How should I combine school transcripts with a home-school transcript?

[rose5]

I'm creating a high school transcript for my currently home-schooled 17 year old. They have attended two different high schools in grades 9 - 10, public and private, and in different countries.

I am looking for information on how to compile everything for college applications.  

Is it recommended to:

1. include everything on one 'home-school' transcript (and not including school data, grades, course information),
2. roll everything up into one 'home-school' transcript (including school data, grades, course information),
3. keep everything on separate transcripts by school,
4. itemize prior 'in-school' courses on the home-school transcript and attach unofficial copies
5. something else entirely?

 

Thanks 🙂

 

[historically accurate]

I chose option 2 and marked those classes not taken at home.

I did my home transcript and asterisk'd anything that was not an "in house" class. So, child who took dual enrollment had "Introduction to World Religions" (college's class title) with grade and credit given. There was a 1 superscripted after "Introduction to World Religions" and at the bottom, there was 1 Class taken at XXX College in XXX City, XXX State. She had an online class or two, so 2 was Class taken online at XXXX provider. 3 was her ASL classes - Class taken at XXX City Center of Sight and Hearing.

I also sent all transcripts from the places that provided them. 

All of the class descriptions ended with Class taken [at home, at XXX College, so on and so forth] for 0.5/1.0 credits.

[Farrar]

List courses and grades on your homeschool transcript. It's the master transcript. In order to graduate, your student needs all the courses they took previously to transfer in to your school.

Mark which courses were taken at the previous school with a notation.

You can do course descriptions for them or not. I tend to suggest not doing that.

I also suggest including the transcript on the same document as your transcript, just after yours. You can combine the pdf's before submitting.

In your school profile, explain the policy for transfer of courses and give a line or two about the school's program.

In your counselor letter, consider if you need to explain the change in the student's education and school. Your student will also have a chance to explain that on the Common App. It may not require an explanation, or it may. Depends on the situation.

[Roadrunner]

1 hour ago, Farrar said:

List courses and grades on your homeschool transcript. It's the master transcript. In order to graduate, your student needs all the courses they took previously to transfer in to your school.

Mark which courses were taken at the previous school with a notation.

You can do course descriptions for them or not. I tend to suggest not doing that.

I also suggest including the transcript on the same document as your transcript, just after yours. You can combine the pdf's before submitting.

In your school profile, explain the policy for transfer of courses and give a line or two about the school's program.

In your counselor letter, consider if you need to explain the change in the student's education and school. Your student will also have a chance to explain that on the Common App. It may not require an explanation, or it may. Depends on the situation.

Have you seen it done the other way around? Homeschooled for three years and in public school for a senior year? Do you know what would happen? 

[Farrar]

16 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

Have you seen it done the other way around? Homeschooled for three years and in public school for a senior year? Do you know what would happen? 

Yes. You lose your control. No course descriptions. No counselor letter. I wouldn't personally recommend it in most cases. But I do know of kids going back and doing fine in admissions, so I think it really depends.

[rzberrymom]

18 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

Have you seen it done the other way around? Homeschooled for three years and in public school for a senior year? Do you know what would happen? 

We did this with my DD in her junior year, joined a public homeschool charter in order to get the transcript and diploma. They wouldn’t put any of my mom classes on her transcript, but they took everything that was done through DE. They would have accepted any classes through accredited online sources too—just not the mom classes.

[Roadrunner]

nm

Edited February 5, 2022 by Roadrunner

[Farrar]

25 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

Do you know if private school would do the same? 
I wish I could graduate him with my transcript but outsource a senior year full time to a private school. I am dreaming, right? 

Private school can be different, but I doubt they'd include your course descriptions. You'll lose the ability to book list brag if it's something you'd like to be able to do.

PG year at a boarding school?

I saw your other posts where you mentioned this, I think it's just a tough spot. I can see arguments either way. 

[Roadrunner]

nm

Edited February 5, 2022 by Roadrunner

[Farrar]

52 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

They weren’t  my posts 🙂

He just needs fairly standard senior courses, and we were hoping for some social outlet with schools. It has gotten downright depressing here all alone. 

