Jump to content

Menu

Course Descriptions


Recommended Posts

It is my understanding that course descriptions are something that homeschooled students provide to give the admissions departments more information to evaluate. Furthermore, a student at a public school would not have course description information sent to admissions. (However, the course descriptions are all available online via student handbooks if a school wanted to investigate).

 

As a homeschool student I was under the impression that you would provide course descriptions for all of the classes your student took (even those from accredited online providers, public schools, DE, etc.) so that the information is complete and in one place. 

 

Reading a current thread has me questioning this. 

 

Please answer the following:

 

(1) Do you provide course descriptions for all of your student's classes? If not, which do you exclude and why. 

 

(2) Do you include the method of evaluation in your course description and if you do, how much detail do you provide? 

 

(3) Is it ever a bad idea to provide more information than admissions may need (aside from the time it takes to pull it all together)? Should you err on the side of over or under inclusion? 

 

(4) If one of your students* receives a majority of his credits (approximately 5-6 of the 7-8 credits each year) via a combination of public high school, online accredited high school and online accredited AP provider (who will all be providing an official transcript to supplement your homeschool transcript) would you include course descriptions at all? Please note that in this particular case the non-accredited credits will likely be PE and Latin (taken via The Lukeion Project which does not provide official transcripts and substantiated with AP/SAT II). 

 

*I am asking these questions for two different students so please answer them all even if your answer to question 4 seems to negate the other questions. 

 

THANK YOU!

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. I provide course descriptions for all of my students' classes.

 

2. I include method of evaluation extremely briefly. "Evaluation: tests and lab reports". "Evaluation: essays and oral presentation".

I do not include number of assignments or weighting of points. A grading scale is provided on the transcript.

 

3. I do not see why it could be bad to include more information. Admissions officials are free to ignore my course descriptions. What I find important is to provide the required information in a concise and easy to understand format, separate from the auxilliary information, so admissions people do not have to hunt through unnecessary info to find what they need.

 

4. I am providing course descriptions for courses taken from outside providers, since they will send a transcript, but not necessarily more detailed information. My kids took a large number of college classes; I included the course description listed in the college's course catalog.

Edited by regentrude
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

When my son was applying to colleges 3 years ago, the Common App *required* course descriptions for *outside courses* and said nothing about home-based courses.  I provided a separate document for the home-based courses and then put the outside course descriptions in the box provided on the Common App.  

 

It's kind of nuts, if you want to know my opinion.

 

ETA: Sorry, I didn't answer the questions:

 

(1) Do you provide course descriptions for all of your student's classes? If not, which do you exclude and why. 

 

See above.

 

(2) Do you include the method of evaluation in your course description and if you do, how much detail do you provide? 

 

No.  I figured that was opening a can of worms.

 

(3) Is it ever a bad idea to provide more information than admissions may need (aside from the time it takes to pull it all together)? Should you err on the side of over or under inclusion? 

 

I provided what was requested and anything else that would help them understand my son's experience better.  But I tried very hard not to repeat information across the documents (and this included the documents my son was responsible for).

 

(4) If one of your students* receives a majority of his credits (approximately 5-6 of the 7-8 credits each year) via a combination of public high school, online accredited high school and online accredited AP provider (who will all be providing an official transcript to supplement your homeschool transcript) would you include course descriptions at all? Please note that in this particular case the non-accredited credits will likely be PE and Latin (taken via The Lukeion Project which does not provide official transcripts and substantiated with AP/SAT II). 

 

My son received half of his credits from accredited institutions.  I included those course descriptions in the place on the Common App that requested them.  I did not include them with my own descriptions--partly because the format was quite different (I only used publicly available information, for example, so they were very, very short with no resources listed).  If my son had applied to schools that didn't use the Common App and didn't ask specifically for course descriptions for non-home based courses, I would not have included them.  My reasoning is that they wouldn't ask for course descriptions from full time students at those institutions, so they shouldn't need them from me.  I suspect that the reason the Common App asks for them is because people are including courses from non-credit granting, non-accredited sources, such as co-ops as "outside" courses, and the Common App people want to capture those.  I included those (we just had Derek Owens and a viola teacher in this category) in my own course descriptions by naming the provider.

Edited by EKS
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is my understanding that course descriptions are something that homeschooled students provide to give the admissions departments more information to evaluate. Furthermore, a student at a public school would not have course description information sent to admissions. (However, the course descriptions are all available online via student handbooks if a school wanted to investigate).

 

As a homeschool student I was under the impression that you would provide course descriptions for all of the classes your student took (even those from accredited online providers, public schools, DE, etc.) so that the information is complete and in one place. 

 

Reading a current thread has me questioning this. 

