We don't have formal PE on our transcript, but I did list a credit of dance and gymnastics. But I don't think it was needed. I have another daughter on dance team and quite honestly--unless it was a solo award or something, I don't know it is worth listing independent team awards. There is a character limit with each addition--so I might play around with wording. I would also try and tally the hours dedicated to the sport...8 years won't matter since high school is only 4. The app will ask if this is a whole year or partial year activity and the number of weeks. So if she dances 20 hours per week for 52 weeks of the year that is 1000+ hours per year....4000 hours of dance training and competition sounds quite impressive. I would format a nice "resume" to use an an attachment to the transcript in the same file--so that when the transcript is uploaded, it's all there. Common app wants you to be concise and not wordy. And PE is only 1 year, 5 hours a week during a 40 week school year. So anything in excess of 200 hours if you want to list dance as a class on her transcript--would be extra-curricular. My daughter, who is in 9th grade, has a performance resume for theater/dance. I will consider that as an attachment to her transcript for uploading. I will have her comp team for all 4 years be listed as one activity in the common app. I will have each theater show performance listed independently by role. But she is considering a performance major.

Common app has a section to input all data that would be included on an extra-curricular resume. So it is helpful to have it. But probably not necessary to upload it. We did just because I made it part of her transcript document.

My daughter included hers. She used it to fill out the common app. By including it with her transcript, it is just a one stop shop of her high school career. The resume page includes schools attended, test scores and then a section of Awards, Volunteer hours, sports, employment. I have heard that it is not necessary. But in my opinion, as long as it is concise, for the homeschooler, it is a better representation of their homeschool high school career. Common app had a section to include all this stuff anyway. So the schools want to know it regardless of how you include it. Just so long as it is included. I would make one just because it makes filling out applications easier. This is how I listed her volunteer hours: 78.5 Volunteer Hours with Friends for Animal Sanctuary Thrift Shop as sorter and cashier. Note that it is very concise...there is a character limit, I think. This was her award that we included. The length is roughly about the character limit because we had to trim and make it more concise. It lacks details but properly explains, within the character limit, her accomplishment and how she achieved it. " Dolley Madison Award Recipient (highest level award) with American Heritage Girls representing a cumulative 2 years and 100 plus hours of work attending meetings, earning 6 badges, becoming CPR/First Aid certified, and planning, organizing and executing a history day for 20 girls as my final project."

I just wanted to post an update...not that anyone was following along! I pained and agonized over the transcript to a fault. I wanted it to be a fair and honest representation of her work. I hemmed and hawed on how to designate courses--some were worthy of honors but I made sure that what I thought was actually so. In the end, things went great. She used the common app and then sent me a recommendation request as her guidance counselor. That is where I uploaded her transcript with supporting documentation AND answered questions about homeschooling. I was prepping for Irma and did not expect an impromptu essay prompt for me on why we chose to homeschool. We wanted the application in before the storm, so I drew on my writing experience (haha) and crafted something about why we homeschool. It may or may not have focused on the early years, but it worked! What I did--pretty much all of her high school English credits were honors. She had taken Great books courses on line and after some back and forth, they agreed it was honors quality work. Originally they said it wasn't because it didn't have that label. But not satisified--I argued back that I found it unacceptable that they charged so much, expected so much for this only to be a standard college prep course. They even have a new honors program and this same course was included. THEY AGREED WITH ME. yay! So I felt confident labeling it. I did include the book lists. I had found that supporting documentation when declaring courses as honors is helpful just so that it doesn't come across as an arbitrary label to get those weighted points. Her FLVS courses were easier since those that were honors were deemed so by the state of Florida. I did adjust all of her art courses to better reflect a recognizable course title that the school would recognize and understand. I did include future courses for her senior year. And even though the school weights and I don't need to, for our record keeping and to just make it known, I included her inclusive GPA, her academic weighted GPA (weighted english, foreign language, social studies, science and math). We included Methods of Evaluation for her academic courses. This is the blurb..kept it simple: "Methods of Evaluation: Algebra, Geometry: Practice Problems and Exams objectively scored and grades awarded on the 10 point grading scale. Latin 100 and Latin 200: Course taken with on-line Latin class, Instructor Karen Karppinen. Student grade based upon class attendance and participation, homework submissions, frequent quizzes, and Unit exams. Objective scoring of assignments and grades awarded on a 10 point grading scale. Biology and Chemistry with lab: Course grades based on student participation, 16 module exams per course, and 10 labs per course. FVLS courses as determined by FLVS syllabi. Dual Enrollment courses as determined by professors. (H) English 11- Essay Writing/Research - class participation, Quizzes, Personal Essays, 20 page term paper (MLA formats) (H) Great Books English courses: Extensive reading of classical books listed in syllabi, weekly class attendance and participation in Socratic Discussions, essays (Chicago Style), and Oral Exams. See attached book lists." And apparently my FLVS acronym is wrong. oopsie. We are hopeful for scholarships. I was in contact with Admissions as well because there was confusion in our local homeschool community--they thought that our high school credits for dual enrollment had to match public school. This made it seem like my daughter was a credit slacker. In a very bad way. But we confirmed that my 1:1 college credit to high school credit was our decision and that the schools cannot, by law, tell me otherwise. So whew! She is very excited!

