Transcripts

Anekantavada · 09-09-2009, 12:39 PM

As I mentioned in my chance thread, I attended a small private school for my freshman and sophomore years of high school (which I now regret), and have been 'unschooling' and taking dual-enrollment courses since. My question regards transcripts. I know I will have to send in 3 separate ones -- one from my old school, one from my community college, and one for my homeschool activities. What I am wondering is what should be included in my homeschool transcript. Should I include my entire academic career, or only information for my junior and senior years? Should I include the community college courses, or list only those activities done at home? Since we don't do grades or strictly-defined 'courses', I'm really struggling with how to best present my educational experiences. I suppose I should include a list of resources I have consulted, books I have read, etc.? Any advice would be much appreciated.

'rentof2 · 09-09-2009, 07:09 PM

We wrote up a "master transcript" that contained studies done at home, a few taken at the local high school, and college classes. (We also had the high school and college submit official transcripts.)

In addition to the master transcript, we prepared a few pages of course descriptions. These were only for the studies that took place at home or outside of the high school or college. They were brief descriptions of topics covered and materials/books used. We did (retroactively) assign grades in order to calculate a GPA, but offered both a cumulative GPA of all course work and also an additional one that excluded the homeschool grades.

But there's not one set way to do it. You can adapt how you do it to best present yourself.

Anekantavada · 09-09-2009, 07:26 PM

Thanks for the ideas; I really didn't know how to go about doing this. I was considering doing something along the lines of a 'master transcript' but wasn't sure how acceptable or preferable that would be. Is a weighted GPA necessary? How would one go about calculating dual-enrollment courses?

Anekantavada · 09-09-2009, 08:04 PM

Also, since I have studied multiple (three) languages in high school, should I list them each as separate courses? The only one I studied for truly academic purposes is Spanish; I studied French and German more for personal reasons than anything. It seems rather odd to list languages as extracurricular activities, though.

schnp · 09-30-2009, 03:41 PM

It sounds like one master transcript would be the best way to condense information across three different sources of education.

For your community college courses, if you used those courses to have enough credits to graduate high school then you need to include them on your transcript too. Depending on the school, the classes may also be applied as course credit at your college. The official community college transcript still has to be sent along with your application of course.

I was home schooled but not unschooled so I'm afraid I don't have any idea how to put that in transcript form.

I would definitely list Spanish. Depending on how you choose to handle your unschooler curriculum then you might also include the other two. I think it would be easier to rationalize including them if you had some objective support like AP or SAT II exams in those languages showing your ability.

Hopefully this was helpful, though I feel like it may have been a little confusing so let me know if I can help clarify something.

reezrishad · 10-04-2009, 03:11 PM

heloo evryone..i am really confusd about my transcripts..I stop continuing my school from my sophomore year..however i joined again in my junior year!can u tell mehow will i manage this transcript?

'rentof2 · 10-04-2009, 08:09 PM

Do you mean you were in a traditional school for freshman year, homeschooled sophomore year, and returned to traditional school for junior year? If so, will you end up graduating from the school with the rest of your class? For your sophomore year, did you read/study/explore any academic areas, either on your own or by means of online classes... anything like that?

Senior's Dad · 10-07-2009, 01:31 AM

I vote for the master transcript.

My daughter studied 1) strictly homeschool, 2) under an independent scholar with a PhD from Oxford University, and 3) from regular state four-year college faculty. While there is a big difference 1)-to-)2 and 2)-to-3), only the master transcript gives the reader a chance to know what's what!

GeekMom63 · 10-08-2009, 04:48 PM

I also created a master transcript, and I'm pretty happy with it. DS took MANY classes from two community colleges; the transcript is organized by subject and refers to "outside providers" as needed. Then I uploaded scanned versions of the outside transcripts, but didn't upload additional outside validation from rec centers, aleks.com, etc. I was hoping for a total of one page, but that was crazy. I did manage to get it down to two pages, though.

This master transcript makes it easy for the colleges to see everything all at once, without having to piece it together (I did that part in creating the master transcript). It also shows the "relative worth" of various classes.

----------------------------------------
.................................................. .......................HS..........College
English.......................Year.......Fall..... ..Spring......Credits.......Credits....... Outside Provider
9th Grade English......9th.........S...........S............ .1
Composition 1 & 2.....10th........B...........A............1...... .........6..............ACC
Public Speaking.........11th........-..........A........... .5..............3..............ACC
etc.
Math
Algebra 1, Algebra 2...8th........S...........S............2......... .....................Aleks
Calculus 1 & 2...........10th......A...........A............1.. ............10.............ACC
etc.

Ouside Provider Key
ACC = Arapahoe Community College
Aleks = Aleks.com, an online math curriculum for grades K - PreCalc

Explanation of grades
Grades represent grades given by outside entities unless there is
external verification to support letter grades, such as SAT 2
tests or letters of recommendation.
-----------------------------------------

Senior's Dad · 10-08-2009, 11:48 PM

We did a "master transcript" for my daughter who is a first year student at a very good state university system liberal arts college this semester. The only difference between her high school transcript and her "official" transcript is that the "B" she received in Biology I lab on her four-year state college transcript as a dual-enrolled high school student was changed to an "A" on her homeschool transcript because she scored in excess on 90 percentile on her SAT II and because she scored an "A" in the Biology I class as a whole. BTW, she says Biology I at the state college level was "kindergarten" compared to what she is encountering at the state university level.