How to handle community college courses on transcript?

[Sonshine]

For my older children I just put the community college courses on their transcript as regular courses with a grade, typically a grade higher than they made at the college, figuring that a college B was equal to a high school A. This was never questioned.

 

Unfortunately my senior son made a D - forgot to take a test! He is going to retake the course this fall semester, trying for an A. Due to a high SAT score, he will have a great chance of getting a large scholarship except for the D. His other community college classes are mostly B's with two A's in 1 credit music classes. Does anyone have any tips for handling this to his advantage, yet with honesty?

 

Also, I figure I have to include the community college transcript for the sake of honesty and the possibility that his scholarship will be revoked if they find out later, but wonder if it is possible to leave it off as he was in high school at the time of the course. Does anyone know?

[Chris in VA]

I'm sorry, but I disagree with how you handled it. I would not change a grade, but I do give 1 year high school credit for a semester CC course, which is well within expected norms. I absolutely have the CC send in a transcript to the school, and I list the course on the regular transcript along with the credit, and mark it with an asterix, which leads to a statement--"Taken at Blank Community College). I'm not sure what you should do with your other son. I would probably just not give credit for the course and therefore not mention he had taken a course at all--but some colleges want to know what has been taken at other schools, so I just don't know.

[Sonshine]

Thanks Chris. I understand your point of view on the grade issue. The course he made a D in was an elective, so I don't need to list it on his transcript. I hadn't thought of that. That will help in the GPA department. Maybe I won't list some of the other electives he took at the CC so as to be consistent. He does need to send in the transcript from the community college, or it could come back to haunt him, as well as for honesty reasons. I've been advised to have him address the D in his scholarship essay.

[Tullia]

Does the CC have an option for re-taking the course and clearing the first grade from the transcript? You might look in the school's catalog to see what the policy is.

[Sonshine]

He can take the course over and the new grade will replace the old one in his gpa, but the course with the original grade will remain on his transcript.

[Photo Ninja]

I am wondering how a university will view his high school transcript having a different grade than his cc transcript for the same course. It seems questionable to change the grade he earned.

 

My dc have taken cc courses that are listed on their high school transcript with the grade they earned. I did note that it was a cc course and included the name of the college. I also gave the semester cc courses 1 high school credit, a usual thing to do. Instead of changing the grade your ds earned, you could weight the course so that instead of 4 points for an A and 3 for a B, you give 5 points for an A and 4 for a B. Weighting cc and AP courses is another normal thing to do on a high school transcript. Sometimes it doesn't matter because some colleges don't want a weighted transcript, but then you send an unweighted transcript. The fact that the course is a cc class is still obvious on the transcripts.

 

I agree that you don't have to list all his cc courses on his high school transcript. As a private or hs, you can accept or deny cc courses for high school credit. Once your ds repeats the course, the cc transcript will have a better grade, so in the long term the D won't matter because the grade will change.

[Alyce]

Many colleges REQUIRE that if your student took ANY CC courses you must send them a transcript. Now if this was the only course your son took you could easily leave it off. If your son re takes it and passes you would not have to list the D but it might still show up on his transcript which might raise a few eyebrows. I would check with the schools admission policies and how they handle students with CC courses. IMHO I would include the D. Yes, it may affect his financial aid but it is what he earned. If you try to hide it what are you teaching your son. That it's okay to cheat the system if you really need something? I handle my dd's transcript the same as the others said. She failed a course at the CC, it was partly her fault. I listed it on her transcript. She earned it and as such she needed to take responsibility for it. Some of the fault lay with the teacher but it was the grade she recieved. It embarassed me that she failed a course but she had to learn that we have to take consequences whether we like them or not. I also listed the correct grade because her college REQUIRED the transcript from the CC and they would have seen it anyway. This way I wasn't looking fraudulent. She was still accepted and still recieved financial aid. maybe not as much as I was hoping but I've always taught my children being truthful is morally right and a something that we should always do. Lies have a way of coming back to haunt you.

[Halftime Hope]

with everything Alyce said!

 

The only way that I could justify not including that grade is if you choose not to give credit for your son's CC on his high school transcript, and he had a stand alone CC GPA and a stand alone high school GPA. I'm not sure how that would play at the college he is applying to. The above is *not* the course I would take.

 

If this were my child, I'd average the two grades for the course, add it in with all the rest of his high school courses and call it a day. (I wouldn't count the credit hours twice and thereby make the GPA worse.) Even if it hurts his scholarship chances, it will be an expensive but unforgetable life lesson in consequences and integrity. I would call mastering that lesson a bargain at any price. I'm at the stage with my kids where the life lessons are so much more important than the academics! (Mine are 21, 18, and 15.)

 

I would also send the CC transcript as is. He will need to have that course be an anomaly to make his case about the quality of student that he is, iow, it should be one D in a sea of A's. It will then be obvious to the admissions/FA staff that something happened.

 

Finally, I'm with Chris. Under no circumstances would I alter those grades from the CC and give them, in essence, a 5.0 grading scale. Our experience is that CC and state school general education courses are easier than our high school work. OTOH, I think AP courses are harder, so they might deserve the 5.0 grading scale. I just think that there is more integrity in reporting the courses straight up on the transcript, labeling where they were taken, noting very prominently on the transcript that your child's GPA is *unweighted*, and then letting each admissions office adjust as they see fit.

