At our school, unofficial transcripts are available on the grade portal. Official transcripts are handled by Parchment. Transcripts are sent to colleges only via Parchment exchange. For a certain set of colleges within the midwest, sending a transcript is free. For all others, there is a nominal charge. (Was $3.25 for S '14).
I much prefer spending $3.25 versus entering those SRARs, but it’s not always an option.
While there’s certainly some differences, RIT offers a lot of what NEU does (for CS/Engineering) academically and with co-op for those who don’t have the increasingly difficult to achieve profile that NEU is looking for these days. WPI is another good school to check out with their practical and teaching focus.
Both are still private which unfortunantly doesn’t help financially, but if that isn’t a problem and the admissions competitiveness is, I would highly recommend those two.
A lot of public universities have incredibly strong co-op programs. Simply check their career center link on their websites. Don’t overlook the strength of public universities’ engineering depts.
Oh no way, @Mom2aphysicsgeek. I’m pretty sure only NEU has co-ops. 
@Rightcoaster, thank you, do you worry that your son might get a C in H precalc?
My S also has some difficulty with math so I was wondering how to proceed, he won’t be a science major, strength is humanities and music.
@SincererLove I think that girl is not just blessed, but super driven! That just staggers me how hard she must work, Good for her 
Can you imagine all the little super babies she might have someday?
I know Ga Tech has some very good coops.
I miss my kids. Older D-it’s like pulling teeth to get her to text me at all (I have to use guilt), and she just broke her phone (again, she’s paying 100% for the next one-I paid 50% for the current broken one and I got it used because I know her). Younger D is wired similarly to me and understands my neediness and sends me wacky random texts and pictures.
H wants to go to school with me tomorrow to see what it’s like. I told him watching me edit pictures is like watching paint dry, but he wants to hang out on campus with me on his day off, so that should be fun. And weird.
Today DS finished first draft of UofChicago supplemental essay. To me it was a completely crazy read…bordering on nonsensical…therefore perhaps perfect for this institution only, he says…smile and nod, smile and nod
@mommdc I am not worried that much about my son getting a C. He has never had a C in anything. He will just have to make sure to study and learn. He is good about seeking extra teacher help when needed. He’ll be fine. Your son can handle it! My son is OK in math. He just doesn’t love studying it.
QOTD: Our official transcripts list by semester, no pluses or minuses though. They also contain every single official testing ever done - from SAT10 in K to rSAT in 11th plus all state testing, IEPs or EPs. Unofficial transcripts look a lot more bare bones, more like one page vs. seven pages. I once asked our GC if the official transcript included SAT scores. The answer was NO but this is wrong as we just found out after ordering an official transcript for summer camp that had to be scanned and forwarded. Rank is included but the school does not have a Val or Sal, the top students choose one or two speakers out of their midst.
NMSF: Good chances per COMPASS Prep but not guaranteed. Fingers crossed as half of the schools on my kid’s list give automatic merit or at least half tuition.
Welcome back all fingers and toes @2muchquan
QOTD transcripts here are by the year, letter grade no +/- the latest SAT or ACT score is on it along with class rank. Pretty easy to read. I actually received a phone call today telling graduated seniors to pick up final transcripts and report cards. I can’t believe in one year our '17 children will be leaving us!
I suggested to D that she should start on her essays and I got the death stare. Mom, it’s still June! Tip toe lightly out of the room…(I guess 4 1/2 months is plenty of time)
@PengsPhils, I’d agree with you especially about RIT being equally strong in their co-op push, but easier to get into than NEU. The NPC doesn’t include merit, but the website says $10,000 - $16,000 available to students with ACT 29+. Between possible more merit and lower COA, RIT is looking good to me (for several other reasons as well).
WPI seemed a bit different at least from our visit – you may have extra info. They really focused on the junior and senior level projects which do sound great, but quite different from co-op. With any of these schools, my D is looking for that very hands-on experiential approach to engineering. WPI is one of D’s top choices.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek, yes, the publics are a great place to look for co-op programs too. D’s state safety (which she actually likes pretty well) offers co-op. They don’t put quite the oomph into it, but do seem fairly supportive.
National Merit - We are assuming that D will make NMSF, based on the projections we’ve seen. But there’s no guarantee, of course. I really hope we don’t get a rude awakening in September!
Transcripts - I hadn’t even thought about this! I didn’t realize there could be anything on there except grades for each trimester, cumulative GPA (weighted and not), and rank. I don’t think I have any way to get an official transcript until school starts up in September, so I remain in the dark. One more thing to worry about.
Essays - Thank you to whoever mentioned College Essay Organizer. We signed up tonight, and I think that it is inspiring D to start at least thinking about essay topics. Hey, it’s a start!
ACT scores - D took the ACT w/writing in early June. She went up from a 34 to a 35, and I’m just so thrilled for her! (And I have no outlet for bragging on that in real life, so I’m bragging here. Sorry.) I’m afraid that she had her hopes up for a 36 and was disappointed. Tomorrow the writing scores come out, and that’s what we’re really waiting for. Her previous writing score was not great, but that was before having AP Lang.
behind again… :">
Wow! - Some of your kids will have finished the entire pre-med curriculum and a minor math before graduating HS! So impressive.