 

Please answer the following:

 

(1) Do you provide course descriptions for all of your student's classes? If not, which do you exclude and why. Yes, I provide course descriptions for all classes

 

(2) Do you include the method of evaluation in your course description and if you do, how much detail do you provide? Yes, but not much detail.

 

(3) Is it ever a bad idea to provide more information than admissions may need (aside from the time it takes to pull it all together)? Should you err on the side of over or under inclusion? I think it can be a bad idea to provide more information than required if the important information gets lost within the non-essential information.  

 

(4) If one of your students* receives a majority of his credits (approximately 5-6 of the 7-8 credits each year) via a combination of public high school, online accredited high school and online accredited AP provider (who will all be providing an official transcript to supplement your homeschool transcript) would you include course descriptions at all? Please note that in this particular case the non-accredited credits will likely be PE and Latin (taken via The Lukeion Project which does not provide official transcripts and substantiated with AP/SAT II). I included a course description for every class listed on the transcript, regardless of where it was taken.  I did not have transcripts sent from any of the accredited providers we used. (I had a sentence in my homeschool profile stating that those transcripts were available upon request, but they were never requested. )  

 

*I am asking these questions for two different students so please answer them all even if your answer to question 4 seems to negate the other questions. 

 

THANK YOU!

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

When my son was applying to colleges 3 years ago, the Common App *required* course descriptions for *outside courses* and said nothing about home-based courses.  I provided a separate document for the home-based courses and then put the outside course descriptions in the box provided on the Common App.  

 

It's kind of nuts, if you want to know my opinion.

I also think it is nuts.  

 

Fwiw, I didn't put any information in the homeschooled supplement section of the Common App (can't remember the official name).  In that section, I simply stated, "See (wherever the requested information could be found in my documents.)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

When my son applied this year, I did not include the course descriptions in the homeschool profile portion of the common app.  I did offer it to every school that he applied to and several of them did request to see them, so I sent them only to those schools.  From talking to many different admissions offices (my son applied to 11 schools) I found them most of them did not want additional information.  I would encourage you to contact each school and inquire about what they want included.  They were all easy to work with and very clear about what they desired.  

 

My course descriptions were for all of his courses and I briefly described an evaluation method.  It was a long document  :001_smile:

 

I had a transcript sent to each school from his dual enrollment college, but stated that other transcripts from his online courses were available upon request.  No one requested them.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

When my son applied this year, I did not include the course descriptions in the homeschool profile portion of the common app.

 

Re Common App: I, and several others here, did not include descriptions in the hs profile, but uploaded them as a second transcript.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

(1) Do you provide course descriptions for all of your student's classes? If not, which do you exclude and why. Yes, I include all course descriptions. I turned in the document as a second transcript for common app schools or I just mailed it in with everything else.

My student took outside classes from AoPS, Brave Writer, Center for Lit and PA Homeschoolers. For some of my courses, it was a mix of things. For example English 10 might be one or two Brave Writer classes with Center for Lit discussion class as well as a variety of things added at home. I described what was done. If a course (like Brave Writer) gave a grade, I put it in my course description since it was not the entire grade for the course.

 

(2) Do you include the method of evaluation in your course description and if you do, how much detail do you provide? Not in my course descriptions. I usually reference that papers and discussion were done, but gave no other details. I gave a brief description of evaluation in my school summary.

 

(3) Is it ever a bad idea to provide more information than admissions may need (aside from the time it takes to pull it all together)? Should you err on the side of over or under inclusion? I don't know, but as long as you don't overdo it, I'd err on including more as long as you don't think it is detrimental to your student.

 

(4) If one of your students* receives a majority of his credits (approximately 5-6 of the 7-8 credits each year) via a combination of public high school, online accredited high school and online accredited AP provider (who will all be providing an official transcript to supplement your homeschool transcript) would you include course descriptions at all? Please note that in this particular case the non-accredited credits will likely be PE and Latin (taken via The Lukeion Project which does not provide official transcripts and substantiated with AP/SAT II). I'm not in this situation so I really don't know, but I think that I would not provide descriptions of public high school courses - just list where taken. I would take a course description off their webpage for my description.

 

Edited by Julie of KY
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

(1) Do you provide course descriptions for all of your student's classes? If not, which do you exclude and why.

 

Yes.  Actually, we have two documents that we marry together into a single PDF that describe our school:  A one-page "School Profile" and "Course Descriptions".  The "School Profile" is not student-specific, but the "Course Descriptions" document is trimmed to ONLY included the courses that are taken by the graduate.  (I suppose when our twins graduate, the "Course Descriptions" document will contain a superset of those two students' courses.)  We keep these separate from the student's transcript because these describe the school while the transcript describes the student.  This is consistent with how many applications such as the common app view the document.  Plus, that allows the transcript to be a single-page document.

