Another transcript issue for us - # of credits

[....]

OK, I think we just have WAY too many credits and I feel very insecure about this.  I'm working on dd16's transcripts right now and it looks like she will have about 30-31 credit hours after next year.  And that's doing a light-ish year next year (7 credits) and leaving off stuff...  I left off Driver's Ed...I left off a couple of other things that weren't mission-critical.

Looking at ds15's stuff, he may have more like 32 credits by the time he graduates. 

This is from schooling year-round, taking classes at a homeschool enrichment center and, in hindsight, I think I might've pushed my kids too hard.  ?

I have 2 credits on there that are Biblical Studies...I could take those off the transcript, but I hate to, because they have a great working knowledge of theology and dd16 actually traveled to a university over the summer and attended workshops/debated a pastor in front of a class full of teens.  Anyway, I know most public school kids wouldn't have Biblical Studies on their transcripts...

How many is too many credits?  We do have 1 credit Physical Education on there and 1/2 credit Health, but that's actually a requirement in TX public schools...and ds15 wants to major in Kinesiology.  So, I guess colleges would pretty much expect to see that on there.

Thanks for listening!  And TIA for any advice.

[klmama]

If your dc did the work, include the credits.  Explain the year-round schedule in the school profile or counselor letter.

[regentrude]

If I recall correctly,  my dd had 32 or thereabouts. I don't see how the number of credits would be an issue, unless you were obviously padding the transcript. 

[linders]

32 doesn't seem extreme. DS18 (now a senior) will have 31 credits after B&M school, with 7 classes each of the 4 years plus 3 HS credits in 8th grade. I would leave off driver's ed - in our state and many (most?) others, it is no longer a class offered at the high school - you do it on your own.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

13 hours ago, Evanthe said:

OK, I think we just have WAY too many credits and I feel very insecure about this.  I'm working on dd16's transcripts right now and it looks like she will have about 30-31 credit hours after next year.  

 

I read that as "she will have 30-31 credit hours next year."  ?  Talk about padding the transcript!

30-31 total for high school doesn't seem too over the top to me. We're having the opposite issue -- I'm wondering if my teen has too few. At least you can leave things off if you choose to!

Edited September 1, 2018 by Woodland Mist Academy

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Is giving credit for driver's ed and other life skills common? I also wonder about EC vs credit. 

ETA: I also wonder about EC vs credit vs life skills that maybe don't need to be on the application at all.

Edited September 1, 2018 by Woodland Mist Academy

[klmama]

16 minutes ago, Woodland Mist Academy said:

Is giving credit for driver's ed and other life skills common? I also wonder about EC vs credit. 

Some people give credit for driver's ed.  Most don't.  I've never seen driver's ed on an extracurricular activity list, but I suppose you could include it. 

[Woodland Mist Academy]

13 hours ago, Evanthe said:

I have 2 credits on there that are Biblical Studies...I could take those off the transcript, but I hate to, because they have a great working knowledge of theology and dd16 actually traveled to a university over the summer and attended workshops/debated a pastor in front of a class full of teens.  Anyway, I know most public school kids wouldn't have Biblical Studies on their transcripts...

My teen spends hours each week on several activities.  She attends workshops and has a great working knowledge of these activities. She gets no school credit for them. They are serious ECs. When everything is a credit, what is an EC? 

Putting life into tidy little categories is tough..

[Bambam]

I'm in Texas too. I've googled and read the various high school handbooks that are local to me. One school here has 31 credits as a minimum for graduation while another has like 24-26. I think you are fine!

You will need extracurriculars for the Apply Texas app though - as well as volunteer opportunities. It might be helpful to visit the Apply Texas site and print off a blank form (it takes so many pages because they do not have a downloadable PDF, but it does give you a general idea of what info/what form they will want the info). The first few pages of the app are just personal (basic) info - it gets more interesting maybe page 4 or 5. 

[....]

32 minutes ago, Woodland Mist Academy said:

Is giving credit for driver's ed and other life skills common? I also wonder about EC vs credit. 

ETA: I also wonder about EC vs credit vs life skills that maybe don't need to be on the application at all.

