Common App: transcript questions

[daijobu]

My dd has taken many online classes from a variety of online vendors including: WTMA, PAH, Language Bird, and other, plus from a CC.  So I have collected many pdf unofficial transcripts from these vendors with a nice letterhead, course name and grade.  I want to include them in her applications so that it correlates with the grades I put on her complete official transcript.  

Question #1.  There is only room on the Common App to upload 4 transcripts total, but I have more than that.  I'm thinking about using a pdf tool to append a few together.  Any other ideas?

Question #2.  Do I need to request that these vendors send official transcripts to the colleges now?  Or is it sufficient to just show these unofficial ones?  

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Response to Question #1:  When I was considering sending the certificates from vendors, combining them into one pdf to use in 1 transcript slot was my plan.  I couldn't come up with any better ideas. (Edited to add: I decided not to send them.)

Response to Question #2: I don't think many (any?) schools will require official transcripts or certificates from online providers. Community College, yes. I would imagine those need to be requested ASAP. 

Edited October 11, 2018 by Woodland Mist Academy

[RootAnn]

My dd#1 has taken a large variety of online classes. I don't plan on sending any of their grade sheets. I put a line somewhere that says that the grade they received from the provider is the one on the transcript. I don't think anyone cares to see the extra paper, but if you do it, I'd just use smallpdf.com --> the merge PDF function.

ETA: I am also not including an unofficial transcript from the state college where DD does DE. I am having them send an official transcript thpugh.

Edited October 11, 2018 by RootAnn

[alewife]

13 hours ago, daijobu said:

My dd has taken many online classes from a variety of online vendors including: WTMA, PAH, Language Bird, and other, plus from a CC.  So I have collected many pdf unofficial transcripts from these vendors with a nice letterhead, course name and grade.  I want to include them in her applications so that it correlates with the grades I put on her complete official transcript.  

Question #1.  There is only room on the Common App to upload 4 transcripts total, but I have more than that.  I'm thinking about using a pdf tool to append a few together.  Any other ideas?

Question #2.  Do I need to request that these vendors send official transcripts to the colleges now?  Or is it sufficient to just show these unofficial ones?  

Regarding Question 1: I would not include any of the transcripts from the online homeschooling providers.  The admission committee does not spend much time on each individual application.  Submitting these transcripts might distract their attention away from the much more important homeschooling documents that you want to be sure that they read.  You are responsible for assigning the letter grades.  You don't need to provide proof that the grades correlate with the grade assigned from the online homeschool providers.

Regarding Question 2: I didn't submit any type of paperwork from the online homeschooling providers, and none of the colleges my kids dealt with requested that info.  You will want to have the CC send in official transcripts, though.

[8filltheheart]

I have never included anything from outside providers except for

1. official transcripts from colleges/universities (have to be provided regardless)
2.  course descriptions provided by Mrs. Denne for Russian bc she provided them and I knew nothing about Russian. In my course descriptions for Russian, I just said," See attached course descriptions provided by Russian tutor,"

[kokotg]

Aside from dual enrollment (will have college send transcript separately), we only have one hybrid school where my son took two science classes. I'm planning to upload it as one of the 4 transcripts on the common app (along with his main transcript and course descriptions). For our state university with very specific and nitpicky requirements for homeschoolers, I e-mailed and asked them how they wanted it, and they wanted it sent directly from the school. It had taken me about 6 e-mails to get them to make the transcript for me correctly the first time, and it took another 2 to get them to actually send it to the college....so if anyone else requires that it be sent that way I'm going to cry. I'm also not going to ask anyone else; if they need it another way they can tell me. 

[catz]

I appended a bunch of stuff together into 1 big transcript document.  I put our transcript first so it was easy to ignore all that other info and verification if a school didn't need it.  

Edited October 11, 2018 by FuzzyCatz

[Sebastian (a lady)]

My transcript annotated which courses were done with outside providers.  The course descriptions give more detail and the school profile has a section called educational partners.

I did not include grade reports from any provider that was not accredited.  I did send official transcripts from the colleges my two dss attended as de students.  I did scan the cc transcripts and upload them in one of the transcript slots. I did this because there were so many different schools involved (both on the DE side and on the target college side) that I was concerned we would miss one.

None of the 15 or so colleges requested additional documentation from the other outside providers. 

[SA Homeschooler]

Glad to see that I was on the right track!! I was not including grade reports from any outside providers.  That would just make things really messy.  Only one has become accredited after the fact [WHA] so, I guess I'm okay there.  At what point do we send the dual enrollment transcript from the CC?  It is reported on our transcript but I have not had it sent yet.

 

Edited October 11, 2018 by SA Homeschooler

[SNOWY]

If you are applying now but the dual enrollment class won't be over until December, do you still ask the DE college to send an unofficial transcript?

[RootAnn]

2 hours ago, SNOWY said:

If you are applying now but the dual enrollment class won't be over until December, do you still ask the DE college to send an unofficial transcript?

First, check with the school (some mention this on their website; you might need to call others). Some don't need an official transcript. For rolling admission schools, I'd say go ahead & send it. You might get admitted before December & not have to send it again unless your kid decides to attend there. For Early Decision or Early ... anything else plus Regular Decision that has a deadline before the class would be over, send it now. For Regular Decision applications that aren't due until Jan 1st, I'd wait to send it. This is all IMO.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

3 hours ago, SNOWY said:

If you are applying now but the dual enrollment class won't be over until December, do you still ask the DE college to send an unofficial transcript?

Are there any complete grades on the transcript or is this the first semester of DE classes?  

I dont know what you would get out of sending a transcript with no grades.  We did have situations where we were responding transcripts each semester as new grades populated.  

[EKS]

I would not submit any transcripts other than your own through the Common App.

As far as outside transcripts, the only ones I would submit at all would be those from *credit granting* institutions, and I would have the institution send their own copy.  These grades would also be recorded on your transcript with a note about where the course was taken.

The outside grades from non-credit granting institutions should be recorded on your transcript as being from a home-based course.  Then in your course descriptions, you can say that the class was taken through wherever, in the same way you would list any other resource that you used.  

[Coffeemama]

After reading this thread last week, I only included my self-made homeschool transcript and class description document on the common app and requested the community college to send their official transcript. My DD has been corresponding with the EA schools, and today, Providence College asked for her math transcripts (Derek Owens). She's sending the signed grade report now. Hopefully that will suffice. Glad she asked if there was any other information the admissions officer needed.