Senior Rigor - work towards IB Diploma and take both AP and IB exams for most courses.
Common Ap Question- selected the problem solving question.
AP Awards - could eek out National AP Scholar along with IB but it would require silly things like the taking the Calc AB test senior year after taking Calc BC junior year. Don’t think it is worth it, but D wants to wear lots of chords, medals, hoods, stoles etc at graduation.
Parents vacations without kids - Do you leave your 17 year old at home alone overnight or will they stay with friends relatives?
NMSF - above the most likely prediction but below the highest end of the range, nhrp gets us most of the same scholarships, so concerned mainly for the honor.
Yale book - Uh oh. D is pouring through it and becoming enamored [-X
Transcripts - Are these transmitted through the common app or do we have to mail them to each school?
Parents vacations without kids: Nope, not here, not unless we have an adult in the house in our place. We might actually trust our D17, but the D19 and younger? Not a chance. The D19 can be a devious little weasel, and the D23 is an aspiring apprentice.
@nw2this We let our (then) 15 year old stay home for five days last summer because she had band camp and we were taking our D1 to honors orientation at her new school. We don’t have family in town and we’d only lived here for two years at the time. I know it sounds neglectful, but she had friends who gave her rides to camp every day whose parents checked in on her, and other locals she could call. We asked to talk with her once a day, and it was usually more. It went great – except by the last day, she was really anxious for us to be home!
Posting on this thread for the first time. I’ve been posting over on the 3.0-3.5 GPA 2017 thread but thought i’d pop in here. I’ve been reading the past few pages & thought I’d join in. I have a S17 and a D12 who just graduated from college & moved home. Been through this before but only just joined CC recently.
Transcripts. Parchment for official transcript. Online Portal for report card. Unofficial transcript has 6 GPA’s scores listed. Our school doesn’t rank. Grades are by semester. +/- are shown but don’t count for GPA. All classes are the same # of credits so it’s not shown. Don’t remember what the official transcript looks like but it’s similar.
National Merit: Unless the cut off is unexpectedly lower, S17 scores look just a bit too low. Might have made it if we lived in say South Dakota by the predictions I’m seeing. I have a question, are the letters out for commendation yet? I thought they came out in the fall but I’ve seen some people mention their students have already received them.
Staying Home: I considered letting S17 stay home for a few days alone this spring when traveling to help D move out of university. But that didn’t end up being necessary. I would consider let him stay at home for a few days alone, and would let D12 & S17 stay home together longer. But S17 is traveling more than I am this summer so it won’t happen.
I’ll jump in as a new poster too!
NMSF: Not in the cards. I hadn’t joined CC yet and didn’t have a clue how important it could be. She’s six points below the Compass estimate. On the other hand, it means she doesn’t have to take the SAT.
ACT: D2 took it for the second time in June. Both composites were a 34, but she got a much better math score this time, which was the goal. Anxiously awaiting the writing scores. Did someone say they came out tomorrow? I think she’s done with testing unless she decides to apply somewhere that requires SAT subject tests. Three schools on her current list do require them.
Essays: I’m trying to nudge her to complete them before school begins. She’s in marching band, and they practice on week nights and have a competition every Saturday, so time will be really precious until November, and I’d rather have the stress of essays behind her. We’ve spent the last few months going to doctors to diagnose what they think is an autoimmune disease, so we’re trying to minimize stress for her as much as possible; e.g. I’m doing a lot of the legwork of comparing colleges so she can concentrate on work and camps.
This is our second go-round of college searches, but you’d never know it. D1 was easy-peasy. Three tours, two applications, and she was done! D2 will be researching and comparing 'til the bitter end. Isn’t it amazing how different in personalities our children can be?
Good to see new posters! Welcome!
Re: Vacationing and leaving C17 home, we chose to leave D17 home over a weekend during a gymnastics meet trip for D20. In the end, D17 slept at the next door neighbors b/c she’s a fraidy-cat. But, she had the run of the house. We’ve had many discussions, and did not decide lightly. She also has a boyfriend, which adds to things. She has to start making good decisions, and we felt she would. Total leap of faith. Prior to junior year, or if there were a younger sib, we would have her go to a friend’s.
What are colleges looking for when they say they need academic electives and if you can count the recommended classes as these?
@curiositycat333 I am not aware of letters being sent out for commended kids. Commended process seems to vary from school to school. My daughter’s school called in each of the kids who scored commended (SI 209) and above for a meeting before school several weeks ago. They explained the National Merit process. For my son (two years ago), they also told 4 of the kids separately that they would likely be semifinalists (their scores were well above the highest historical cutoffs for the state). Others who were close to the cutoff (it has varied by 2-3 points from highest to lowest in last 5-10 years) were told they would have to wait for September. This year because of the new test/scale, the school said nothing to anyone.
Other schools have said nothing. Know several kids at other schools who have at least commended scores who have not been told anything.
But at this point, if you have a 209 or above, you are at least commended.