 

We took driver's ed in high school and got a half credit for it.  I guess I assumed everyone did...

My kids have a ton of extra-curriculars, but they're not really package-able into high school "courses".  I'm just leaving them for the application, I guess.

[....]

13 minutes ago, Woodland Mist Academy said:

My teen spends hours each week on several activities.  She attends workshops and has a great working knowledge of these activities. She gets no school credit for them. They are serious ECs. When everything is a credit, what is an EC? 

Putting life into tidy little categories is tough..

 

The Biblical Studies credits...those are actual courses for us.  Not just the workshop and her knowledge on the subject (I just kinda blurted that out).  Especially since we're using Sonlight, the Bible credit is written into the program.    

[Woodland Mist Academy]

2 minutes ago, Evanthe said:

 

We took driver's ed in high school and got a half credit for it.  I guess I assumed everyone did...

My kids have a ton of extra-curriculars, but they're not really package-able into high school "courses".  I'm just leaving them for the application, I guess.

I received credit for driver's ed as well. That's not the case in many places now, though. As always, location and context matter. Maybe check what's typical at local schools.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

1 minute ago, Evanthe said:

 

The Biblical Studies credits...those are actual courses for us.  Not just the workshop and her knowledge on the subject (I just kinda blurted that out).  Especially since we're using Sonlight, the Bible credit is written into the program.    

Ah! That's different then. I didn't realize they were actually classes in a program. I was thinking of it more as something he did on his own.

[....]

9 minutes ago, Bambam said:

I'm in Texas too. I've googled and read the various high school handbooks that are local to me. One school here has 31 credits as a minimum for graduation while another has like 24-26. I think you are fine!

 

Wow, I wonder what ISD requires 31 to graduate!  OK, I don't feel so insecure about it anymore.  

[BusyMom5]

I'd call all the Bible stuff extra curricular or club based, even if it wasn't.  I'd consider it extra time, sort of like piano practice or ball practice. 

[Lori D.]

As long as they are not "fluff" credits that will look like you are padding the transcript, that does not seem like an extreme amount of credits. Many public schools have moved to block scheduling, so those students routinely complete 4 credits each semester, so 8 credits per year of high school. And 8 credits x 4 years = 32 credits on the transcript.

JMO, but I would keep the Biblical Studies, PE, and Health credits. The Biblical Studies were formal class studies, plus many private school and parochial school students will have Bible credits. And all the other students from your state (and other states that require PE and Health) will include those credits, so no, those do not look like "padding".
 

My kids have a ton of extra-curriculars, but they're not really package-able into high school "courses".  I'm just leaving them for the application, I guess.

That is actually the best way to make special talents and activities "shine", as you can write a paragraph detailing each extracurricular for the separate Extracurriculars document. Rolling them into a credit often "hides" the student's strength and what the student gained through the activity.

Edited September 1, 2018 by Lori D.

[....]

19 hours ago, Lori D. said:

As long as they are not "fluff" credits that will look like you are padding the transcript, that does not seem like an extreme amount of credits. Many public schools have moved to block scheduling, so those students routinely complete 4 credits each semester, so 8 credits per year of high school. And 8 credits x 4 years = 32 credits on the transcript.

JMO, but I would keep the Biblical Studies, PE, and Health credits. The Biblical Studies were formal class studies, plus many private school and parochial school students will have Bible credits. And all the other students from your state (and other states that require PE and Health) will include those credits, so no, those do not look like "padding".

 

That's right!  They do block scheduling here.  I forgot about that.  The kids will have a lot of credits on their transcripts here, then.  

I'm going to keep those things on the transcript.  One of the colleges on our list is a Lutheran college and I'm guessing they would be used to that on there.

[katilac]

My kids had about 32 credits without PE or driver's ed. 

[Carrie12345]

I'm sort of keeping two sets of books. ? 

My current high schoolers are looking toward local 2-year degrees or certificate programs. With our area public schools requiring 22 credits and our state requiring 21, I do think five million homeschool credits will look suspicious to the schools they're considering. But there's still always the chance that they will change their minds and want to go more competitive, for which I think their full accomplishments will need to be reflected.