No, it was your post about this question in the senior year planning thread. And yeah, that's what I saying - the tension between mental health (social, emotional) needs and what's best for a kid academically is tough, especially when it's not a true crisis. On a purely academic basis, I would say continuing homeschooling is a total no brainer. But I don't know what the total picture is or the schools he wants. And needing to get out is a real need.

[desertflower]

Let’s stick to answering rose5’s question. Thanks.

[rose5]

On 2/4/2022 at 3:49 PM, Farrar said:

List courses and grades on your homeschool transcript. It's the master transcript. In order to graduate, your student needs all the courses they took previously to transfer in to your school.

Do you have any thoughts on whether I should include courses that have a failing grade, or otherwise have zero credits? Since those courses aren't counting towards the graduation from from our school I could see leaving them off, but I am concerned that might be perceived as being evasive.

Regardless they will still be on the attached school transcripts.

Thanks for your advice!

[freesia]

One approach would be to just have each school, including your homeschool, send a transcript.  One of the schools ds applied to wanted this.  ( We use an umbrella school which issues transcripts. We switched umbrella school after ninth grade the new one marked his ninth grade credits as transferred credits. You could do this and just not “accept/transfer” the failed grades. I’d only do this if I were having the other schools send transcripts.)

[Farrar]

1 hour ago, rose5 said:

Do you have any thoughts on whether I should include courses that have a failing grade, or otherwise have zero credits? Since those courses aren't counting towards the graduation from from our school I could see leaving them off, but I am concerned that might be perceived as being evasive.

Regardless they will still be on the attached school transcripts.

Thanks for your advice!

For course requirements that don't have credit attached, I think it's up to you whether to include them. Some schools have requirements that must go on the transcript that don't have traditional credits attached to them. I wouldn't add that in most cases, but it depends.

For failing grades. Replace them if at all humanly possible. When I see this, I nearly always advise that the student take the course again at home and then you should replace the grade and put a note about your grade replacement policy in the school profile. If it's a course where you don't plan to do that, I personally think you need to include the failing grade in the final GPA and therefore on the transcript. 

What sort of post-high school plan is your student looking at? If they are aiming at colleges that are at all selective, then replacing the grades might be a necessity. If they're not, then it may not be a big deal. And if they're planning on community college, trades, etc. then none of it will matter that much however you decide to deal with it.

[rose5]

23 minutes ago, Farrar said:

What sort of post-high school plan is your student looking at?

They will be applying to colleges in Europe, and at least one online program in the US as a safety school. Worst case scenario they do the online program for one or two semesters and then transfer credits to an EU school later on.

Unsurprisingly the failing grades are from 2020, so I doubt that they are a unique case in terms of being negatively impacted during the COVID quarantines. Their SAT score is in the 1400s.

[Farrar]

21 minutes ago, rose5 said:

They will be applying to colleges in Europe, and at least one online program in the US as a safety school. Worst case scenario they do the online program for one or two semesters and then transfer credits to an EU school later on.

Unsurprisingly the failing grades are from 2020, so I doubt that they are a unique case in terms of being negatively impacted during the COVID quarantines. Their SAT score is in the 1400s.

I assume you've looked at requirements for the colleges they're interested in. It can be tough for homeschoolers to apply to colleges in Europe without a boatload of AP's, an associate's, or an accredited transcript. But the good news is that the transcript matters a lot less in the application process for most European schools. I have no clue how they'll see the pandemic induced low grades there though.

[MeganW]

I put a superscript beside each course, then a key to the superscripts at the bottom of the transcript that explains where the class was taken.  

[ElizabethB]

We live in a state that allows dual homeschool/public school in all grades. She took 2 public school classes 2nd semester of 11th grade and 6  public school, 1 homeschool class senior year. She's now a Sophomore in college.

I submitted 3 transcripts:

1. official homeschool transcript with only homeschooled classes

2. official public high school transcript

3. unofficial transcript combining both, in capital letters at top it said something like "unofficial combined school transcript"

I explained it to the school (went in person but you could call or enclose a letter if not visiting and not nearby) and they were happy with it. She goes to a large public university and her ACT score was good enough for merit aid after acceptance. She is awesome at English, her scores in that allowed her to not have to take either of the 2 required college English classes. 

Her brother is a big extrovert, he started the dual process with 6 public school classes in 10th grade, he is now in 11th. I'll do the same thing for him. 

Edited February 9, 2022 by ElizabethB