Very short answer: No, you must use the word degree.
Long answer: My best guess is that this sentence comes from a high-school physics textbook.
"The way to tell a true unit from a degree of something is to look at the zero point".
In this sentence, the word "degree" is being used to mean "those units of measurement which take the word degree", (degrees Celcius, degrees Fahrenheit, etc). It is contrasting these units with "true units", (metres, feet, amps, etc), which do not take the word "degree".
We don't say "degrees feet" or "degrees tonnes", but should say "degrees celcius" or "degrees Fahrenheit". Why? Your sentence tells you: by looking at the zero point.
A quantity expressed in a true unit, -- such as a metre, second, foot, or amp, -- is such that zero means that there is nothing-at-all of a thing.
Zero metres is identical to zero feet, or zero inches, or zero light-years, it means no distance at all. Zero tonnes, zero grains and zero ounces are similarly equal, and represent a lack of weight. These are true units.
In some cases, "nothing at all" of a thing is hard to find or inconvenient to use. The classic case of this is temperature, where "no temperature at all" is hard to create or find in nature. In such cases zero must be placed rather arbitrarily and negative quantities admitted. Zero degrees Fahrenheit is not zero degrees Celcius and neither represent a lack of temperature. They therefore have "degrees" in front of them. They are so marked because there are considerable implications to this arbitrary positioning of zero.
So the way to tell if something should take the word "degree" is to look at what zero means. If it means none-at-all of a thing then it may be a true unit. If zero has been placed by convention at an (often convenient) point then it is a degree unit and not a true unit at all.
The document required for admission to universities in the US is the official transcript. Most US universities require that equivalent documents be submitted first to a third-party translation and evaluation service such as World Education Services (WES).
http://www.wes.org/required/index.asp
The most likely equivalent to an official transcript is the certificado de estudios, but it may need to be accompanied by the titulo universitario.
tran·script
noun \ˈtran(t)-ˌskript\
: a written, printed, or typed copy of words that have been spoken
: an official record of a student's grades
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transcript
Best Answer
I can't speak for other languages or cultures but in Britain the terms certificate, diploma and degree apply to specific levels of education.
The GCSC, or General Certificate of Standard Education, is your school leaving qualifications at 16. From there you can either go for a National Diploma at college or "A" levels at school - the two are generally equivalent and normally take two years. The National Diploma is more often of a more practical nature whereas "A" levels are usually more academic.
Which ever route you choose you can then go on to either a Higher National Diploma (a further 2 years) or a Degree (typically 3 years). A Degree is a higher qualification than an HND and again is often more academic.
Above the degree you have the PhD (or D.Phil), Masters and Baccalaureates. There is some fuzziness between the difference between these, but it basically boils down to the focus of the course. From my understanding above the Degree the terms are pretty much universal throughout the world - a PhD from Oxford is as good as a PhD from Harvard.
And then of course you have the extra meaning of some of the words. For instance, Certificate and Diploma can apply to any piece of paper. Certificate can be for any achievement in any field, not necessarily to do with education in any way at all. For instance I have a Bronze Swimming Certificate. It just marks some point of achievement for doing something. Diploma, on the other hand, is reserved for a certificate pertaining to academic achievement.