French College Application Translation
French college application translation to English for a lycéen or a cégépien applying to a US college, covering the bulletins scolaires, the relevé des épreuves anticipées du bac, the attestation de scolarité and the teachers' lettres de recommandation that the Common App and each admissions office require in English.
- Up to 250 words per page
- $25 per page
- Standard turnaround
- From 24 hours
- Certificate of accuracy
- Signed & stamped
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Written for French college application records
What a US admissions office needs from a French lycée file
A French student has no GPA and no counselor report, so the bulletins and the teachers' comments do that work, and they only do it if they are translated whole.
Three years of bulletins, three a year
US colleges ask for the record from seconde, première and terminale, which in France means nine trimestrial bulletins, or six under the semester system some lycées use. Each one gives the student's moyenne per subject beside the class average and the highest and lowest marks, which is the context a US reader needs to make sense of a 13 in philosophy. We translate every bulletin in the same layout so the three years can be read side by side.
Appréciations are the recommendations
French teachers do not write letters on request; they write the appréciation on each bulletin, two lines per subject in a terse register, and the professeur principal adds the conseil de classe's decision. When a teacher does agree to write a lettre de recommandation, it is in French and often on plain paper. We translate the comments and the letters word for word, including the critical ones, because an edited version would no longer be the record the school sent.
Bac results that arrive mid-application
The épreuves anticipées in French, written and oral, are taken in première and their relevé is available before applications open. The spécialité results and the grand oral come in terminale, after most deadlines, and the full relevé du bac with the mention arrives in July. Colleges want each stage translated as it is published and the final relevé for enrollment. A Québec applicant sends the bulletin d'études collégiales with the cote R instead.
Who is asking for your French college application translation?
The translation is the same. What changes is whether the recipient wants anything added to it.
Universities and admissions offices
Admissions offices accept a certified translation they can read next to the original. A PDF is usually enough; ask for a hard copy if they want one.
Credential evaluators
WES, ECE and similar services ask for a word-for-word certified translation of each page, sent alongside the official transcript.
ECFMG and medical boards
Applicants to US medical programs send transcripts and diplomas through ECFMG, which asks for an English translation of every document that is not in English.
Before you upload
Three things that save a day of back and forth on a French college application.
Send the whole packet in one order
Transcripts, the diploma, recommendation letters and the grading scale travel together. One order keeps the names, dates and course titles consistent across every page.
Separate the records from your essays
Admissions offices want official records translated word for word. Essays and statements are usually written in English by the applicant, so upload only what the school will read as evidence.
Count on more than one page per sheet
A transcript or a course description holds a lot of text. The quote counts words, not sheets, so a dense sheet may price as two or three pages.
Details and pricing
What is included in a French college application translation
One price per page covers the translation and its certification. A page is up to 250 words, and the quote tells you the page count before you pay.
Everything on the college application is translated, including stamps, seals and handwritten notes. Tell us the English spelling you use for each name when you order.
Certified Translation
Word-for-word translation with a certificate of accuracy for official use.
$25
USD / page
up to 250 words per page
Included
- Signed & stamped certification of translation accuracy
- Certified by a professional translator
- Digital delivery via PDF
- Review and approve final translation
- 100% Guaranteed Acceptance
- Standard turnaround starting at 24 hours
Optional services
- Expedited turnaround
- Priority handling when your deadline is shorter than the standard turnaround.
- By deadline
- Notarization
- A notary public signs and stamps the certification statement.
- $20 per order
- Physical copy
- A wet-ink original of your translation, mailed by express courier.
- $35 per order
- Apostille
- Authenticates the notary’s signature and seal for use in Hague Convention countries.
- $180 per document
What the certificate of accuracy states
Your translation arrives with a Certification of Translation Accuracy issued by ImmiTranslate. It is the page the receiving organization checks first.
- The translation is complete and accurate.
- The document title and the language pair.
- The translator is competent in both languages.
- A signature and the ImmiTranslate certification stamp.
- Our American Translators Association corporate membership.
Our translation process
Our goal is to make the translation process as simple as possible for you. Our service is streamlined specifically for documents of this nature.
French College Application FAQ
Most questions about pricing and turnaround can be answered faster by requesting a quote.
- Does the Common App require a certified translation?
- Colleges require that any document in another language arrive with an English translation, and most specify that it be done by a professional translator or the school, not the applicant. Our certified translation is signed and states the translator's competence, which satisfies the checklists we have seen. Ask the college if it also wants the school to upload the originals through the counselor portal.
- Can you translate the livret scolaire or the attestation de scolarité?
- Yes. The attestation de scolarité from the lycée proves current enrollment and names the class you are in. The livret scolaire du lycée, the digital record used by the bac jury, is a longer document that few colleges ask for. Send the attestation with the bulletins, and the livret only if a checklist names it.
- I am a US student applying to a French university or a cégep. Do you translate into French?
- Yes. A demande d'admission préalable for a first-year place at a French université, and some cégeps and Québec universities, ask for high school transcripts and diplomas in French, sometimes by a translator the consulate recognizes. We translate the transcript, the diploma and recommendation letters into French, keep US grades and credits as printed, and can notarize the set if the university asks.
- How much does a certified translation cost?
- Certified translation is $25 per page, with a page counted as up to 250 words. Notarization, a mailed physical copy and an apostille are optional and priced separately.
- How long does a certified translation take?
- Standard turnaround starts at 24 hours and depends on the length and language of your documents. If you have a deadline, include it in your quote request.
Other French documents we translate
College application translation in other languages
Each of these pages is written for that language's college application records.
