I’m in a special program in my HS that has a structured curriculum with little room for electives so I took a few classes through a virtual school to make space for more AP classes that I was interested in taking. I took online financial literacy, Spanish 2, Spanish 3, algebra 2, and photography. For all of these classes I had an online class with online final exam and then received a grade that went to my HS. Then I took an in person final exam at my HS and it if I received a passing grade then I received an S (satisfactory) for the course on my HS transcript. I have put these all into the common app as S grades. I’m hearing conflicting info on whether to leave that way or to list as a separate HS and submit transcript. The issue is I prefer not to submit that virtual school transcript bc the grade does not include the in person final exam grade so it’s not accurate. In addition I have all A’s on my regular HS transcript and am applying to T10 schools. On the virtual HS transcript, I have all A’s except in Spanish 2 I received an 88. This 88 doesn’t include the in person final exam to give my total accurate grade which is higher.
What do you think? Leave as one school with classes listed with grade S or do T10 schools need that virtual HS transcript that isn’t accurate?
I am perplexed. So you take courses and a virtual school which is a different school not connected in any way to your high school but they you need to take in-person final exams in order to earn “S” credit on your high school transcript. These in-person final exams - who designs these exams, the virtual school, your high school, the school district (at a higher level than your high school)? What if the in-person final exam had led to a lower grade than 88; do you still get assigned the same “S” grade? Colleges will view this is almost the same as a student that attends more than one high school (e.g 9th and 10th at HS A and 11th and 12th at HS B). You are required to submit all transcripts, even if you took just one class during the summer at a different high school. Admissions committees will most certainly probe and dig deeper into these “S” grades for further explanation. You or preferably your guidance counselor will need to provide a written explanation if it isn’t clear by just the transcripts. If you performed better in Spanish III than in Spanish II, you’ll want colleges to know that. They’ll prefer for an increasing trend in GPA performance and test scores from 9th to 12th grades versus a decreasing trend.
So you received a 88 grade for the virtual school class. That is your accurate grade for the online class. It sounds like your high school allowed you to take some online classes and apply an S grade to your HS transcript if you passed an in person test. Is that correct?
You can’t have it both ways. You received an 88 in the class. Your high school treats this as an S grade, not an A. You need to accurately report grades for all classes you have taken.
The in person final is from my HS district to assure the material needed was accurately learned.
So I should submit the virtual HS transcript even though my overall final grade might be different? The overall final grade is a calculation from virtual HS transcript grade + in person final exam grade.
I am also confused by the exam taken at the school.
My kids took some online classes. As I remember, the guidance counselor explained in a note along with the high school transcript and it was all sent in one package. (We actually provided the info to the GC.) Exams/tests were within the online class.
Are you afraid of the 88 being revealed? Does “S” communicate how well you actually did?
You have no choice in this matter. You must submit the virtual school transcript. If it is unofficial, you should still submit with an explanation if an official one is not yet available. Prior to matriculation, the colleges will require all official transcripts on file, signed & sealed.
The in person final is from my HS district to assure the material needed was accurately learned.
Sounds like this is a district-level designed final exam meaning the actual instructor who taught the class to you played no role in designing the exam. The colleges you apply to need to know this. Is this virtual school part of your same public school district, county, state, out-of-state? Is it a private virtual school?
I understand the high school making you take an in person exam after the online course. Our high school does that too because they want to confirm that the online course’s rigor is equal to their own course before allowing you to progress.
You should consider this extra final exam as something outside of the online course you took. It’s simply an extra assessment done by your school for progression purposes. Therefore, you should also submit the online transcripts.
Except, it’s not, as you stated in the OP. Your own HS lists on their transcript as a course taken outside of school but without attaching the grade (or in your case assigning an S). This is not uncommon. The in-person final is simply them wanting to validate that you actually learned the material from an outside course.
And doesn’t change that you need to send all transcripts regardless of how many times you try to rephrase the question to get the answer you want.
As others have said, you are required to submit both, but I’m a little confused about your logic here to start with. Even if the transcript doesn’t specifically say that the S is some kind of proficiency exam, which it clearly is, why do you think this looks better than a transcript with mostly As and one almost-A? “S” to me sounds a like a P in P/F courses and that just leaves people wondering, was it 70% or 99%? Moreover, three of those courses are core courses. I wouldn’t want an AO to be wondering about why there wasn’t an explicit grade for those.
In sum, yes you need to submit the other transcript, but I’m also confused as to why you think it will look better if you don’t - I think it will look more questionable.
I don’t really understand this either, because your official grade on the final is S, regardless what you actually scored.
1- You submit all transcripts. The adcom’s either note the online classes briefly, ignore them, or do a deep dive into what you took and how you did. This is up to them, not up to you.
2- You move on. There is nothing you can do about this retroactively and worrying about it just messes with your head.
3- Like everyone else, you need a well curated list of sure bets, matches and reaches. The presence or absence of an online transcript doesn’t change this AT ALL.