Poll about high school transcripts..........

[ChocolatePrincess]

Do you record just a final grade or do you record semester grades?

[Sharon in MD]

for the transcript the only thing I use is the final. We are also under an oversight academy, so they actually provide an official transcript for us.

[Kareni]

There is no option C!

I have a 12th grader, so her transcript is making the rounds of various admissions departments even as we speak.

For 9th - 11th grades, I have a final grade for each class. This year, she's taking both year long classes at a resource center and several quarter long classes at the local community college. Since a mid-year report is required by a number of the colleges, her mid-year progress report will show both final grades for the completed classes and in-progress grades for the other classes.

You could probably do with an option D also for those you do not grade at all!

Regards,
Kareni

[hsmamainva]

I also have a 12th grader. I record grades for each semester.

In fact, her mid-year transcript (with her fall semester grades) should be reaching her 1st choice college today -- and she should hear if she was accepted early action within the next two weeks!!!!

[Tokyomarie]

In high school, I keep quarterly records with grades for each quarter, but the transcripts our oversight agency sent to colleges only recorded a final grade for each course.

Not sure how it will turn out when it comes time for my son because we will have different options for how we do high school. In any case, I will still keep my quarterly records which will give me choices as to how to present the transcript- whether by semester or by final course grade.

[Gwen in VA]

We just used final grades. Not one college raised an eyebrow.

We felt that mommy grades were going to be taken with LOTS of grains of salt, so we expected that the colleges would put far more weight on
1) which courses my kids took (reflecting their interests and level of commitment)
2) standardized test scores (AP, SAT, SAT2, etc.),
3) outside course grades.

[CynthiaOK]

Final year-end grades for each course unless it was only a semester course. We had a few of those: government, economics, logic, etc.

[Jean too]

I have recorded final grades for 9th-11th grade. Dd is in 12th grade this year and a couple of colleges asked for mid-term grades. A few of her courses were finished at the mid-term and were recorded as final grades.

[SusanAR]

I record final grades and list them according to subject instead of year/grade level.


Susan

[Katia]

I did semester grades because some classes were only semester classes. So I showed a first semester, a second semester and then the final grade.

[Ellie]

When I was the administrator of an umbrella school, I requested transcripts from many public and private schools. ALL of them had semester grades. I decided that my transcripts should be something that other schools (and colleges) could relate to. So yup, semester grades.

[Jane in NC]

I have been maintaining two transcripts, a short one pager using a traditional form, hence semester grades. My long winded transcript with details on books used, topics covered, etc., is not showing any grades at the moment. (This document seems to live in a constant state of flux.)

When my son applied at the CC for concurrent enrollment, they wanted the short one.

Thank you for posing this question. I have been contemplating redoing transcripts but have been scratching my head on how best to display information as well as what information to include.

[Nan in Mass]

I need option D. We did a pass/fail (except CC), no dates transcript. I gave courses very descriptive names in order to try to show who my son was on the transcript. I labelled honours only courses at the CC or ones that required extensive travel. I added footnotes to explain why a course was honours, like 3-honours because required 3 months walking through Japan, 4-honours because taken at CC. This also helped make the transcript reflect my son. I had a section on extra curricular activities, and one on testing. I left it up to the credits to show how long a course was. Then I wrote a cover letter which explained why I didn't grade, what constituted a credit, and something about how we actually did the homeschooling (more opportunity to show who my son was), among other things. The transcript was one side of a page, and the cover letter was one side of a page. I worked hard to make it all short. We sent it to one college, and they accepted him.

[Ellie]

I have been maintaining two transcripts, a short one pager using a traditional form, hence semester grades. My long winded transcript with details on books used, topics covered, etc., is not showing any grades at the moment. (This document seems to live in a constant state of flux.)

When my son applied at the CC for concurrent enrollment, they wanted the short one.

Thank you for posing this question. I have been contemplating redoing transcripts but have been scratching my head on how best to display information as well as what information to include.
Generally, a *transcript* just has grades, credits, GPA, etc. I have heard that some colleges want bibliographies and whatnots, but those are in addition to the transcript.