I attended a college which may close. I transferred colleges, however, the college I attended provided evaluations instead of grades. Currently, I have 10 classes listed on my transcript as “TS” because there are no grades to transfer. I think this looks really bad, even with the As that follow. While my evaluations are actually really good, I won’t even have those to show if my old college closes. I think the most logical response to this would be to simply wipe the transcript from my records once my college closes. Is this possible? The college is Hampshire College, and they won’t be accepting a new first-year class, so it’s pretty likely.
- It is likely that some entity will remain to handle records and verification of degrees from a closed college.
- The National Student Clearinghouse will record that you attended Hampshire College, so anyone who wants to know your academic records will know that you attended, so if you try to conceal that, they will think you are being dishonest.
- Your current college will show that you have transfer credit, so anyone who sees your current college record will ask where the transfer credit came from. But note that when colleges show transfer credit, they often do not show grades from the previous college anyway.
- Why do you think that a Hampshire College record with "really good" evaluations is "really bad" enough that you want to get rid of it?
My credits all transferred as TS. That actually isn’t normal for my school and I’m very behind in the curriculum because of it. An example is I have to retake Calculus 1 and not Calculus 2 because I have a grade for Calculus 2 and an evaluation (which specifically stated I knew all of the derivation rules , how to apply them, was very ready for a more advanced calculus 2 class, completed all assignments correctly) in Calculus 1. Because of the problems with transfering, I’m like a first year with sophomore status. How will grad school look at all that repetition ? I took Probability and Statistics (which utilized Calculus 3) this semester and now next year I will have to take Calculus 1? The sequencing is all over the place for my math courses. Most importantly, the courses were not challenging enough and there was little opportunity for improvement. Most colleges look very negitively at evaluations instead of grades. Some colleges when my friend was transfering who previously accepted them told them to attend Community College and get a GPA there. They had extremely good evaluations.
Does your new school not offer a math placement exam, or similar method to demonstrate competence?
To me there seems to be two separate issues here.
One issue is how to get appropriate credit at the school that you are currently attending, and how to be properly placed and which classes to take at your current school. To me this seems like something that you need to work out with your current school. You should be talking to your math professor if you are in a math class that is inappropriate and that you have already taken at your old college.
A second issue is what to show on your application in case you end up applying anywhere else in the future, such as graduate school. For this, it seems to me that you have nothing to hide, and you should tell the truth. No one is going to blame you for the fact that a college went out of business. Schools and employers understand that all of us sometimes get placed in unfortunate circumstances. One major point of life is for each of us to do the best that is possible under unfortunate circumstances, and get ahead in spite of any roadblocks that show up.
I don’t think that you have any compelling reason to try to wipe your old school off of your record. Show your record as what it is. You did nothing wrong, and you have nothing to hide.
I also agree with @ucbalumnus that: “It is likely that some entity will remain to handle records and verification of degrees”.
@allyphoe I am confused about the policy. I am math placement level 6 which indicates the completion of Calculus 1 (the highest level) however I was told that because I have no grade to show, I still have to take the Calculus 1 course. @DadTwoGirls thanks, that’s the advice I needed.
Since you did not name the college you transferred to, no one here can give you help for your specific case, even if they are familiar with the college you transferred to. People can only give generic suggestions which may or may not apply to your situation.
Since the math placement indicates you know calculus 1, what prevents you from taking calculus 2?
Nothing except for the fact that I already took Calculus 2 for a grade prevents me from taking Calculus 2. I still have to take Calculus 1, not Calculus 2.
Why do you have to take calculus 1 if you already took calculus 2?
Because I have a grade for Calculus 2 and I have an evaluation for Calculus 1.
I took Calculus 2 at Smith College but I took Calculus 1 at Hampshire College.
Smith College does not have calculus 1 or 2 as a general graduation requirement. Are you in a major that requires calculus? If so, have you asked the department of your major whether calculus 1 transferred from Hampshire with evaluation is invalid for the purpose of fulfilling the calculus requirement? Even if it is invalid for that purpose, it would be more worthwhile to learn something new and substitute a higher level course like calculus 3 for the requirement.
If you intend on transferring again, then do not assume that your next college’s major department will reject calculus 1 from Hampshire without them actually telling you that.
Since you took Calc 2 at Smith and got a grade, it should be the case that you can go on and take Calc 3 (or the next level math) at your next college, and not have to step back and take Calc 1 again. You may or may not get transfer credits for Calc 1 at your future school, but you should not need to retake it. Your having taken Calc 2 for an actual grade has, as I like to think of it, “locked” Calc 1 for you - make it count as an actual class you took, as it were. At worst, if your degree at your new school requires up through, for example, Calc 2, you’d take Calc 3, and that’d do it. You wouldn’t normally need to step back to retake Calc 1. Your having taken the next math class (Calc 2) for a grade may be different from your friend’s case, which is why her experience may be different from yours.
What schools are you looking at transferring to? You might want to consider one of the other schools in the Five Colleges system, as they’ll be the most familiar with the system at Hampshire, thus perhaps the most able to help you out re: transfer credits. I mean, Smith, Mt. Holyoke and UMass Amherst actually started Hampshire; they know your system.
In addition, since Hampshire knows that it may be closing, it’s normal that it would be working with other colleges to ease the transfer process for you, to the specific colleges they’re working with. Please speak to an advisor at Hampshire to find out which colleges those are, and how your Hampshire classes might transfer there. If you’re lucky, there may be some schools on their list that you like. You may need to give them a couple of weeks for things to settle before you can get in to see them.
I also know that Hampshire is considering merging with… perhaps one of the Five Colleges, or another college in Western Mass. If that happens, they’re going to figure things out re: your Hampshire classes. It may even be that if you go to the new, merged institution and get a term of grades there, it may help you more easily transfer to another school. I know, however, that you can’t wait for this to happen, you need to explore your other options now. But it’s just something to keep at the back of your mind.
I don’t believe any institution will “delete” information from your transcript after you made the transfer. I would check if the classes you transferred will meet the requirements towards your degree.