 

(2) Do you include the method of evaluation in your course description and if you do, how much detail do you provide?

 

Yes, but not in the "Course Descriptions".  This is included in the school profile.  Here is the verbiage we use:

 

Credits and Grading Scale

 

Credits are awarded according to the Carnegie credit standard of one credit equaling 120 or more study

hours. Grading is on a four point scale and is unweighted. No pluses or minuses are given.

90-100 = A

80-90 = B

70-80 = C

60-70 = D

Below 70 = F

 

(3) Is it ever a bad idea to provide more information than admissions may need (aside from the time it takes to pull it all together)? Should you err on the side of over or under inclusion?

 

Yes, it is bad to provide too much information.  The schools have to process many, many applications and providing too much information, not enough information, or information in an odd format is likely to cause the application to be rejected.

 

(4) If one of your students* receives a majority of his credits (approximately 5-6 of the 7-8 credits each year) via a combination of public high school, online accredited high school and online accredited AP provider (who will all be providing an official transcript to supplement your homeschool transcript) would you include course descriptions at all? Please note that in this particular case the non-accredited credits will likely be PE and Latin (taken via The Lukeion Project which does not provide official transcripts and substantiated with AP/SAT II).

 

We have never had students take courses from other institutions which were providing a separate trasnscript to the school.  However, when courses were taken outside the homeschool, we would include a single line at the end of the description for that course which explained where the instruction came from.  Here is an example from the "Course Descriptions" document for one of our graduates in which the first course was taught at home and the second course was taught online:

 

Computer Science

 

Java Programming (Preparation for the AP Computer Science A Exam)

An introductory college-level course covering graphical and command line applications, object-oriented

design concepts, the Eclipse development environment, managing data types and

variables, handling user input, and preparation for the AP Computer Science A Exam. Texts:

TeenCoder: Java Programming by Homeschool Programming, Inc.; and Barrons AP Computer

Science A by Roselyn Teukolosky.

 

Algorithms: Design and Analysis, Parts I and II (College-level Course)

A college-level course covering principles of algorithm design, divide-and-conquer and greedy

design paradigms, fast primitives for computing on graphs, computing good network backbones,

data compression, NP-completeness, and heuristics. Taught by Tim Roughgarden of Stanford

University on Coursera.

 

Note that in the entry for the homeschool course, we included the texts which were used.  In the entry for the online course, we listed the instructor, their affiliation and the course-delivery mechanism.  The term "(College-level Course)" is included because in the "School Profile" we had indicated that such courses were considered "Honors," which should have been noted on the transcript (although I see it was not - just a note saying "College-level course.").  Here is that verbiage for reference:

 

Types of Courses Offered

 

All Guheert Academy high school students are required to take math, English, science, and social studies

each year. A one-year logic course is also required, as are at least two years of foreign language study,

and daily Bible study. Students are coached to self-study for AP exams they wish to take. Classes are

almost entirely completed at home with occasional outsourcing to online or other providers. Only college-level

classes that are not AP preparatory are considered honors.

 

I will also note that the Java Programming course that year did NOT have an approved syllabus that year, so that student's transcript does NOT say "AP" on it for that course.  Rather, there was a note referenced and added at the bottom saying that course was preparation for the AP exam.  Our subsequent students took this same course using an approved AP syllabus, so these students will have transcripts which simply say "AP Computer Science A (Lab)" for the title of the course,

 

Good luck with your college applications!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. I provide course descriptions for all of my students' classes.

 

2. I include method of evaluation extremely briefly. "Evaluation: tests and lab reports". "Evaluation: essays and oral presentation".

I do not include number of assignments or weighting of points. A grading scale is provided on the transcript.

 

3. I do not see why it could be bad to include more information. Admissions officials are free to ignore my course descriptions. What I find important is to provide the required information in a concise and easy to understand format, separate from the auxilliary information, so admissions people do not have to hunt through unnecessary info to find what they need.

 

4. I am providing course descriptions for courses taken from outside providers, since they will send a transcript, but not necessarily more detailed information. My kids took a large number of college classes; I included the course description listed in the college's course catalog.

 

This is what I did, but then I believe I got the idea from regentrude. :D

 

The transcript is sorted by subject with the individual classes listed chronologically.  The course descriptions follow the exact same format, hopefully making it easy to reference for admissions. My son had a mix of classes from the local high school, online, and our own. I provided a description for every course including materials, method of assessment, and providers.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re Common App: I, and several others here, did not include descriptions in the hs profile, but uploaded them as a second transcript.

 

I did this, too, on advice from here.  The transcript was a one page document that can stand alone.  The supplemental transcript was about a dozen pages.  I just stapled them together where I had to send paper copies.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

(1) Do you provide course descriptions for all of your student's classes? If not, which do you exclude and why.

