Credit for an 8th Grade Course

[1Togo]

I looked at some of the threads on this topic, but didn't see exactly what I needed. Dd is finishing a two-year U.S. History course. The second year is designated as a 9th grade course. Can I put that course on her transcript as 9th grade course even though she started it in 8th grade? With all the subjects we want to study, I don't know if there will be time for another full American history course. Also, this course, though not the most rigorous, was thorough. She knows her American history. If I put it on her transcript, do I need to indicate that she began it in 8th grade? I don't expect the colleges where she will apply to ask for anything more than a basic transcript and reading list, but who knows about 4 years down the road.

[snowbeltmom]

I looked at some of the threads on this topic, but didn't see exactly what I needed. Dd is finishing a two-year U.S. History course. The second year is designated as a 9th grade course. Can I put that course on her transcript as 9th grade course even though she started it in 8th grade? With all the subjects we want to study, I don't know if there will be time for another full American history course. Also, this course, though not the most rigorous, was thorough. She knows her American history. If I put it on her transcript, do I need to indicate that she began it in 8th grade? I don't expect the colleges where she will apply to ask for anything more than a basic transcript and reading list, but who knows about 4 years down the road.

 

I have had similar questions regarding high school level work completed prior to 9th grade, and I have found that I often receive conflicting opinions.

 

My local high school awards high school credit for foreign languages and high school level math completed in 8th grade, so the colleges should be familiar with this practice.

 

I know of other homeschoolers who have awarded high school credit prior to 9th grade, and they had no problems during the college admissions process.

 

I am awarding credit for high school level classes taken prior to 9th grade. For example, my son took geometry and biology in 8th grade. Since those are standard courses that college admissions would expect to see on a transcript, I want to make sure the colleges know my son did take those classes.

 

My son's transcript is grouped by subject which I found makes it easier to document high school level classes taken in 8th grade.

 

If your daughter's American history class was a high school level course, I would award credit.

[1Togo]

Thank you. That was the direction I was going, but we haven't had a child with this situation, so I didn't know the college end of things.

[VBCaroline]

The high schools in Virginia Beach, including the IB school and high schools with excellent AP stats, will also award credit for high school classes taken in 7th grade(first year of a foreign language and algebra I).

[elegantlion]

IIRC the sticking point may come into play with SOME colleges. They may want to see only the previous four years and not count 8th grade credit as part of their admissions. Again, the best advice is to check with specific colleges.

 

My ds is doing some high school work this year. My current plan is to note it on the transcript, but not count them as credit. He will be going deeper in these subjects so we will not need to count the credits in 8th.

 

For instance he's doing algebra I spread out over 7th and 8th, but he will still have 4 additional math credits by the time he graduates.

[Dooley]

Well, you can do your transcript in subjects instead of chronological, and avoid stating WHEN a class was taken. However, if its not a high school class with high school text/work, you should not count it. Even then....my son learned JAVA coding with a college text and then I sent him to PS this year, they would not give credit for that. So....there seems to be some grey areas about what is best.

[2cents]

:lurk5: We're in the same boat. The grouping by subject idea is very helpful!! Thanks!!

[In The Great White North]

With all the subjects we want to study, I don't know if there will be time for another full American history course.

 

None of the colleges ds applied required American History, just unspecified social studies (and not very much of that.) If she has that many other courses, I wouldn't worry about it.

[mamajudy]

I would list it as a 9th grade course. If it's a high school level course, I put it on the transcript, even if they took the course before 9th grade (especially, as a previous poster mentioned, with something like biology, which is a standard high school course. You don't want people looking at the transcript and thinking your child never took biology.).

[emubird]

I found that as long as I explained what I was doing, the colleges were pretty open to just about anything. A couple of explanatory footnotes might be all that you'll need.

 

I had a separate section of "courses taken before high school" where I put the beginning foreign language courses that my daughter continued into high school and the beginning math (Alg 1 and 2, Geometry) because I thought it might look funny to NOT have those on the transcript. I didn't list anything else she did before, even if they were high school level. She had enough other stuff in the 4 years of high school that it wasn't necessary. I ended up not listing the Latin she had done before high school, even though it really could have counted for a year or two of high school. She didn't go on in Latin, so I didn't feel we had the "support" for listing it. Also, she had three other languages, so I didn't feel the need.

 

I also listed everything by subject (it was more compact), so it made it easier to nudge a couple classes into high school when they were really at the end of 8th grade -- at least, that was my intent. But when it came time to make up the transcript, I found I couldn't get all those classes onto one page, so the 8th grade classes got dropped anyway.

 

You could just give her one year credit (the high school year). If she accumulates enough other credit, it won't matter. I suspect that this happens in many ps schools as well, where students start in middle school on a subject and then finish it up in high school. I had this happen myself with a science course. As far as I know, the middle school part of it just never made it onto my transcript.

 

The general rule of thumb is that English and social studies classes from middle school do not go on the high school transcript, even if they were high school level. The assumption is that the student will go on to do even higher level work in high school, where it will be obvious that they are advanced, so reporting the earlier work is kind of irrelevant. It would only be necessary if the college had some kind of US history requirement that your daughter had already fulfilled in 8th grade -- but if she has a full year in high school, that probably won't be an issue.