I don't condone padding, but I do think it's good to know your audience.

[8filltheheart]

I have had kids graduate with approx 40 credits. I think my ds had something like 11-12 science credits alone. (physics, chem, AP chem, bio, 3 astronomy courses, DE for 5 physics courses.)  His math credits were similar (I did give cr for alg 1&2, geo, and AoPS intermediate alg completed before 9th.)

[2ndGenHomeschooler]

What is the difference between an extra curricular and a course that should be listed on a transcript? Does a course need to be more formal/structured/specific output of some kind? I’m not sure really how to word this question clearly. For example, my DD loves art. She takes a weekly art class, went to art camp this summer, we go to museums, she practices multiple mediums in her free time. Would this better fit the description of an EC or a for-credit class? 

Also, for PE, my kids do karate and are currently training for a kids triathlon. Tomorrow they will go to a triathlon clinic. They do demos at fairs with the karate school. DH sometimes puts together exercise routines for them. They’ll need a PE credit for their transcripts but if they do similar things every year would I give them 4 PE credits (provided they have enough hours for 4 credits, of course)? 

Is there a “rule” of some kind about what constitutes a EC vs. a class? 

And regards to life skills, schools in our state require 1 credit of life skills. I’m putting driver’s ed there.

[Dmmetler]

Due to the way our cover counts credits, DD has 17.5 at the end of her freshman year. Most of that is because of outside validation. College classes and classes with outside high school level exams are added to the high school transcripts even when done earlier, so DD has quite a few due to exam scores being reported to the cover and college DE, plus conferences, workshops and short courses that give college credit. Most of the latter do nothing to progress her high school diploma (a 3 day workshop on using games to teach Environmental Education is useful to a kid who leads local clubs and teaches online classes, but it really doesn’t fit into any high school category).  Add the classes to actually tick high school boxes, and it ends up being quite a stack! 

I’m also planning to do what a Purdue admissions rep suggested and talk to admissions at her top choices the summer before senior year to give them a chance to look over her transcripts and make sure the boxes are checked preemptively. She suggested that for anyone with a non-standard transcript. 

[Lori D.]

4 hours ago, 2ndGenHomeschooler said:

What is the difference between an extra curricular and a course that should be listed on a transcript? Does a course need to be more formal/structured/specific output of some kind? I’m not sure really how to word this question clearly. For example, my DD loves art. She takes a weekly art class, went to art camp this summer, we go to museums, she practices multiple mediums in her free time. Would this better fit the description of an EC or a for-credit class? 

Also, for PE, my kids do karate and are currently training for a kids triathlon. Tomorrow they will go to a triathlon clinic. They do demos at fairs with the karate school. DH sometimes puts together exercise routines for them. They’ll need a PE credit for their transcripts but if they do similar things every year would I give them 4 PE credits (provided they have enough hours for 4 credits, of course)? 

Is there a “rule” of some kind about what constitutes a EC vs. a class? 

No hard and fast "rule" and it is going to be up to each individual family's need/choice how to do this. However, the things you list are good things to consider when deciding. Also, consider how much moving forward in actual learning happened. And also, if the student has outstanding achievements, character development, and skill development in the extracurricular that would end up "hidden" when rolling the hours into a credit under a course heading on a transcript, vs. really getting to "shine" when placed on an extracurriculars list with a paragraph of description.

Another option is to count some of the hours toward a credit, and some towards the extracurricular. For example, our DSs each participated in the YMCA's Youth & Government program for 3 years. The same teaching material is used each year for state gov't, legislature, process of a bill becoming law, etc. I counted the teaching portion of the program from their first year in Y&G as a part of our Government credit, and all the rest towards the extracurricular, where DSs' leadership awards, work as committee chair, etc. could be highlighted.
 

4 hours ago, 2ndGenHomeschooler said:

And regards to life skills, schools in our state require 1 credit of life skills. I’m putting driver’s ed there.

Did you mean counting the Driver's Ed as *part* of 1 credit? Or is your Driver's Ed. program really a full 1-credit program?

