Problems with transferring high schools [TX 9th/10th -> NC 11th/12th]

Applying to College
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I’m a high school junior currently residing in NC, but I lived in TX for my first two years of high school. I met with my counselor the other day, and I realized I have a few problems related to my move.

The first problem I have is about my class rank and GPA. At my school in TX, there were no AP or honors courses. In order to get the maximum course rigor, I took dual credit courses from the community college. In 9th grade I took 1 each semester, and in 10th I took 2 each semester, so 6 total. This was the max available for those grade levels (11th and 12th graders can take 4 each semester, which I had planned on doing). I got As in everything.

My new school has a good amount of APs, so I’m taking 6 this year. We take 4 classes each semester. I took 4 last semester and got all As. I’m taking 2 this semester along with 1 honors and 1 elective. I have all As so far.

The problem is that my old classes at my old school are not being counted on my transcript. Because some of them don’t fulfill the requirements in North Carolina, they aren’t on my NC transcript. Other classes that I did take don’t really match up with the classes I didn’t take on my new transcript. Every class from TX that managed to make it onto my new transcript is counted as a regular class. There is no evidence of me taking dual credit classes, and my GPA is quite low compared to a lot of my AP classmates (at 4.22). I was in the top 5-10% at my old school (this was unofficial, but my counselor said I was ranked 3 in a pretty small class), but in my new school I’m not even in the top 20%.

This feels incredibly frustrating, because I didn’t do anything wrong. I feel like I’m being punished for moving when I didn’t even want to switch states in the middle of high school. Now it will be harder for me to get good scholarships and acceptances, especially at places like UNC. Is there anything I should say to my counselor or colleges about this?

The second problem is about course selection. One of the worst things possible happened, which is that my new school is not accepting my PE credit from my old school. This is not only bad because PE is one of the most miserable classes ever, but also because it will take the spot of an academic class I would really want. I tried asking my counselor, but she said there isn’t any other way to get the credit but to take the class. Will this look super bad to colleges? And how should I choose my classes next year? For graduation, I have to take AP Lit, AP Gov, Economics & Personal Finance Honors, and PE next year. For colleges, I believe I have to have AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC (you have to take one each semester at my school), AP Physics 1 (my school doesn’t have 2 or C, but I think physics is super important to take, especially if I might apply as a physics major), and Spanish IV Honors. But I was also hoping to take AP Chemistry or Astronomy, and I won’t be able to anymore. Am I correct in the assumption that I should take physics and Spanish for college? Is there any class I might be missing? Do colleges think I’m taking the easy way out with a PE class senior year?

Sorry this is so long. I’m just feeling a bit lost and stressed, and it’s been hard to get answers about this. I can answer any questions that might clarify the situation any more. I would appreciate any advice about this situation. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

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Send two transcripts with college applications – one from each HS. Ask your guidance counselor to note scheduling issues/conflicts at the new school caused by the transfer. If needed, you can add a very brief explaination (just facts, no complaining) in the additional comments section of the application.

Take a breath and don’t let it upset you. Sounds like your schedule will be sufficiently rigorous.

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Should I also put my community college transcript from my old school in my application?

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Yes! All transcripts need to be submitted on the common app.

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Make sure you meet NC HS graduation requirements.

There’s really no issue here. Kids move.

Do you even have a college list yet ?

You likely erred in taking DE classes so early. But you are taking too many now, for most schools.

Ensure you are on pace to graduate. I’m sure you’ll be fine otherwise.

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What you need to understand is that every high school is different. No matter where you reside, different districts are going to have different graduation requirements.

Some school districts require physical education every year. Some school districts allow you to compensate for PE by being in a sport. At my children’s high school, they were required to have at least two years of PE. My children however, were athletes; they had ~20 hours of practice per week. The PE requirement for one year was waived, but they still were required to have at least one year of physical education to meet graduation requirements in our school district. In other words, it had to be on their transcript that they took PE.

