Transcript experts: How do I categorize APAH and Digital Design courses?

[EKT]

Daughter is an aspiring fine arts major and will have a bunch of art-related courses on her transcript. There are a couple of courses I'm not sure how to categorize:

• She took AP Art History this past year. Do I list this course under "Art," "Social Science," or "Electives"?
• This fall, she'll begin pursing her Adobe Illustrator Certificate through DE (the cert. requires 3 digital design courses: Intro to Computer Design, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator). Do these courses go under "Art," "Electives," or should I create a specific section called "Digital Design and Graphics"?

Additional questions:

• Should I even have an "Electives" section on my transcript? Or should all courses be put into clear categories? 
• Should I just do a grade-level transcript instead of a subject-based transcript? She wants to showcase her many art courses to their best advantage, but I've read some advice lately that suggests it's much easier for admissions to "read" your transcript if you just group courses by 9th/10th/11th/12th grade.

Thank you for any advice!

[cintinative]

Thanks for asking this. Listening in.

Where is she taking the DE course for the Adobe certificate? This is something I might want to look into for my youngest ds. I think he *might* pursue graphic design or industrial design.

[EKT]

13 minutes ago, cintinative said:

Thanks for asking this. Listening in.

Where is she taking the DE course for the Adobe certificate? This is something I might want to look into for my youngest ds. I think he *might* pursue graphic design or industrial design.

Just sent you a DM. 🙂

[Lori D.]

2 hours ago, EKT said:

... • She took AP Art History this past year. Do I list this course under "Art," "Social Science," or "Electives"?...

Yes. 😉 Your choice, any of those works fine. But it will probably shine as a bit more rigorous either under Social Science, OR, shine under the Fine Arts heading, by showing her high interest and level of work with all of her Art courses (esp. if listing all of her Graphic Design coursework under Art). Electives often are thought to be "lighter" courses.
 

2 hours ago, EKT said:

... • This fall, she'll begin pursing her Adobe Illustrator Certificate through DE (the cert. requires 3 digital design courses: Intro to Computer Design, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator). Do these courses go under "Art," "Electives," or should I create a specific section called "Digital Design and Graphics"?...

Cool! 

And again, yes! Either your special section, or Art. 😄

Personally leaning a bit more towards your suggested special category heading, esp. if she might end up with additional Digital Arts coursework. That will help those shine as a sort of "minor" (like the minor to a major for a college degree), and show her focus and interest in that area. 
 

2 hours ago, EKT said:

... • Should I even have an "Electives" section on my transcript? Or should all courses be put into clear categories? ...

If she has a few odd courses that don't fit under other headings (ex: PE, Health...), you'll need an Electives category.

Or, leave off if they are lightweight things like PE and if she has plenty of other credits.  

One last thought: what will the college admission office be looking for? What does their list of required credits for admission look like -- does it say anything specifically about "Electives"?
 

2 hours ago, EKT said:

... • Should I just do a grade-level transcript instead of a subject-based transcript? She wants to showcase her many art courses to their best advantage, but I've read some advice lately that suggests it's much easier for admissions to "read" your transcript if you just group courses by 9th/10th/11th/12th grade...

What do the specific colleges want (that she will apply to)? Go with their requirement.

If they don't have a required policy (such as organized by grade/year), then JMO, but I think organized by subject is actually a lot easier to read. Admissions is looking to see if you have the required amount of credits for each subject, and if you group by subject, bam! -- it's right there. Also, if they are looking for progression of difficult/advanced work, it's also very easy to see that when courses of the same subject are grouped together.

I suppose if they are looking to see how many classes were taken in senior year, and how hard they were, to make sure the student wasn't "coasting" in 12th grade, then grouping by subject would be why the college would want grade/year. But, IMP, it's a little more difficult to see advancing rigor that way.  🤷‍♀️

You can also include grade/year as part a subject-based layout (see below -- I used courses from my local CC's Digital Arts AAS).

Or use a format that is grouped by both grade/year AND subject. Look around for that sample transcript format that has been attached in past threads; it looks a bit like a spread sheet.