Just for general reference and consistency of credits, 1 credit roughly equals between 120 hours (minimum, Carnegie credit classroom contact hours) to 180 hours (maximum, 1 hour day/ x 5 days/week x 36 week school year frequently required of public schools by state laws). OR... completion of a standard high school level textbook or program that, on average, takes 1 school year to complete (45-60 min/day, 4-5 days/week).

Most Driver's Ed programs seem to require 50 hours of practice driving, plus some hours spent on the teaching info/instruction, which falls well short of a full 1 credit program. Just a thought!

BEST of luck to all in figuring out credits for transcripts! Warmest regards, Lori D>

Edited September 3, 2018 by Lori D.

[klmama]

My answers are in red:

3 hours ago, 2ndGenHomeschooler said:

What is the difference between an extra curricular and a course that should be listed on a transcript? Does a course need to be more formal/structured/specific output of some kind?  Yes, there usually should be some sort of gradable output. What that is will vary from course to course.  I’m not sure really how to word this question clearly. For example, my DD loves art. She takes a weekly art class, went to art camp this summer, we go to museums, she practices multiple mediums in her free time. Would this better fit the description of an EC or a for-credit class? 

It could go either way.  If you want to count art as a course, I suggest you search online for high school art class syllabi to see what kinds of criteria teachers usually use for grading, and then plan her year accordingly.  Be sure to determine if there's something important missing in what she's doing so you can include that in her study this year.  

Also, for PE, my kids do karate and are currently training for a kids triathlon. Tomorrow they will go to a triathlon clinic. They do demos at fairs with the karate school. DH sometimes puts together exercise routines for them. They’ll need a PE credit for their transcripts but if they do similar things every year would I give them 4 PE credits (provided they have enough hours for 4 credits, of course)? 

Unless your dc are top triathlon competitors, I would count the triathlon training and clinic and the home exercise routines as P.E.  Your course description would show that they are doing a variety of things: calisthenics (or weight training or whatever their dad has them doing), running, bicycling, swimming, and participating in a kids' triathlon.  However, since karate is a long-term activity, I would count it as an EC, so their commitment, achievement, and leadership is highlighted.  

FWIW, I've never counted my high school dc's formal sports participation as P.E.  I did count time they spent doing other physical activity: calisthenics, walking for exercise, running, weight training, circuit training, bicycling, rock climbing, swimming, dancing, skiing, horseback riding, bowling, Pilates, yoga, and P90X3.  I evaluated them based on demonstrating required skills, meeting time requirements, and meeting guidelines on age-appropriate fitness tests. 

Is there a “rule” of some kind about what constitutes a EC vs. a class?  It's a good idea to have some sort of measurable output if you want to count it as a class and give a grade.  As Lori suggested, sometimes you can separate out part of the activity to count toward a class and then count the rest as an EC.  For example, my dc participated in an activity around 25 hours each week and also spent around 5 hours weekly reading numerous related instructional books by experts in the field.  I turned the book reading into a half-credit course "Theory of _____."  Dc wrote several research papers, gave oral presentations, and took an essay final exam.  Time-wise, I suppose I could have counted it as a full credit, but I thought half a credit was more appropriate.  

And regards to life skills, schools in our state require 1 credit of life skills. I’m putting driver’s ed there.  Good choice!  There was a great thread here sometime this summer on important life skills.  It might give you some other ideas for skills to include.

 

[Lori D.]

2 minutes ago, klmama said:

And regards to life skills, schools in our state require 1 credit of life skills. I’m putting driver’s ed there.  Good choice!  There was a great thread here sometime this summer on important life skills.  It might give you some other ideas for skills to include.

Gee, I hope you can find that thread and link it. I don't remember that one. Here's a much older thread with great ideas with suggestions for life skills: Which (atypical subjects do you recommend starting for high school? (i.e. life skills/finance/car mechanics, etc.)

Personal Finance, Public Speaking, and Health/Nutrition are also great ones to include in a Life Skills course, as a 0.5-1.0 credit in each of those subjects is actually required by some public schools.

