm this with each admissions office rather than assuming, since a small number of programs specify the exact report type and reject a different one.

If your program's instructions do not say either way

When an application only says submit a credential evaluation without naming a report type, course-by-course is the safer default. It costs more, but it satisfies both a program that only needed the basic version and one that needed the detailed course breakdown, avoiding a second order and a second wait if the admissions office turns out to want more detail than you assumed.