MATH
year . . . course . . . . . . credit . . grade
8th . . . Algebra 1 . . . . 1.00 . . . A
9th . . . Geometr . . . . .1.00 . . . A
10th . . .Algebra 2 . . . .1.00 . . . A
11th . . . Pre-Calculus . 1.00 . . .B
12th . . . Statistics . . . . 1.00 . . .B
total credits/GPA . . . . . . 5.00 . . 3.600

DIGITAL ARTS & DESIGN
year . . . course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . credit . . grade
11th . . . DAR102 Intro to Computer Design* . . . . . . 1.00 . . . A
11th . . . DAR112 Graphic Design* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.00 . . . A
11th . . . DAR122 Adobe Illustrator* . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1.00 . . . A
12th . . . DAR221 Adobe Photoshop* . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.00 . . . A
12th . . . DAR226 Adobe InDesign* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.00 . . . A
12th . . . DAR226 Digital Arts Portfolio Capstone* . . 1.00 . . . A
total credits/GPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6.00 . . 4.000
* = dual enrollment at XYZ Community College

Edited May 18, 2023 by Lori D.

[EKS]

I had a section titled "Humanities and Social Sciences" to capture things like this that weren't really social science.  Philosophy and history were in this category.  English would be too, but that needed its own section.  I also had a section called "Natural Science and Technology" where computer classes went.  But this was for STEM kids, so you will probably want your titles to be somewhat different to reflect the focus on the arts.

[EKT]

34 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

Yes. 😉 Your choice, any of those works fine. But it will probably shine as a bit more rigorous either under Social Science, OR, shine under the Fine Arts heading, by as showing her high interest and level of work with all of her Art courses (esp. if listing all of her Graphic Design coursework under Art). Electives often are thought to be "lighter" courses.
 

Cool! 

And again, yes! Either your special section, or Art. 😄

Personally leaning a bit more towards your suggested special category heading, eEsp. if she might end up with additional Digital Arts coursework. That will help those shine as a sort of "minor" (like the minor to a major for a college degree), and show her focus and interest in that area. 
 

If she has a few odd courses that don't fit under other headings (ex: PE, Health...), you'll need an Electives category.

Or, leave off if they are lightweight things like PE and if she has plenty of other credits.  

One last thought: what will the college admission office be looking for? What does their list of required credits for admission look like -- does it say anything specifically about "Electives"?
 

What do the specific colleges want (that she will apply to)? Go with their requirement.

If they don't have a required policy (such as organized by grade/year), then JMO, but I think organized by subject is actually a lot easier to read. Admissions is looking to see if you have the required amount of credits for each subject, and if you group by subject, bam! -- it's right there. Also, if they are looking for progression of difficult/advanced work, it's also very easy to see that when courses of the same subject are grouped together.

I suppose if they are looking to see how many classes were taken in senior year, and how hard they were, to make sure the student wasn't "coasting" in 12th grade, then grouping by subject would be a little more difficult to see that. But you can also include grade/year as part a subject-based layout (see below -- I used courses from my local CC's Digital Arts AAS).

Or use a format that is grouped by both grade/year AND subject -- that sample transcript format that has been attached in past threads that looks a bit like a spread sheet.

MATH
year . . . course . . . . . . credit . . grade
8th . . . Algebra 1 . . . . 1.00 . . . A
9th . . . Geometr . . . . .1.00 . . . A
10th . . .Algebra 2 . . . .1.00 . . . A
11th . . . Pre-Calculus . 1.00 . . .B
12th . . . Statistics . . . . 1.00 . . .B
total credits/GPA . . . . . . 5.00 . . 3.600

DIGITAL ARTS & DESIGN
year . . . course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . credit . . grade
11th . . . DAR102 Intro to Computer Design* . . . . . . 1.00 . . . A
11th . . . DAR112 Graphic Design* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.00 . . . A
11th . . . DAR122 Adobe Illustrator* . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1.00 . . . A
12th . . . DAR221 Adobe Photoshop* . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.00 . . . A
12th . . . DAR226 Adobe InDesign* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.00 . . . A
12th . . . DAR226 Digital Arts Portfolio Capstone* . . 1.00 . . . A
total credits/GPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6.00 . . 4.000
* = dual enrollment at XYZ Community College

As always, SO helpful, Lori D! 

Thank you for helping me think through this! (I know I will keep tinkering with her transcript as I go over the next two years, but I like to keep things tidy year-to-year, so at least things feel organized in my brain. Will definitely tailor her transcript as specific college applications require!) 