Each school is going to have a transcript. That means if you took Dual enrollment, your credits are probably showing on the community college transcript. Each transcript, from each institution, is separate. No one is going to combine transcripts for you. They can’t do that.

When you apply to colleges, the colleges will access the counselor information packets sent with the transcript. Part of that information can be noted by your current counselor that you changed school districts and states. You may be asked by the colleges to contact your former school and submit that transcript. Your old high school will send the transcript of your grades to any schools where you apply. Make sure you prepare by having the phone number and the “extension” of the Registrar at your school in Texas-see if you can get the email address for Registrar. The “Registrar” is the one that keeps your transcripts at most schools. They have to keep extremely good records and typically notes the exact date and time of your transcript request and the addresses that are being requested for your transcript. Some schools are small and don’t have registrars so they use a service on the Internet.

You have to meet the graduation requirements for your current school or you won’t graduate. If you don’t graduate the colleges won’t accept you no matter how perfect your transcript may be.

You also need to be looking at the college requirements for admission and check their websites. I know that in California, some high schools require biology, chemistry and physics for the high school diploma.

You have to follow what your current high school has and the colleges will be forgiving when a student transfers to completely different states with different high school graduation requirements. You cant control the coursework that is required of students in your current state.

Good luck! Remember if you have a question, about your current status, and/or your current school, do not hesitate to contact your counselor. The counselor knows that you moved from another state and will expect you to ask questions. Yes I get that the counselors are overworked. They were overworked at the high school where I worked. However, you don’t want to miss something and not graduate, or not get admitted to a school because of incorrect information.

Go with the flow take what is required for you to graduate.

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I agree with other replies.

At this point in terms of course selection I would not think about university admissions. Instead I would be concerned about what are the right classes for you, what classes you are ready to take, and making sure that you complete requirements to graduate high school in the normal time period.

When it is time to apply to universities, you can submit however many transcripts you need to submit to document the classes that you have taken. University and college admissions will look at your transcripts, and will consider the actual classes that you took and your grades in those classes (and other inputs such as letters of reference and test scores). University admissions will be able to handle this.

With regard to taking physics, yes, I would make sure to take at least one physics class in high school.

Are all of these required for graduation from high school?

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I’m on track to meet NC HS graduation requirements. I’m not really concerned about that, because I’ve known what I needed since the summer before this school year. But isn’t class rank pretty important for many scholarships and colleges?

I have a college list, but it’s pretty long. I hope to visit some colleges over spring break and the summer so I can cross more off.

I’m curious, what is the issue with taking dual credit early? It’s pretty common at my old school. I wasn’t planning on moving states when I started dual credit. I mostly just used it as a substitute for AP classes.

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At most schools, you’ll find most students did not submit a class rank. You can check the CDS section C10 - and if you don’t have one, it won’t be held against you.

The most important thing for college selection is budget. Period, end of story.

Kids don’t need to step up….and many schools don’t care about rigor.

Your HS offered classes that would have put you on a path to any college in America.

You’ll be fine.

Figuring out your budget is step one of applying to colleges. Your GPA and in some cases SAT/ACT will likely determine scholarships, especially at schools with automerit.

Good luck.

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If your new high school puts class rank on your transcript, ask your GC to include a note that your school’s policy only gives a GPA boost to advanced classes at the current school and that they could not do so for classes taken at your old school. Colleges will see all transcripts, and ultimately that is what will matter to them.

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Agree. I would not stress about class rank. As suggested above, your guidance counselor can note the policy regarding transfer classes and class rank in your letter of recommendation.

Many students transfer schools and have issues along these lines. Admissions officers have seen it many times. Sending all transcripts will tell your story accurately. Breathe. It will be fine.

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A prospective physics major should take some sort of physics in high school, along with the highest math available to you.

For foreign language, higher level is better, but how much it matters depends on the colleges you apply to (and attend, due to foreign language graduation requirements).

In general, when you apply to colleges, you will include academic record from each high school and college attended, not just your most recent high school. I.e. for colleges that want transcripts, you send two high school transcripts and a college transcript (for the DE courses). For colleges that want self reported courses and grades, you will make a section for each of the three schools to list courses under.

