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transcript question for Dual Credit but 8th grade


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My eldest is doing some college classes this year. It's his 8th grade year. He is also doing Algebra I at home. Do I include his 8th grade year on his high school transcript? If so, do I include all his classes, or just the high school/college level classes? 

 

I was thinking I would just list the 2 college classes and then the Alg class, but then it would look like he only took 3 classes this year. 

 

Or, since the college classes will appear on his college transcript (and he will likely have more classes over the next 4 years), do I just leave it off altogether and put a note somewhere that 2 classes were taken before high school? 

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Welcome to wearing the administrator hat for homeschooling high school (even though doing 8th grade)! ;)

 

Include all high school and college level courses on your homeschool transcript.

Use a notation to indicate that the Algebra 1 was a "high school course completed prior to 9th grade".

Use a different notation to indicate that the college courses were taken as "dual enrollment at XYZ school".

 

When applying for admission to a college during the student's 12th grade year, be sure to send official transcripts from both your homeschooling AND the college(s) where dual enrollment occurred. 

Edited by Lori D.
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We are in a similar situation and our cover school automatically counts anything college level at a college for credit on the high school transcript (giving my DD a 5.0 GPA in 7th, because they do not count high school classes done in 7th as high school, so all that counted were the college ones that were automatically weighted).

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You could include a section of "Classes taken prior to [dates of his 4 high school years]"

 

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I asked this very question (we have some college classes in 7th and 8th) and have decided, for *high school transcript* purposes, to do the quoted. All pre-high school classes will be grouped together and it would be clear I'm only including college classes. If he does algebra 2 in 9th, it will also be clear he did Alg 1 sometime before that.

Now I'm finding the need for a transcript now, in which case, for his 8th and 7th transcript I include all subjects , with an asterisk indicating the college ones.

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Would you include the "classes taken prior to 9th grade" in the GPA?

 

You will see all kinds of methods of considering early high school work.

 

I counted the credits for math and foreign language, including using the grades in gpa.  This was the system used by the public schools in the state where we lived when we started homeschooling.

 

Others count the credit but not the grade.  Others don't count the credit or the grade.

 

Whatever you decide to do (and you don't really have to make a final decision about this until junior or senior year when you start submittng a transcript to colleges) I think three things are important:

 

Be clear about what you did.  Don't make an admissions officer have to guess if you counted an early course for credit or for the gpa.  This should be easy to see on  your transcript.  You can explain your method in a school profile (1-2 pages that describe your school) when you get to application time.

 

Be consistent.  If you decide to count grades, don't make it seem that you counted the Algebra 1 class with an A, but left off the Geometry class with a B.  If there is a reason why you are counting one class but not others, explain it on the profile (Ex.  "In order to encourage exploration of new subject areas, only grades from dual enrollment courses in core subjects were counted in student gpa.  Grades in Art, Hawaiian Navigation and Hawaiian Plants were not included in gpa calculations.")  Consistency can also mean using the grade assigned by the DE source.  You can weight grades to acknowledge that they were at a more intense level, but I am hesitant to change a grade on my transcript from what it is on the source transcript.  (Most college applications will also ask to see original transcripts from colleges attended.)

 

Consider what the trend will look like.  This is more about choosing later courses than transcripting early ones.  I try to consider what the course load and transcript would look like if the college didn't count the credit from early coursework.  Would it then seem that my student only took 2 credits of math or that he hadn't had an English course in a couple years?  While I counted the credit from early math and language, my kids still met (and exceeded) minimum credit counts for the subject areas where they had early coursework (IE, they had algebra in 8th grade, but still had 4+ credits of math taken during grades 9-12).  If it might seem light, that is another topic to address in the school profile or counselor recommendation (Ex.  Jane had an early interest in German and completed the AP level in German in 9th grade.  Since then she has maintained her German fluency through reading German novels by Cornelia Funke and Michael Ende and by translating visitor material for a local historic site into German.)  Think about what the trend would look like in light of the degree intentions of the student.  A prospective engineering student who hasn't taken math since junior year might not seem like a strong candidate (possible explanation - Student took highest courses available at CC and is taking physics or intro to engineering as a senior.)

 

Don't Panic.  Have Fun.  Your decisions about how to handle this aren't set until fairly late in the game, so if you find  later that you need to adjust your method and presentation, you probably can.  I drew the line in spring of junior year when my kids started applying to specific college based summer programs.  After that I didn't change how those early courses were counted.

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Would you include the "classes taken prior to 9th grade" in the GPA?

That's another can of worms that I also asked about recently and got a range of very useful replies.

I will decide whether to include or not in GPA middle school De depending on the grades DS makes. If all As, they go in, if he gets a B, they all go out and no more early DE for him ;)

If they go out of the GPA, they will still be listed on the column of "classes taken before high school", but with a note stating they have not been included in the high school GPA calculation.

