How to meet this transcript requirement

[cjzimmer1]

DS is working on his application for local university and this is their requirement for sending in transcripts.  We are in a low regulation state, we have no seal, watermark or even homeschool name.  I have no clue what a document sending service is or how to acquire access to such a thing.  So how would you go about sending a transcript within these parameters (and yes I've sent them an email but I'm curious if others find this as confusing/difficult as I do or if I'm just clueless and this is obvious to everyone else)

"Electronic transcripts must be sent through a secure document sending service. Transcripts sent through email, as an attachment, will not be accepted as official. Paper transcripts sent to our office must bear an official school seal or be printed on the school's custom watermarked/security paper."

 

[Lori D.]

Sounds like the school just wants to make sure that transcripts have not been tampered with, or that a student created their own document to send in. 

If sending a printed transcript, you can order a custom embosser to use. I'd suggest naming your school, and going with the address embosser with the initial/name of your school in the center, or possibly use the text embosser and use it to include the address around the edge and the name of the school in the middle. Both of those embossers are about $35. You could (additional to the embosser) include a small space on the transcript to get it notarized.

If sending in an electronic transcript, you can pay to use a service, such as Parchment, or SendEdu.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Lori D.

[JanetC]

I would simply ask the college what homeschoolers usually do for this requirement. If they have no clue, some things you can do:

Colleges using sites like the Common and Coalition app accept transcripts uploaded there as official, electronically submitted transcripts.

You could buy an embosser from a site like homeschooldiploma.com

A notary public will notarize anything -- your bank may offer this service. All the notary seal means is that a notary verified the ID of the person signing the paper, but many colleges will accept that as an embossed transcript.

When sending a paper transcript, put the transcript in a separate envelope and sign over the flap to show it is sealed.

[katilac]

 I'd create a custom watermark and print on heavyweight paper. That's going to meet their requirements and not cause any questions, which is usually my main goal when submitting paperwork. 

There are many programs you can use for free online that will create a watermark if you don't happen to have one. 

[Lori D.]

Also, make sure your heading includes the words "Official Transcript".

Edited September 5, 2018 by Lori D.

[Milknhoney]

You need to talk to them directly to find out what they want from homeschoolers. 

The requirements you mention specifically apply to transcripts coming from institutions to make sure the student hasn't been able to make any alterations. It doesn't make any sense to require a homeschool to jump through these hoops when the "biased" parent has created the transcript in the first place. 

Most likely the college would be fine with an emailed document from you. The university I work for is. We only strictly enforce the sealed envelope or secure electronic delivery rule for transcripts coming from formal institutions. 

[cjzimmer1]

Thank you for all the advice.  I did email them and am waiting to hear back but at least this gives me some ideas of how to approach it in case they don't make this easier for homeschoolers.  I do have a friend at church who is a notary so that would be super easy to get if they will accept that. Otherwise it looks like the SendEdu site is free and I will try and see if I can figure out how to make that work.  The school has a whole page dedicated to telling homeschoolers how to WRITE a transcript but absolutely no mention of any alternatives to send it in.  While I understand taking measures to prevent student tampering, I just couldn't figure out how to do it since their requirements didn't seem very easy to meet as a homeschooler.

[cjzimmer1]

So I heard back from admissions today. This their response.

"Homeschool transcripts can simply be sent to us via email, and do not need to be watermarked. This is mainly because homeschool transcripts also must include course descriptions for every class the student completed, and these descriptions are typically written by the parent. If you have any additional questions or concerns feel free to contact us again. "

Which I find kind of funny since their website says that an email transcript isn't valid.  But whatever, thankfully I had written course descriptions even though none of the schools DS applied to at the time had any interest in them and it's a good reminder that I need to do them for DS2 even though I really don't want to. It would be much worse if I waited a couple of years and then tried to compile it (DS2 will probably do the CC to this university route as well).

Thanks again for the suggestions, its good information to have in the back of my head if we encounter this for future kids.

Edited September 7, 2018 by cjzimmer1