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How do you count middle school coursework?


wenti
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My DS (G7) takes high school level math, science, and foreign language, how can I count these coursework on his high school transcript later? Could anyone share me a sample of high school transcript with middle school coursework?

 

Thanks. 

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This is going to depend somewhat on his future plans. Will he need the early credits in order to have a complete transcript? For instance, will he be taking four years each of science and math in grades 9-12? If so he doesn't really need the earlier classes on the transcript; colleges mostly seem to want to see what was done during the high school years.

 

I know some people include a section with "credits completed prior to high school" but don't necessarily count those credits in the high school GPA.

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I listed Algebra 1 and Latin 1 on the transcript under "courses taken in 8th grade" but I did NOT provide grade or credit information. In other words, I wanted the colleges to know that my student took those classes but the classes did not influence the GPA in any way.

 

That is the way my high school did it in the 80's and it made sense to me.

 

If my students had needed either more credits on their high school transcripts or a boost to their GPA's, I would have handled the 8th grade classes differently.

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I am going to included the credits earned in middle school in a "completed prior to 9th grade" section with the grades and include them in the GPA. If it's all clearly laid, then college admissions can recalculate the GPA using whatever courses they want and don't want. They do that anyway, even with just 9-12 courses.

My DS is going to have at least 5 credits before high school in foreign language and math. He is not going to need those credits for his totals, but I feel that doing high school level work at any age should be counted.

 

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This is my perspective as well. My current college student and my high school sr both had a lot of courses carry up from middle school in math, science, and foreign language.

 

This link shows the format I use. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/627201-achievement-singular-on-transcript/?p=7254159

 

Fwiw, I am not sure why it would look like padding when it is obvious that they were high school level courses when the subsequent courses required their content. Linear alg didnt get there by doing weak non-high school level worthy courses in middle school. Same with French 7 and reading Les Mis in French. If colleges don't want to incorporate those courses into their formulas, which they all have and do change transcript info to suit them, no problem. But they have the info.

 

My Dd's transcript had 15 foreign language credits bc she studied 3 languages intensely. Honors colleges and scholarship committees have not objected to my kids' transcripts according to the results from these 2 kids.

Edited by 8FillTheHeart
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I arranged my son's transcript by subject rather than grade level.  I then had a column for codes for things like where the course was taken, whether it was a laboratory course, and so on.  One of the codes was for "high school course taken in middle school."

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I agree. Colleges ask for a HIGH school transcript. This is a listing of courses taken during high school. If you want to highlight somewhere some courses taken during middle school, that is fine, however I'm not sure if matters much.

 

If you start high school with French 3, it's assumed that you took French 1 and 2 before high school.

If you start with higher maths, then it's assumed you have completed the prerequisites.

If you start with advanced science, then it is assumed that you have the background in formation to be able to be successful in a harder class (whether or not you have formally taken an easier course).

 

In reality, it doesn't matter if you actually took a formal math, science, language course in middle school if you are doing well in the harder course in high school.

 

Colleges want you to have so many credits DURING high school years (or the four years before college). I didn't bother listing middle school credits. I assume that if my son can pass AP math and science courses then you don't really care when he took Algebra 1. The one thing I might highlight from middle school is if your student took several years of a foreign language that doesn't show up on the high school transcript; of course this then begs the question why it wasn't continued.

 

I see no reason why you can't list the courses (separately) as an additional note to the transcript, but I would make sure it doesn't look like you are counting them toward high school or in the GPA.

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I agree. Colleges ask for a HIGH school transcript. This is a listing of courses taken during high school. If you want to highlight somewhere some courses taken during middle school, that is fine, however I'm not sure if matters much.

 

If you start high school with French 3, it's assumed that you took French 1 and 2 before high school.

If you start with higher maths, then it's assumed you have completed the prerequisites.

If you start with advanced science, then it is assumed that you have the background in formation to be able to be successful in a harder class (whether or not you have formally taken an easier course).

 

 

 

Well, maybe.  I had thought this too, but in California one of the a-g requirements that you can't test out of is geometry.  You need to have taken a geometry class to (and this is somewhat controversial) be admitted to a UC.  According to other parents, if you don't have it on your transcript, it's like it didn't happen, even if you have higher level math there.  It's ridiculous, but there it is, so check with the colleges that interest you, call their adcoms and see what they recommend.  

