This was a post from several years ago and I am copying and pasting because I am encountering the same issue. I wasn’t able to find the answer. Please help if you can. Thanks!
I am in the process of self-reporting my grades on the common application. I have included in the Education section under colleges and universities that I have done coursework at colleges. However, in the section that I self report my grades, there is an option to add “other courses”. When I select the box that says “school”, it only shows my high school, but I am trying to report grades from classes that I did not take at my high school. Am I just supposed to upload these college transcripts somewhere in the common application or how can I accurately report college classes taken independent of the high school (ie no high school credit is received).
First, make sure you have to complete the Courses and Grades section in common app (it’s college specific)…you don’t want to complete this if you don’t have to!
If you do need to complete it, and the college courses/grades are not on your HS transcript, you do not enter the college grades in Courses and Grades.
How do I report a college course I took during high school in Courses & Grades?
When high school students simultaneously take college courses through a college or university, this is known as dual enrollment. For Courses & Grades, only courses receiving high school credit (i.e. appearing on your high school transcript) should be reported in this section. If you are not receiving high school credit for the course, you do not need to report this course in Courses & Grades.
You must still send official transcripts from your high school(s) and any college(s) you attended.
Many/most colleges you apply to will want the official transcript sent directly from the college where you took classes, you can look on their websites and/or contact them to ask what they want. Some may accept unofficial transcripts that you can upload in the portal (available after you apply)…you don’t want to pay to send a transcript unless you have to! When you do matriculate to a college, they will likely want the official transcript sent over, but you can take care of that in the late spring of 2026.
You should still enter in the Common App Education section that you took college independently of HS, like this:
Thank you so much! Some suggest including those college courses not included in the high school transcript in the “Additional info” section. Would that be a good place to put it, noting they were not in the high school transcript and that I was taking them to challenge myself, explore my possible career area etc?
This is what my daughter did. She took Intro to Psych over the summer at the local CC. It was not part of any high school program, and will not show on her high school transcript. It the only place she could include the specific class and grade for schools that were not using the STARS system for grade reporting. She also indicated she would provide the transcript ”at the appropriate time”. Who knows if any school will read it, but that was how she addressed it.
You can definitely do that…you can put the classes in list form and use bullet points to describe the class/experience to save words/make it easy to read.