Yes, I provided a "Supplemental Transcript" that listed all of the courses on the actual transcript with descriptions.  It was required by most of the colleges that we applied to, since we are unaccredited homeschoolers.

 

(2) Do you include the method of evaluation in your course description and if you do, how much detail do you provide?

Yes, the grading scale was in the school profile, but there was something in most course descriptions about evaluation, like if the class included a project, research paper, papers, tests, labs, etc.  The course descriptions didn't have an evaluation section, I just mentioned things in the paragraph.  If AP or SAT II scores were part of the grade they were mentioned, too.

 

(3) Is it ever a bad idea to provide more information than admissions may need (aside from the time it takes to pull it all together)? Should you err on the side of over or under inclusion?

I could see the document getting long so I tried to focus on information that I wanted to share and not be too wordy.  I would be really surprised to find out that anyone read it all the way through :-)  There was no consistency in length of descriptions.  For some classes, he did so much outside work and cool things, they were worth mentioning.  For others, it was a basic class where not much needed to be said.  I did include textbook, outside resources and other readings.

 

(4) If one of your students* receives a majority of his credits (approximately 5-6 of the 7-8 credits each year) via a combination of public high school, online accredited high school and online accredited AP provider (who will all be providing an official transcript to supplement your homeschool transcript) would you include course descriptions at all? Please note that in this particular case the non-accredited credits will likely be PE and Latin (taken via The Lukeion Project which does not provide official transcripts and substantiated with AP/SAT II).

Yes, everything on my transcript was on the supplemental.  For DE, I just copied and pasted the course catalog information from the university, so they'd have everything in one place.  I would do the same for Lukeion if that was the entirety of the class.  Most of the unaccredited outside things ds did were a portion of his homeschool credit, so they were mentioned in the paragraph describing the overall class.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is what I did, but then I believe I got the idea from regentrude. :D

 

 

 

Yes, many of us are just following the wisdom of those that have gone before.  If I haven't said it before:  "Thank you to all who helped me get through the application process last year!!!"

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, many of us are just following the wisdom of those that have gone before.  If I haven't said it before:  "Thank you to all who helped me get through the application process last year!!!"

 

:iagree: I would have had no clue without this board. The outcome of our accidental homeschooling experience and the college application process far exceeded our expectations thanks to the generousity and support of fellow "boardies."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:iagree: I would have had no clue without this board. The outcome of our accidental homeschooling experience and the college application process far exceeded our expectations thanks to the generousity and support of fellow "boardies."

 

Me, too. I did not even know what an ACT or SAT was, because I did not go to school in this country. I feel the education part of homeschooling was easy compared to the college application process.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

(1) Do you provide course descriptions for all of your student's classes? If not, which do you exclude and why. 

 

(2) Do you include the method of evaluation in your course description and if you do, how much detail do you provide? 

 

(3) Is it ever a bad idea to provide more information than admissions may need (aside from the time it takes to pull it all together)? Should you err on the side of over or under inclusion? 

 

(4) If one of your students* receives a majority of his credits (approximately 5-6 of the 7-8 credits each year) via a combination of public high school, online accredited high school and online accredited AP provider (who will all be providing an official transcript to supplement your homeschool transcript) would you include course descriptions at all? Please note that in this particular case the non-accredited credits will likely be PE and Latin (taken via The Lukeion Project which does not provide official transcripts and substantiated with AP/SAT II). 

 

1. I provided descriptions for all classes. I debated bothering with dual enrolled classes, but went ahead for consistency.

 

2. No. Every class, whether in ps, private, online or homeschooled varies in its method of evaluation. I felt no need to explain or defend any of those choices.

 

3. I don't think admissions particularly appreciates over-inclusion, having to go through a ton of information they aren't interested in. However, if I had any doubt about whether I should include something, I probably did. 

 

4. This would depend entirely on the schools the student is applying to. If they are high acceptance rate schools, or guaranteed admissions with certain stats, etc. I wouldn't bother. If they are highly competitive, I'd probably include the course descriptions. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How can I find out what is required? 

I have done this twice already, yet I am still fuzzy on the details.  However, I think you can create an account as the guidance counselor and look at the homeschool supplement section.

 

Fwiw, I felt that the homeschool supplement asked questions that I had already addressed in a more effective manner in my documentation, so I didn't answer any of those questions except to tell the adcoms to refer to "X section in the homeschool profile, Y section in the course descriptions, etc.  

 

A long-time poster on the yahoo group hs2coll was kind enough years ago to share her course description document with me.  I modeled my course description documents after her form, rather than following the CA recommendations.  I uploaded the course description doc as my 2nd transcript on the Common App fields for transcripts.  The adcoms didn't have any issues with this approach.

 

Good luck

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...