 

To get around this, I have heard parents recommend organizing your transcript by subject instead of by year.  Or as pp's here have written, to include it in 9th grade, but indicate that it was taken earlier.  But check with your colleges.

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Many states include credits taken in high school on their public school students' transcripts.  Not sure why it is controversial to include them.

 

Sorry, what I meant was it isn't clear to me whether every last a-g requirement is in fact a real requirement.  I have heard of students being admitted to UCs without every single a-g fulfilled.  But I'm not sure what else they had going for them on their application.  And I'm not sure whether the absence of a geometry class on a transcript would in fact automatically disqualify you from a UC.  So, it's a small controversy, but important for those of us who don't necessarily want to follow all those pesky rules.  

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We started homeschooling in Virginia, where high school courses taken in middle school are listed on the high school transcript, counted in credit hours and used for gpa.  This may work for or against a student.  We had friends whose kids had taken algebra in 8th grade, gotten a C and were retaking it - not only to improve understanding, but to raise the grade used for gpa.

 

We followed a similar model.  My transcripts are arranged by subject, then in chronological order within the subject.  In addition to grade earned and course credit, I have a column that lists the year completed, as well as the grade in which it was completed.  I have a small box that shows the credits completed each year, weighted gpa to date and unweighted gpa to date.

 

The second page is a chronological listing of courses.  It has columns that show the course grade earned, unweighted quality points, weighted quality points, and a comments section that includes an explanation of why any particular course was weighted (Advanced Placement, Dual Enrollment, taught as honors by outside provider).

 

My approach was to be clear about what courses were taken, when they were taken and what level they were.  I only counted math and foreign language courses taken before high school.  Even though DS2 took a high school level English course, I didn't feel that English was a subject that was as clear cut on what was high school level.  The high school courses taken in middle school were in addition to a solid set of courses in 9-12 grade.  They still took math, English, etc all four years of high school.

 

School districts do not alter their grading philosophy for each college their students attend.  Similarly, I couldn't know what each college was going to want to see when I drafted the transcript.  Some colleges specifically advised me to weight grades. Others said they didn't really look at gpa at all, because it was too variable.  Some schools only considered grades 9-11.  Others 10-12.  Still others 10-11.  

 

I just tried to present a clear picture of what my kid had done, without dwelling too much on exactly how each admissions office was going to weight the information.

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I follow our local public school policy on this:  Count the credit and grade for high school.

 

My DS (G7) takes high school level math, science, and foreign language, how can I count these coursework on his high school transcript later? Could anyone share me a sample of high school transcript with middle school coursework?

 

Thanks. 

 

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Well, earlier today I posted a completely unscientific poll on CC on one of the parents forums.  Results---no standardardization, but all about evenly split (about 1/3 each).  Some don't include at all. Some schools include the courses but no grades or do include grades but not factored into GPA.  Some include all courses taken and they are included in GPA.  

 

Basically, colleges are going to be used to getting transcripts with any of the above formats.

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Well, earlier today I posted a completely unscientific poll on CC on one of the parents forums.  Results---no standardardization, but all about evenly split (about 1/3 each).  Some don't include at all. Some schools include the courses but no grades or do include grades but not factored into GPA.  Some include all courses taken and they are included in GPA.  

 

Basically, colleges are going to be used to getting transcripts with any of the above formats.

 

Definitely.  One college admissions officer told us that the reason they didn't consider gpa was that just within a three state region, they had everything from no grade weighting, 1/2 pt for honors, 1 pt, and even 2 pts for some courses out of some high schools.  Sometimes there was a standard within a state, but not always.

 

One thing that a high school profile does is explain grading policies.  And when a college gets dozens or hundreds of applications from a particular school or district, they get familiar with the policies.  There is lots of opportunity to explain how your homeschool approached grades, credit and coursework.  Give the admissions offices enough information that they don't feel they have to guess what you did.  

 

 

Having said that, the place where I think someone could end up in a bind is if they counted a lot of coursework from middle school, but then didn't have expected credits during grades 9-12.  For example, a student who did Algebra 1 in 7th, geometry in 8th, algebra 2 in 9th, and pre-calculus in 10th, but not further math in grades 11-12 would probably find themselves at a disadvantage in applying to a STEM program at a competitive college.  The more competitive the college, the more likely that students will have done through calculus or beyond in high school.   For a student who is applying to a less competitive program or a degree with fewer math requirements, it might not matter.

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