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Depends. Since you are coming from Texas, you may have seen class rank as the main factor in Texas public university admissions. But many colleges are not like that.

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Submit all transcripts (TX HS, CC, NC HS).
Can PE be taken over the summer? This way at least it wouldn’t last as long.
The schedule you described is very good - and whether you take PE or a free period or an art/creative/fun elective is also 100% okay for all colleges.
Submit your AP scores and your SAT/ACT score if you have one and it’s solid.

Talk about budget with your parents - run the NPC on UNC in case you’re lucky and get in: can they afford it?
Then, run the NPC on NCSU and two other NC publics, Davidson, Elon, one OOS public university and one more private university. Cross out those that aren’t affordable.
The biggest constraint tends to be budget.

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I do realize that high schools are different. The issue with PE is that it was on my transcript from my old school, and my current school only requires one year of PE. I completed the one year requirement at my old school, so it seems like it should here too.

Sorry if this is a silly question, but what do you mean when you say combine transcripts? My new school has a bunch of classes on my transcript that I didn’t actually take. Is that not combining the some of the classes I took in 9th and 10th, erasing others, and combining it with my 11th grade classes to create a new transcript?

I am following my current graduation plan. I’ll graduate on time if all goes well.

Thank you for taking the time to comment.

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It’s not uncommon that HSs will map classes taken at the previous HS and identify the best match at the new school. Then, those classes will show on the new HS’s transcript for the time period you were at the previous school. These grades may or may not be in the new school GPA.

Is this what your new counselor said about their process? It’s important that you understand what the new HS did with regard to your previous classes. You might not need to send your previous HS transcript when you apply to college if the new HS mapped all your classes and put them on the new transcript…ask your current counselor about that.

In the big picture, when you complete your college apps, you will address the various impacts of transferring in the education section where you can comment about the reasons and impacts for changing HSs. We can help you write that here when the time comes. Your current counselor should also address that in their LoR.

You will also need to work with your counselor as to how best to enter your courses and grades into the common app (if you have any schools that require the courses and grades section), and/or into SRAR/SSAR which is now called STARS (again if any of your colleges require that as part of their apps.)

Before you pay to send official transcripts for your DE courses, find out if each college on your list requires that. Many, many colleges don’t require the official transcript at the time of application because it can be quite expensive to send those (hence, it’s an access issue.) Just make sure you get your DE courses into the app as appropriate (assuming none of those classes are on your HS transcripts.) You will have to send the DE transcripts to the one college where you ultimately matriculate (and any that require it during the application process.)

Lastly, colleges will know that your GPA does not align with your HS cohort’s. Don’t worry about that, they see it all the time.

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So you are saying you need to take another year of PE and you don’t want to?

  1. Ask the counselor why it didn’t transfer - perhaps it’s a glitch.
  2. If you answer is, you need to take it at NC standards, take it again and move on.

Done

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I agree. You’re in junior year. You don’t have the time to squeeze in more requirements that have already been completed. You need to get a copy of your old high school transcript and have your parent/s ask about that requirement to the counselor and any other glitched things . When your parent comes or emails to the high school, the counselor will address and review the discrepancy.

Your junior and senior years are crucial to the colleges. You have to perform well and your timeline at the high school is finite. You have to graduate but you also shouldn’t have to repeat non-core classes.

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I would find out exactly how the counselor will be presenting your transcripts to colleges - combined or separate - and what your responsibilities include. Do you need to give the counselor a school profile from your TX school or the community college transcripts? I think the NC pe requirement has a “health” component - maybe that is why they say you need to retake it? If so, ask if you can just do the missing part. Good luck.

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you can also see if other things qualify for PE credit - marching band, dance team, a sport (in or out of school). My daughter (in FL) could do it as a virtual class and the requirements were a little different like she had to take a CPR class and had to keep a log of her exercise, but it was really easy to do it on her own and kept a period open during the school day for another class.

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