[klmama]

Here's the thread I mentioned about life skills: https://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/675857-non-academic-skills-to-learn/?tab=comments#comment-8140449

 

[2ndGenHomeschooler]

1 hour ago, Lori D. said:

No hard and fast "rule" and it is going to be up to each individual family's need/choice how to do this. However, the things you list are good things to consider when deciding. Also, consider how much moving forward in actual learning happened. And also, if the student has outstanding achievements, character development, and skill development in the extracurricular that would end up "hidden" when rolling the hours into a credit under a course heading on a transcript, vs. really getting to "shine" when placed on an extracurriculars list with a paragraph of description.

Another option is to count some of the hours toward a credit, and some towards the extracurricular. For example, our DSs each participated in the YMCA's Youth & Government program for 3 years. The same teaching material is used each year for state gov't, legislature, process of a bill becoming law, etc. I counted the teaching portion of the program from their first year in Y&G as a part of our Government credit, and all the rest towards the extracurricular, where DSs' leadership awards, work as committee chair, etc. could be highlighted.
 

Did you mean counting the Driver's Ed as *part* of 1 credit? Or is your Driver's Ed. program really a full 1-credit program?

Just for general reference and consistency of credits, 1 credit roughly equals between 120 hours (minimum, Carnegie credit classroom contact hours) to 180 hours (maximum, 1 hour day/ x 5 days/week x 36 week school year frequently required of public schools by state laws). OR... completion of a standard high school level textbook or program that, on average, takes 1 school year to complete (45-60 min/day, 4-5 days/week).

Most Driver's Ed programs seem to require 50 hours of practice driving, plus some hours spent on the teaching info/instruction, which falls well short of a full 1 credit program. Just a thought!

BEST of luck to all in figuring out credits for transcripts! Warmest regards, Lori D>

Thanks! This is helpful. 

Yes, we’d be counting driver’s ed as part of the life skills credit. Our state requires 40 hours behind the wheel and an 8 hour drug and alcohol class. My DH also plans to teach them basic car maintenance before they get their license (changing the oil or a tire, checking fluids, etc). Other items on our list for the life skills credit include a CPR/first aid course, personal finance, basic cooking course, writing a resume, things like that. 

[2ndGenHomeschooler]

41 minutes ago, klmama said:

My answers are in red:

 

Thank you! This is very helpful!

[yvonne]

Credits seem pretty meaningless.  Our local public school requires 220 credits for graduation!?  Each one-semester course is 5 credits.

I have to believe that college admissions people know that what constitutes a "credit" is all over the board, so I concentrated more on what classes my kids took, rather than a random number of "credits."  I tried to align with how the better private schools did things rather than how our public school did things. The private schools did list PE/"Health", but did not list Driver's Ed or other "life skills," so I didn't, either.

The difficulty I had with credits was how to combine classes from different sources which have different definitions of a "credit." With my sons, I compiled all classes, from all sources onto a single transcript. We homeschooled under a public charter in 8th & 9th, in case the boys wanted to go to a brick & mortar. All those high school courses were listed as 10 credits on the official charter transcript. When I listed them on the single transcript, I listed them as 1.0 credit for year long courses and 0.5 credits for semester courses, just as I did for every year long or semester long course.

My daughter took a summer Bio w/ lab class at the local community college. The transcript from the cc will list it as a 3 credit class. Since it, theoretically, covered one year of high school biology, I'm planning to list it as 1.0 credit on her transcript. (It was nowhere near the caliber of the high school biology class she'd have had at the local home school/school hybrid that we usually use for lab sciences, which also makes me feel like "credits" is meaningless.) 

Although I compiled a single transcript with all the courses my sons took, I also submitted the charter's official 9th grade transcript. None of the specific colleges to which they applied raised any questions about it.

 

Edited September 3, 2018 by yvonne

[vonfirmath]

On 9/1/2018 at 9:08 AM, Evanthe said:

 

We took driver's ed in high school and got a half credit for it.  I guess I assumed everyone did...

My kids have a ton of extra-curriculars, but they're not really package-able into high school "courses".  I'm just leaving them for the application, I guess.

