Indicating honors, AP, university course on transcript

[lewelma]

Well, we went on our American/Canadian university tour a couple of weeks ago, and it became clear that we need to indicate honors, AP-equivalent, and university level etc on ds's transcript for the purpose of scholarships.  The schools do NOT want waited grades, because they will wait them based on their own formula, but if I don't indicate honors etc on his transcript, then they won't be able to weight them at all which sounds like will definitely put ds at a disadvantage for $$.

 

NZ courses do not have an honors or AP indication, but I can definitely make the argument that doing a Level 3 NCEA course at an excellence level is equivalent to an AP.  I also know that I can mark all AoPS courses as honors, and his 2 university math courses are obviously university level. 

 

My questions:

1) How are university courses generally weighted?  DS has done a number of university level math courses through self study and a post-secondary diploma in music through ABRSM, I assume that I would not call them 'AP equivalent' given that there would be no AP for Topology, or group theory, etc. They will not have a university number, so I will need to indicate somehow that they are university level.  What is the best way? 

 

2) I was going to use superscripts "H" A" and "U" for honors, AP-equivalent, and university level.  Does that make sense? I think that it would be less in your face than Honors xxx, and AP-equivalent xxx, because NZ doesn't really do this, and I am only doing it because of scholarships. I was going to put these superscripts on the left before the course name, as on the right I have the superscripts for the educational partners that ran the courses.

 

3) NZ puts regular, honors, and AP kids into the same class and they work at an achieve, merit, or excellence level.  Grades are based on level of thinking rather than percentage material correct.  So kids who earn an 'achieve' regurgitate material, merit kids need to show relational thinking and have more content to learn, and excellence level kids must show abstract/insightful thinking and have even more content to learn.  All kids will still be taking 'Level 3 biology' which is how it will show up on the transcript  The grades they earn indicate the level of material and thinking they have mastered.  How much of this do I need to explain in the school profile, vs just indicating on the transcript that an excellence is AP equivalent. 

 

4) I was considering keeping homeschool courses as just regular rather than honors etc.  Is this wise?  How would I make an objective determination of their level.

 

Open to suggestions,

 

Ruth in NZ