Transcript Question - which do you do? by year or by subject?

[Marcie in GA]

Trying to plan how I will do our transcripts and give credit for classes taken in 8th grade. How do you show this in a traditional transcript that is broken down by school year?

 

Thanks,

 

Marcie

[DollyM]

Are you sure the colleges your student wants to attend will even TAKE/CONSIDER classes taken in 8th grade?

 

We did a transcript that showed a GRID with YEARS across the top and SUBJECTs down the left side. So I guess it was by both year and subject :p with the grades at the intersections of the rows and columns.

[Kanga]

We arranged dd's transcript by subject when she applied to the cc at 15. We wanted to include some of her junior high work to demonstrate readiness. However, the admissions counselor placed a greater emphasis on her placement tests than the transcripts. We arranged her transcript by year for her application to the University. But since she had so many college credits they really did not care about her high school work; they were more interested in her cc transcripts and her SAT scores.

[Holly IN]

I am planning on doing it just by subjects. I personally know several homeschool moms who have college kids that did it this way for high school. Colleges readily accepted her transcript by subjects.

 

Holly

[Janet in WA]

Trying to plan how I will do our transcripts and give credit for classes taken in 8th grade. How do you show this in a traditional transcript that is broken down by school year?

 

Thanks,

 

Marcie

We organized our transcript by general subject area. I didn't literally have categories labeled as "math", "English", etc. -- just had a list of subjects organized so that subject areas fell on the list together.

 

We did encounter colleges that were very particular about which credits could be earned before 9th grade, and they specified which ones and that they had to be earned no earlier than 8th grade. One of these schools (University of Washington) actually required the applicant to list his credits on the application under the years earned. There was no room to fudge at all (not that we would have -- I would not have engaged in any dishonesty to try to get around their requirements, nor allowed my sons to).

[Cynde]

I listed the courses our dc took by year for grades 9-12. I made a notation stating Algebra I and II completed in grades 7 and 8 respectively. I did not list the grade or credit for any courses earlier than 9th grade as I didn't use them in calculating high school credits or GPA. We found we just didn't need to count these courses for high school; each dc would have 28 credits at graduation without utilizing high school courses taken in junior high. You might find yourself in a similar situation.

[Janet in WA]

 

I listed the courses our dc took by year for grades 9-12. I made a notation stating Algebra I and II completed in grades 7 and 8 respectively. I did not list the grade or credit for any courses earlier than 9th grade as I didn't use them in calculating high school credits or GPA. We found we just didn't need to count these courses for high school; each dc would have 28 credits at graduation without utilizing high school courses taken in junior high. You might find yourself in a similar situation.

We didn't use any credits earned before "9th grade" on our high school transcripts either. Like you, we didn't need to. Our sons earned enough credits in all subject areas during 9th-12th grades that we didn't need to award high school credits for academics before that time period.

[Gwen in VA]

Like others, we didn't list any courses done before 9th grade. My children did algebra 1 in 8th, but since they did algebra 2 in 9th we felt that it was rather obvious that they did algebra 1 before high school.

 

My younger son, entering 9th next year, will have completed both algebra 1 and geometry before 9th grade, so we will put a notation on his transcript indicating that he took geometry in 8th grade; we will still not mention algebra 1. He will do Latin 2 in 9th grade, so we feel that it is pretty obvious that he took Latin 1 in 8th and won't list it anywhere.

[Janet in WA]

I didn't view my sons' high school years in "grades". What others might call "9th grade", I called "4 more years to finish this son's high school education". Or as the University of Washington terms the high school years: "the 4 calendar years preceding high school graduation". I didn't care in which "grade" my sons earned which credits, so I didn't approach their transcripts in that way either.

[Guest Katia]

We listed subjects by grade and year. I think our actual transcript looked like what DollyM described, but where dd took an earlier course in jr. high I listed it like this:

 

*Algebra 2

*French 2

 

And then at the bottom of the transcript I put:

 

*High school level classes taken in 8th grade:

Algebra 1

French 1

 

I gave credit only for the classes taken in 9th-12th grades. The classes listed for 8th grade were just a notation; no credit was given.

 

One dd has applied to, and been accepted to, five different colleges. None of them had a problem with this, but it might have been a different story if I had given credits for those classes.

 

BUT, if I had wanted to give them the credits for the classes they took in jr. high, I would have done the transcript differently; most likely by subject without listing when the class was taken. However, that would have been difficult as well, as four of the five colleges required an Academic Portfolio along with the transcript. The Academic Portfolio had to list the title of each course taken in high school, the dates of each course, the texts used and a description of each course.

 

Maybe there are colleges that accept credits from jr. high. I'm sure there have to be. I know Hewitt Homeschooling's school has something called "Credits in Escrow". When the student takes a high school level class in jr. high, they 'hold' the credit and then list it on the student's high school transcript. I'm not exactly sure how they do this....but I know they do.

 

I guess it really is each person's choice as what they count and how. Each college will either accept or reject as they see fit.

[KAR120C]

Trying to plan how I will do our transcripts and give credit for classes taken in 8th grade. How do you show this in a traditional transcript that is broken down by school year?

I have to throw this in the ring because it was exactly opposite to everything I've been told before (and much of what has already been posted in this thread).... but we just had a admissions counselor come talk to our homeschool group parents meeting, and he said he didn't care whether they were listed by year or by subject but that he wanted to see every. single. highschool. level. course... For math in particular he wanted Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry and a fourth (or more), including textbooks used and details of what work was assigned and how it was evaluated, even if the kid was ridiculously young when it was completed.

 

So I'm thinking I'll just be keeping the records in such a way that I can make a transcript to any specification. I'm sure by the time DS is college-bound everyone will have changed their minds about what they want anyway ;)

[mcconnellboys]

This is good to know. I arranged mine by year in order to gain admission and credit at the high school to which my son transferred this year. He had way more credits than he needed, so a lot of my credits didn't even get used on their transcript. I was planning on providing my own, separate, transcript to any colleges to which he applies later, but I thought I'd have to re-arrange it by subject. Glad to know I shouldn't have to do this!

 

Regena