Hi there!

I obtained my law degree in Colombia South America and I will be applying for the LLM at Columbia University and NYU starting in September, 2005. Does anyone one know if diplomas and transcripts that one must submit with the application must be legalized by Apostille or is it enough with a copy certified by a public notary and certified translation of such documents?

I mean what requirements such documents should fulfill in order to be acceptable by the Universities in the US?

Thanks in advance for your answer.

Hi Sofi,

"certified" does - at least judging from my experience (I am from Germany) - not mean that you have to go to a notary. It is sufficient if on the transcript something like this appears:

"We certify that the courses listed correspond to the student´s course records and the grades reported to the performance certificates presented in the original. Lecture courses are not graded." Signature of an administration officer, stamp, and that's that.

The translation of your diploma may be done in a similar way. Hand over a copy of the original version and a translated version on which an official states that this translation is in correspondence with the document presented in the original.

Best wishes

Ups, if you're lecture courses are graded, you should skip the last sentence with respect to the transcript....

in my case, i just asked some extra (original) transcripts and docs at my school, and they were sent with the translations made by an official translator...no notary publics.

(as regards the Apostille, i had them in my docs just in case, but now i know they were not necessary)

Thank you very much for your answers!!!