Would the school not offer a shuttle? That sounds pretty crappy.

I emailed UCF, where she will be applying because I had received conflicting information and the last thing I wanted was an error on her transcript. In our state, for our admissions -- point blank from a senior admissions director: "Unfortunately, we are unable to tell you whether or not your daughter’s homeschool Dual Enrollment courses would count for as half credit or a full credit. As the administrator you are awarding her high school credits, so unfortunately we cannot determine how much credit is given to each course. " This was such a relief because I was on the phone with one of their "helper" admissions people who told me differently and that certain DE courses could only count as half a high school credit and in our state, history and elective DE courses are almost always only counted as a half credit for public school students. This was all different from what the advisor at the college said during orientation when we started DE which was : 1 college course = high school credit. This is a relief because the half credit folks had my daughter's transcript coming up short and making her look like a slacker... The full credit treatment more accurately reflects her efforts and what I as the administrator had planned based upon what the college told us from the very start. This is our first high schooler and I really did not want to mess up and have her miss out on things because of arbitrary guidelines that didn't actually exist for homeschoolers. Yay! And since I verified that Psychology can count towards Social studies as it is indeed on a state list of approved courses that count--since it is DE, she should get that extra weighted point. So relieved to have it in writing that it is indeed my call. At least in Florida. :-D

So if nothing changes and you still plan "Married filing jointly", is this an issue? We are new at this and this will be our first FAFSA. AT least since we were in school.

Hello, I am not the best reader and critiquer of essays.... But I do recall from when my daughter took a great books course: A well developed thesis is key, and references from your learning materials and history are helpful in proving your thesis. Also, in my opinion, essays take a more argumentative approach. So state your opinions as facts and demonstrate them to be true. I agree about the "some would say". Unless you have a solid statistical reference that proves something like that, it is best omitted. And one thing my daughter learned the hard way at times--make sure the prompt is referenced and responded to in your body. This may all be the case--I just don't read papers well (hence why she was sourced out). But I hope you find those few statements helpful.

We have spoken directly and didn't think to ask specifically but no where did they give any clue that histories that are Dual Enrollment only count as a half credit, so we weren't worrying about whether Psychology counted. :-( . Looks like my daughter is in a similar boat except that she took Psych directly at the colleges. For their purposes, they count and weight DE and AP the same.

She has 1 credit American History with FLVS 0.5 credit American Govt Honors with FLVS And she has EUH 1000 which apparently only counts for 0.5 credit and not a full credit per what we expected. She will take a DE Art History course in the spring which also only counts as a 0.5 credit on her transcript. So she will have 2.5 credits plus the Psychology. If I can convince her to take AMH 2020, then she will haev 3 + 1. The rest of her transcript will have 4.5 English, 4.0 Foreign Language, 4.0 math, 4.0 science and then she has several computer courses on her electives. Social studies was like pulling teeth.

I ended up emailing and asking and at first they said no. I expressed my disappointment and explanation of why it was considered as such and my surprise they felt it on caliber with a standard college prep course. They agreed it was more than a standard college prep and considered it honors level of effort. And since it is a part of the honors program they began they will discuss changing the course title to include the honors designation. So yay!

My daughter will be applying to schools within the state university system of Florida. Anyone know if they accept Psychology as a social studies credit on the high school transcript? I found some schools OUTSIDE of Florida that do, but I am asking specifically about Florida. If they do not, then she needs to find another history course or 2 since she is dual enrollment and most only count as a 0.5 credit. At present she has 2.0 credits without Psychology and 3.0 with Psychology. Advice? Experience with this?

I was going to avoid worrying about this, but apparently it matters as the state schools my daughter will be applying to weight honors and up. So for a "competitive" transcript, it needs to accurately reflect reality compared to her peers. This can mean the difference between guaranteed admission or not, this scholarship or that scholarship. She took 2.5 years of Great Books courses with Angelicum. I have been searching high and low on the internet and at a minimum, it is comparable if not way more reading than a typical high school honors English class. I have emailed, but she has not been a student, now and I am unsure of the turn around time. She is going to start filling out the common app. How have you treated Great Books lit on your transcripts? I pulled the book list so it can be used to supplement the paper transcript they request. It will not be included in any on-line applications as there is no space for a book list that I am aware of at this time. Some comments: they actually have a designated honors program that seems to combine the present Great Books program, with no adjustments, with their Great "courses"--other academic subjects. Based on that and what I know of what it took to complete the course, I'm inclined to put it as honors. But I would love to hear feedback. I don't want to claim it as something it may not be. My goal is not to inflate value, but rather accurately represent the value of the course.

Sounds like your daughter took what my daughter did. My question is--did you give it an honors designation? I can't figure out if it is honors worthy and that does matter for scholarship consideration for us.

My rising senior took Algebra I with MUS and transitioned to other math programs just fine. I think it is fine. I have not looked into their higher level programs.