 

hth

[TravelingChris]

From everything I have read, you don't increase the grades of CC but do increase the credits. So a semester course (depending on credits) is worth 1 hs credit. I agree with Alyce that most colleges seem to want a separate transcript from each CC. (We will have two).

[Sonshine]

Thanks everybody for weighing in with your insights. I guess I am going to have to take our lumps. It's really a D in a sea of community college B's not A's unfortunately. I was focused on him getting free credits, and didn't emphasize A's. I certainly didn't foresee a D and was shocked when we got his transcript two weeks ago - two months after the semester ended. He is a hard worker but a bonehead. It took him a while to even remember what happened (it was an online course). This is making me rethink dual enrollment for the other kids. Ironically he did make A's in his outside homeschool classes. All his homeschool classes were in person and his dual enrollment classes were online.

[Sonshine]

My son is going to mention the D in his essays and we will send the transcripts in from the ccs. I think I will leave off all his cc courses (most of which are electives or repeats of a subject he had already done) and thereby can still legitimately give him his high high school gpa, but yet not be deceitful. Do you'all have a problem with this?

[AngieW in Texas]

I know my dd would not do well with an online course. She just wouldn't be able to force herself to take it as seriously. I've made sure that all her dual credit classes were in-person.

[Alyce]

As to re-thinking CC, take in mind it was an on-line class. Both my kids too on-line classes and hated them and did not do as well as they could. At least here the professors don't spend as much time on the course. They give out a bunch of things to do and when to do it. You never hear from the teacher unless she's graded a paper and even then you might get lucky. The other thing is that in all on-line classes they were required to spend some time in the chat room. What always happened was the one person would make a remark and everyone would follow with I agree. Technically that had met the requirements the teacher had set.

When they began taking classes on campus big difference. They could get involved with conversatios, the teachers seemed more interested and most really learned their students. Once we did this their grades we way up.

Don't give up on CC just because son did poor in an on-line class. They are hard to take and many times they just aren't the style of learning your child needs.

[AnitaMS]

Here in MD, at least, it matters whether you considered the cc course part of their high school or whether it is above and beyond the minimum hs credits and therefore "concurrent enrollment"

 

For HS cc courses, I put them on the transcript (unweighted, but with a major asterisk saying they were cc courses) and for college cc courses, I mentioned them on the transcript as "concurrent enrollment" but didn't give a grade. Instead, I included a copy of hte cc transcript.

 

The credits for the concurrent enrollment courses transferred.

[distancia]

I agree that you don't have to list all his cc courses on his high school transcript. As a private or hs, you can accept or deny cc courses for high school credit. Once your ds repeats the course, the cc transcript will have a better grade, so in the long term the D won't matter because the grade will change.

 

This is a really good point. At my D's former public high school, any dual enrollment (comm college) courses in which the student earned a D or F could be deleted from the student's high school transcript, if the student requested (and yes, they sure did request it!).

 

Of course the student would have to take the course all over again but it was a fresh start, as far as the high school was concerned.

 

This is all very consoling to me because my D botched her first exam in one of her CC courses, she didn't read the directions clearly and she translated entire sentences from English to Spanish, when she was supposed to be merely translating the verbs. So 1/4 of her grade in the course was a 55, which put an awful to of pressure on her to get all As for the remainder of the course.

Edited July 29, 2010 by distancia

[Sonshine]

kimanjo - you didn't have to send in the cc transcript to the college?

[distancia]

We haven't gotten that far yet, because hopefully, she will end up with a B (last 3 exams were all As, or so we think...today was her final). Yes, we will send in the transcript, but....

 

If she earns a C in this class, she will 1) retake the comm coll class all over to get a higher grade and 2) the C will stay on her transcript but it will not be counted towards her GPA (neither high school nor college) and she will earn an A the second time around which will count towards her GPA (for both high school and college).

 

In other words, I will act exactly as her public high school acts: DELETE the course from her h/s transcript. But, it is still included on her comm coll transcript (for a grade, but not counted in her collegiate GPA). And, just as in public high school, the course is taken a second time, and this second attempt goes on the h/s transcript (for a grade) as well as the college transcript (for a grade).

 

My friend has a daughter who flunked high school physics and chemistry this past semester. The girl received Fs in both classes. Over the summer she has taken online classes and received grades of B in both. Her high school is wiping the previous Fs off her transcript completely and is replacing them with Bs. It is called "grade recovery" or "grade forgiveness". Colleges have a similar program, not identical--because the first attempt and the first grade remains on the transcript--but the second attempt AND grade are counted towards the GPA.

 

Do check with your specific comm coll though because the rules vary from college to college. Underclass, liberal arts departments are fairly lenient about this, whereas upperclass science departments may not be. http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/011707/opb_baintest.shtml

Edited July 29, 2010 by distancia

[Nan in Mass]

My son's college was very interested in his CC classes. As part of his application, he was required to have the CC send his transcript. They also suggested that his advisor write a letter of recommendation. He didn't have an advisor, so he had to go find one. Fortunately, I had called the college junior year to see what they were going to want so there was time to establish some sort of relationship with the advisor. He also had one of his prof's write a letter of recommendation. I got the feeling that the college mostly judged him by his interview, his brother (already there), and his CC transcript and rec's, and ignored all the rest of the material he sent.

-Nan