Edited by madteaparty
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That's another can of worms that I also asked about recently and got a range of very useful replies.

I will decide whether to include or not in GPA middle school De depending on the grades DS makes. If all As, they go in, if he gets a B, they all go out and no more early DE for him ;)

If they go out of the GPA, they will still be listed on the column of "classes taken before high school", but with a note stating they have not been included in the high school GPA calculation.

 

I am in a bit of a bind with this.  Dd took three years of high school language during middle school from an online provider and got As is all of them.  But she also took Into to Algebra at home with me using AoPS but I did not "grade" her so don't have a grade.  It would be easiest for me to just omit all classes taken in middle school from the GPA but I do want to include them on the transcript.  It sounds like that will be OK should I go that route.

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I am in a bit of a bind with this.  Dd took three years of high school language during middle school from an online provider and got As is all of them.  But she also took Into to Algebra at home with me using AoPS but I did not "grade" her so don't have a grade.  It would be easiest for me to just omit all classes taken in middle school from the GPA but I do want to include them on the transcript.  It sounds like that will be OK should I go that route.

 

You should do what you want, but I am only listing college classes taken in middle school under the previously-mentioned column. This because these classes are forever and adcoms will receive an official transcript anyway. I'm not including any math at all. If they see Alg 2 in 9th they will assume Alg 1 was done in 8th...

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I am in a bit of a bind with this.  Dd took three years of high school language during middle school from an online provider and got As is all of them.  But she also took Into to Algebra at home with me using AoPS but I did not "grade" her so don't have a grade.  It would be easiest for me to just omit all classes taken in middle school from the GPA but I do want to include them on the transcript.  It sounds like that will be OK should I go that route.

 

I'm not sure how long ago you did Algebra, but I think you can still assign a grade based on her understanding of the material.  So far I have not had a college ask to see any work product from a home based course.  

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You should do what you want, but I am only listing college classes taken in middle school under the previously-mentioned column. This because these classes are forever and adcoms will receive an official transcript anyway. I'm not including any math at all. If they see Alg 2 in 9th they will assume Alg 1 was done in 8th...

 

If it were just the algebra class, I would not bother putting it on a HS transcript.  It's the foreign language that I may need to put on her transcript as it is quite possible she will not take any more foreign language in HS.  She is in AP Latin as a 9th grader so if she indeed does not take any more foreign language classes AND she wants to apply to a school that requires two years, I need those other years to appear on her transcript.  

 

I don't know if I need to be consistent.  Maybe I could just leave the algebra class off since she will be taking 4 years in HS anyway.

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I'm not sure how long ago you did Algebra, but I think you can still assign a grade based on her understanding of the material.  So far I have not had a college ask to see any work product from a home based course.  

 

It was just last year and dd does math to mastery.  I have all of her work, I just didn't formally grade it.  My bad.  It would be hard to go back and grade it because I required dd to revisit any missed exercise until it was understood and correct.  So looking back, it is definitely "A work" but is probably not the grade she would get for the same topic in a school setting.  I am trying to be more formal with geometry this year, although I still find it difficult because she is still not to move on until everything is correct and understood.  I suspect I will have more clarity on this looking back after more math is under our belts.

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If it were just the algebra class, I would not bother putting it on a HS transcript. It's the foreign language that I may need to put on her transcript as it is quite possible she will not take any more foreign language in HS. She is in AP Latin as a 9th grader so if she indeed does not take any more foreign language classes AND she wants to apply to a school that requires two years, I need those other years to appear on her transcript.

 

I don't know if I need to be consistent. Maybe I could just leave the algebra class off since she will be taking 4 years in HS anyway.

I've read the advice here we can chose what we bring up from middle school, and foreign language is one, especially if you will have the AP test. I'm certainly not being consistent by subject matter, because this is after all high school, not middle school transcript. I'm only bringing up the college classes which are some but not all of his foreign language, and English. No math. Edited by madteaparty
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It was just last year and dd does math to mastery. I have all of her work, I just didn't formally grade it. My bad. It would be hard to go back and grade it because I required dd to revisit any missed exercise until it was understood and correct. So looking back, it is definitely "A work" but is probably not the grade she would get for the same topic in a school setting. I am trying to be more formal with geometry this year, although I still find it difficult because she is still not to move on until everything is correct and understood. I suspect I will have more clarity on this looking back after more math is under our belts.

I don't grade daily work. We do go over it and find errors and correct them.

 

I gave a comprehensive test at the semester and end of the year. But we also did some review of concepts so that it wasn't just sprung on them. My school profile explains that courses were taught to mastery. I don't think grading homework is necessary to be able to give a grade.

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