College Transcripts and Course Description with DOCUMENTATION??? Please talk to me!

[Janice in NJ]

OK - From what you gals are telling me, it looks like:

 

1. Colleges want the transcript to look "normal." They don't really care that much about the word "Honors" since that's something that varies from school to school.

 

2. They want a list of courses taken in high school with normal-looking grades.

 

3. They don't really care about what we did in junior high.

 

4. Many of you included course descriptions.

 

5. Many of you included booklists.

 

QUESTION: :001_smile: Did ANY of you have ANYONE ask to see proof of those course descriptions? Did they ask to read the students essays? Did they ask for your ratty math tests? I'm saving all of this stuff, but honestly I feel like I'm wasting my time organizing it all. :confused:

 

Am I wrong to assume that if they never asked to SEE any of this work, that they probably never read the course descriptions or included them in their evaluation of the student? I mean, really - no ps student is turning in their 9th grade history essays for anyone's perusal! Do they really care about the essays that MY 9th grader wrote? (He has an A+ in his on-line composition class. But I can't really come up with a GRADE for his history and literature essays that he has written for me. Do I care? Do I just give him an A and drop it in a folder and IGNORE IT??????? I mean, my grade would jive with his outside teacher.)

 

Just tell me what to do, ladies! :D

 

Peace,

Janice

[Kimberly in Sedona]

Less was more!

 

They wanted it simple and ONLY what they asked for, nothing more. They did not want to see course descriptions or book lists. They did not care about "honors." They did read essays and information they required.

 

In our case, the community college courses taken seemed to "validate" our home school experience.

 

I did keep lists of what we covered, materials we used and course descriptions. NOT one college or University asked to see it. The girls were offered great scholarships at several schools.

 

If possible check with the schools you are interested in, as it will vary greatly between schools.

[Guest sebastian]

My son applied to 8 schools. They all asked for different things. Some asked nothing more of home schoolers than of other students. Two asked for course descriptions, one asked for text book list, and one asked for reading list. No one asked for any actual work - but you might want to think about keeping his BEST work for a portfolio - just in case. I know some people who prepared portfolios for scholarship interviews.

[Gwen in VA]

Our story -- we went the opposite route. We gave the colleges EVERYTHING -- transcript, school profile, course descriptions, book lists, activity sheets.....

 

Our kids applied to competitive schools and received LOTS of merit aid offers, so we are planning to do the "lots of information" with our next child.

 

I think that how much the school wants to see depends VERY much on the school. If your child is applying to competitive schools, more is probably better, though do check with the school.

 

A true story -- Last week my ds and dh attended the Accepted Students' Day for the school my ds will attend (a USNWR top-20 LAC). They talked for a while with another homeschool family, and then were joined by two admissions counselors. Both hs families joked with the counselors about how much paper they bombarded the admissions office with. The counselors responded by saying that they were delighted to receive that much information -- some homeschoolers apply and provide so little information that they do not feel they know the student adequately so they don't accept him/her.

 

What you send depends on the school, but for us even state schools like UVA -- which pleads with students to not send any extra documentation -- and UPitt -- which requires only a simple form with nothing else added -- were delighted to receive additional documentation from homeschoolers.

 

Additionally, if you are interested in merit aid, send ALL THE INFORMATION YOU CAN!!!!! Schools want to feel like they really know the background of students to whom they offer merit aid.

 

I know that others do it differently, but if you are applying to competitive schools I truly believe that more is better.

[Tokyomarie]

I tried to keep every written assignment that was used to generate a grade in a given course. At least every semester, preferably every quarter, I wrote a "grade report" which listed resources used for that term, a breakdown of how the grade was derived, and a narrative impression of the student's progress. I filed that in a notebook together with any tests and graded essays. I saved any workbooks we used as well as the daily work in science, math, and history/geography, but I kept those separate- a plastic bin works well- from the notebook with grade reports and supporting test/essay documents.

 

I did not need to generate a list of course descriptions for my oldest daughter. She had three colleges of interest and none of them were ultra-selective. For one college we were required to submit a book list, which we generated from the running book list we kept, and for another we needed to submit a copy of one graded essay, which we pulled from the notebook.

 

One of the flagship state universities my second daughter applied to did not absolutely require us to submit a list of course descriptions, but the admissions office indicated that it would benefit her application, so I made a list that included resources used, a basic description of scope of the class, and the source of any outside instruction if the course was taken with another instructor. Doing this was made much easier because of all the documentation I had saved.

 

Other than the graded essay I listed for my first daughter, we submitted no actual work. However, having that work on hand to review as needed while generating the transcript and course descriptions that were sent was very helpful.

[Susan in IL]

I submitted course descriptions but not a reading list. I did mention it was available on request but none requested it. At one school (the one he choose), the year after ds applied, they added a section to their catalog with requirements for homeschoolers. They want course descriptions. I didn't keep a lot of stuff. I did keep the midterm and finals that I gave him in case anyone wanted proof but with his ACT score and AP scores, that was proof enough.

 

His application packet included the app (with essays), sealed recommendation letters, a cover letter from me about the general course of study, a one page transcript, and course descriptions.

 

Look at potential college websites for what documentation they want.

 

Hope this helps.