 

So did I. But none of the HSs locally (I"m in Texas too) offers driver's ed during the day. One parent of older kids implied schools don't do that anymore :( )

[Meriwether]

My intention is to keep the kids' credits around 32, even when I could list more. I don't want colleges to think I'm padding their transcripts.

[8filltheheart]

1 hour ago, Meriwether said:

My intention is to keep the kids' credits around 32, even when I could list more. I don't want colleges to think I'm padding their transcripts.

 I think colleges can easily distinguish between a padded transcript and a kid who has carried an unusually competitive load of advanced courses.   

[Carrie12345]

11 hours ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

 I think colleges can easily distinguish between a padded transcript and a kid who has carried an unusually competitive load of advanced courses.   

Assuming a student is pursuing a traditional college path, I agree.

If my dds were to decide to apply to Ivies, I probably wouldn't include their partial credits for emergency service training and just put it as extra/service so it didn't look padded.  But, if they enroll for an emergency services degree, yes, it's going on as credited courses (backed by certificates.)  If they shift back toward environmental sciences and our enviro-specific college, I'd include credit for their heavy duty Envirothon studying (mostly outsourced with competition wins).  I still might for other schools.

Maths, Englishes, and other more traditional academics are no brainers, but my kids have done a lot of out-of-the-ordinary work.

[8filltheheart]

16 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said:

Assuming a student is pursuing a traditional college path, I agree.

If my dds were to decide to apply to Ivies, I probably wouldn't include their partial credits for emergency service training and just put it as extra/service so it didn't look padded.  But, if they enroll for an emergency services degree, yes, it's going on as credited courses (backed by certificates.)  If they shift back toward environmental sciences and our enviro-specific college, I'd include credit for their heavy duty Envirothon studying (mostly outsourced with competition wins).  I still might for other schools.

Maths, Englishes, and other more traditional academics are no brainers, but my kids have done a lot of out-of-the-ordinary work.

I don't think I would include those as credits so much as ECs. Those are impressive ECs and if their academics are strong enough for admissions to Ivies, then those ECs would make them competitive for top scholarships at other institutions.

[Carrie12345]

2 minutes ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

I don't think I would include those as credits so much as ECs. Those are impressive ECs and if their academics are strong enough for admissions to Ivies, then those ECs would make them competitive for top scholarships at other institutions.

That's what I was trying to say, but maybe didn't communicate well. 

For CERTAIN schools (ones with Emergency Service degrees, or our local crunchy-enviro college) their unique(ish), outside-qualified work would be recognized as credit worthy.  (For ES, the training is eligible for a hefty amount of college credit once they turn 18, enroll, and have their transcripts sent. They're the same classes they would have to take on campus if they were starting from scratch.)  They wouldn't be credit-relevant when applying to, say, a culinary program or accounting degree!

[Meriwether]

12 hours ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

 I think colleges can easily distinguish between a padded transcript and a kid who has carried an unusually competitive load of advanced courses.   

Yes, but I don't know that my kids are going to have an unusually competitive load of advance courses. Dd15 is a sophomore, so I don't know how it will all work out. she should have a solid looking high school transcript, but she isn't going to have impressive math or science classes to list. Other than Latin if she sticks with it, she won't have AP's, maybe some tests if I can work that out. She won't have college classes. I think. We travel a lot to visit family, so I don't want to be tied to a school schedule. She could have a lot of not so impressive credits if I listed everything, though. So if she sticks with Lukeion through Latin IV, which would be 5 classes, and does through Spanish V with me, I think I won't put Latin I or Spanish I on the transcript. They were done in 8th grade and won't be necessary. She could go further in math but doesn't want to go past Calculus, so we are slowing down some. Still, I won't need to put Algebra I on the transcript to get 4 math classes. She will spend much more than 360 hours on the 1900's, but I am only giving one credit for lit and one for history. Hopefully, the course description will indicate that it was an in depth class.

[8filltheheart]

52 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said:

That's what I was trying to say, but maybe didn't communicate well. 