[cintinative]

thank you @Lori D.  this helps me also. Right now I don't have a separate digital art and design section but I will create one. That makes a lot of sense.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

On 5/18/2023 at 10:21 AM, EKT said:

Daughter is an aspiring fine arts major and will have a bunch of art-related courses on her transcript. There are a couple of courses I'm not sure how to categorize:

• She took AP Art History this past year. Do I list this course under "Art," "Social Science," or "Electives"?
• This fall, she'll begin pursing her Adobe Illustrator Certificate through DE (the cert. requires 3 digital design courses: Intro to Computer Design, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator). Do these courses go under "Art," "Electives," or should I create a specific section called "Digital Design and Graphics"?

Additional questions:

• Should I even have an "Electives" section on my transcript? Or should all courses be put into clear categories? 
• Should I just do a grade-level transcript instead of a subject-based transcript? She wants to showcase her many art courses to their best advantage, but I've read some advice lately that suggests it's much easier for admissions to "read" your transcript if you just group courses by 9th/10th/11th/12th grade.

Thank you for any advice!

It is easier for admissions reps to quickly understand a chronological syllabus, and they also like to see how much a student took on each year. 

You could include a couple lines about her longstanding interest in art and design and how her pursuit in that area has been both deep and wide within the counselor recommendation letter. 

[Lori D.]

1 hour ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

It is easier for admissions reps to quickly understand a chronological syllabus, and they also like to see how much a student took on each year...

The second part of this I get (how much taken each year).

But I'm curious -- why is it easier for admissions to quickly understand chronological transcript?

I have always assumed --  and said so in my posts on the matter 😉 --  that listing by subject would be easier/quicker, because the college websites list the required admission credits in a list of subjects -- 4 credits English, 4 credits Math, 2 credits For. Lang, etc.

Why is chronological easier? Is it just because that is the format they see most of the time from public/private high schools? Because I would still think there is a "learning curve" for each new layout/design of transcript from each different school to find all of the English credits, then go through and find all of the Math credits... etc.

Not pot-stirring. Just wondering. 😉

Edited May 20, 2023 by Lori D.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

On 5/20/2023 at 4:00 PM, Lori D. said:

The second part of this I get (how much taken each year).

But I'm curious -- why is it easier for admissions to quickly understand chronological transcript?

I have always assumed --  and said so in my posts on the matter 😉 --  that listing by subject would be easier/quicker, because the college websites list the required admission credits in a list of subjects -- 4 credits English, 4 credits Math, 2 credits For. Lang, etc.

Why is chronological easier? Is it just because that is the format they see most of the time from public/private high schools? Because I would still think there is a "learning curve" for each new layout/design of transcript from each different school to find all of the English credits, then go through and find all of the Math credits... etc.

Not pot-stirring. Just wondering. 😉

Given how little time readers are able to spend on each application, using a format that within norms helps them see what they are looking for more rapidly. 

For highly selective colleges, they are often looking for 4 credits of core subjects, not just the minimum required credits. 

But this does beg the question of how credits are input into their system. Within Common App there is a courses and grades section that is self-reported. Some colleges require students to submit this. The UC App also has a grade section. Others use the SRAR (Self Reported Academic Record) as an additional application requirement. Some high schools use software like Naviance or Scoir that may digitally transmit grades in a way that autopopulates the college's application database. 

But others may still hand review transcripts. This would be an interesting question for college visits. 

Fwiw, I have seen public and private school transcripts from many places now. Some are quite hard to follow. 

[Lori D.]

6 hours ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

...Fwiw, I have seen public and private school transcripts from many places now. Some are quite hard to follow. 

That's why I was thinking a grade/year format might not be that easy to follow -- everyone does their own layout and design, and most registrars are not graphic designers. 😉

6 hours ago, Sebastian (a lady) said:

... Some high schools use software like Naviance or Scoir that may digitally transmit grades in a way that autopopulates the college's application database...

That is helpful info -- didn't know there was software that some high schools use that "autofills."

 

Thanks!

[Sebastian (a lady)]

17 hours ago, Lori D. said:

That's why I was thinking a grade/year format might not be that easy to follow -- everyone does their own layout and design, and most registrars are not graphic designers. 😉

That is helpful info -- didn't know there was software that some high schools use that "autofills."

 

Thanks!

I'm not sure about the autofill capability. I do know there is a big industry full of education software solutions, enrollment marketing, and data management companies interested in selling to schools and colleges.

Scoir is now associated with the Coalition Application (which is no longer a stand alone application) https://www.scoir.com/high-schools/apply-with-scoir

While printed transcripts still exist, I'm not sure that's how colleges are getting all of their info from high schools. 

Similarly, I doubt most registrars are designing transcripts. Their school or district buys software and transcripts are a tool within the grade management programs.