A very general question about course listings and transcripts

[Christy B]

What generally "looks" better on a transcript: very traditional, standard, 1 credit courses, or more descriptive, specialized courses?

 

I'll give an example of what I'm pondering:

 

We're doing an interdisciplinary study of the Bible, Greek mythology, and Roman history (using Memoria Press' Intro to Classical Studies as our outline). I can go one of two ways with this: I can expand and elaborate, adding writing assignments, research projects, etc and make it a .5 credit elective (call it Classical Studies or Foundations of Western Civ).

 

-or-

 

I could simply consider this study as part of our World History and Literature courses -- not list it separately on the transcript at all. I have "wiggle room" in World History because I am using BJU's one-year world history program over two years, with the intention to add additional reading, writing, research, and video to the course. I could easily make the classical studies the "additional" part of the history course.

 

How does one decide? I can see the advantage of having a very traditional looking transcript; I can also see the advantage of being able to show where the student did some unique and specialized courses.

 

I have similar plans for church history using Omnibus II (we would start the last nine weeks of this school year and try to finish it over the summer, but the credit would go on the 10th grade portion of the transcript). Again, I'm not sure if I should plan to list that as a separate elective, or simply "fold" it in to our history credit.

 

Does it depend on the goals of the student? This particular dd will most likely *not* be applying to a Christian college, and she will most likely pursue a degree in some sort of science or technology field. If she were a liberal arts major applying to a Christian college, I would almost certainly list everything separately, to emphasize the theology and literature aspect.

 

If we fold these theology/history/lit courses into the "standard" history and lit courses, it would leave more "room" on the transcript for electives such as Health, Computer Science, etc. So, I'm leaning towards not listing it separately. I don't want her transcript to look like it's cluttered with a lot of disjointed little electives. On the other hand, I think it reflects well on a student to show a well-rounded study of the liberal arts, even if -- or especially if -- they are headed towards a science oriented field.

 

Should I just keep careful records of what we've studied and when, and then later decide how to list it on the transcript?

 

I'm thinking ahead to all sorts of elective classes she might take, and hoping to keep things consistent. For example, if we do a "logic lite" course next year, should we list that as a .5 credit elective, or just add it to our geometry program? That sort of thing.

[Kareni]

 

Should I just keep careful records of what we've studied and when, and then later decide how to list it on the transcript?

 

 

 

Yes, that is what I would do. I think that when your daughter is at the point of choosing colleges, you will have a much better idea of which way to write (or focus) your transcript and course descriptions. (I do have to admit to favoring the unique over the commonplace, but that is a personal preference. Many choose to do a standard English 9, 10, 11, and 12, for example, and save any detail for the course descriptions.)

 

Regards,

Kareni

[TravelingChris]

Since I make the transcripts, I make them the way I want to make them for any reason. FOr example, for a fine arts program in the summer school program at the PS, I made a plain vanilla transript English 9, American History, etc. I change titles depending on the institution it is going to. If she will apply to Christian colleges, I will certainly separate her Bible Studies and relious studies out of the general titles of Ancient History and Philosophy. I am not finagling on what she did actually but rather changing titles according to who needs to see the transcript or what they want listed. I have turned in two different transcripts so far to different programs and have to work on the third this week. I would keep any kind of transcript up during high school because if your kid decides to go to CC, get into certain programs, or apply for some scholarship or award, they often need a transcript. It takes the normalplace of a report card in high school in most situations.

[Ellie]

On a transcript, just the course names, grades, and credits.

 

Provide course descriptions if asked for them.

 

Each year of "English" includes grammar, composition, and literature--one grade, 1 credit (or whatever your state does; in Calif, it's 10 credits per course per year). If you wanted an additional literature credit, then it should be additional literature, and frankly, I'm not sure that half a credit of literature is all that great an idea.