For CERTAIN schools (ones with Emergency Service degrees, or our local crunchy-enviro college) their unique(ish), outside-qualified work would be recognized as credit worthy.  (For ES, the training is eligible for a hefty amount of college credit once they turn 18, enroll, and have their transcripts sent. They're the same classes they would have to take on campus if they were starting from scratch.)  They wouldn't be credit-relevant when applying to, say, a culinary program or accounting degree!

I don't know anything about ES training, but if they are college courses that they have taken for credit, those transcripts have to be sent in regardless.  Any work taken on any college campus requires the transcript to be sent.  If they are taking the courses at someplace like a fire station and receiving a certificate, that is probably different.  But since you mention transcripts in the above post, I just wanted mention that even if they are not courses taken toward their high school diploma, college transcripts have to be sent in.  This is typical wording:

Quote

You will be asked to submit official transcripts from all schools and colleges you have attended, including high school, regardless of your length of attendance or whether you believe the credit is transferable. 

 

[8filltheheart]

23 minutes ago, Meriwether said:

Yes, but I don't know that my kids are going to have an unusually competitive load of advance courses. Dd15 is a sophomore, so I don't know how it will all work out. she should have a solid looking high school transcript, but she isn't going to have impressive math or science classes to list. Other than Latin if she sticks with it, she won't have AP's, maybe some tests if I can work that out. She won't have college classes. I think. We travel a lot to visit family, so I don't want to be tied to a school schedule. She could have a lot of not so impressive credits if I listed everything, though. So if she sticks with Lukeion through Latin IV, which would be 5 classes, and does through Spanish V with me, I think I won't put Latin I or Spanish I on the transcript. They were done in 8th grade and won't be necessary. She could go further in math but doesn't want to go past Calculus, so we are slowing down some. Still, I won't need to put Algebra I on the transcript to get 4 math classes. She will spend much more than 360 hours on the 1900's, but I am only giving one credit for lit and one for history. Hopefully, the course description will indicate that it was an in depth class.

My dd didn't have an impressive list of math or science classes.  She finished math through cal plus stats and 4 basic science courses (ecology, physics, chemistry, and biology).  She had zero AP tests and one DE course (stats).  Her only outsourced teacher was Russian.  She had a Francophone her jr and sr yr who was more like an adopted grandmother than tutor who she met with to read literature and discuss current events, etc.  Yet, she still had an impressive list of unusually competitive advanced courses that she completed at home with me listed as the primary teacher.  

Definitely not suggesting that you should or need to, but sharing what we did and the outcome.  I did list alg 1 and geo, French 1 and 2 (and maybe 3??? I can't remember any more how many French credits she had before high school without looking back), Latin 1 and 2, and her ecology science course as all completed before 9th on her transcript.  It didn't look like padding to the colleges she applied to since she was accepted everywhere and with scholarship $$. 

Many states allow kids to carry up math, science, and foreign language credits from middle school.  Equally, many schools weight GPAs based on honors designation.  We can opt to put them on the transcript or not.  We can opt not to label any courses as honors.  But, there can be negative consequences of those decisions.  I am not sure if there are any negative consequences to including them if they are valid.  Colleges can ignore whatever they want but they cannot add what they do not have.  That is my perspective, fwiw.  My last high school grads have/do attend(ed) college on full/close to full-scholarship at schools where that is not the typical scenario, so it worked for us.

[RootAnn]

So, I was looking at DD#1's transcript today and realized she'll have about 30 credits when she graduates. That's with three college classes and no credits brought up from before high school. (I originally brought up two (one math, one foreign language), but then I removed them because honestly, she didn't need them.) Her freshman year was tough credits-wise & work-wise getting used to high school level of rigor & # of classes. This (senior) fall semester is a bit crazy, but all classes she's asked to take - so crazy but good? 

Anyway, my point is that 30 isn't crazy as far as # credits, and 32 isn't out of line. Just echoing lots of previous posters.

Edited September 14, 2018 by RootAnn

[Kassia]

I haven't counted, but my dd will also graduate with a high amount of high school credits as well as 80-90 DE credits from our CC.