This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: College-Attractive Transcripts for Homeschool High Schoolers.

College-Attractive Transcripts for Homeschool High Schoolers

In my eighteen years of advising homeschool high schoolers, one of my favorite tasks was helping teens develop the transcript they needed to fulfill their goals. Our homeschool umbrella school graduated hundreds of teens, many of them college bound. These teens graduated with transcripts that opened the doors they needed for the next phase of life.

Why do college-bound teens need college-attractive transcripts?

Each college is looking for something special in their incoming freshmen. They may simply be looking for teens who completed state high school graduation requirements. However, many colleges are also looking for courses that show that their future students know how to develop an interest, work through rigorous academics, and live an active life.

Many teens are also competing for scholarships that depend on a powerful transcript.

A transcript is a snapshot of your teens whole high school academics and more, all crammed together on one sheet of paper.

Where to start developing the college-attractive transcript

Let’s start with the transcript form. Just like homeschooling: there’s not ONE right way to make a transcript form. With that in mind, let me talk to you about the editable transcript form we used with our umbrella school (and is offered by 7SistersHomeschool).

The 7Sisters editable transcript includes step-by-step how-tos for completing the transcript.

What to include in a college-attractive transcript

Remember, there’s not ONE right way to do a transcript. However, these are the items we include.

Identifying information

The most important thing to put on that transcript is your teen’s name and date of birth, because otherwise colleges will not be able to discern WHO this transcript represents.

• Your address comes next in the identifying section of the transcript.
• These days, you can add email if you like.
• You may also add your homeschool “school” or umbrella school’s name

A “snapshot of all four years of high school”

Not all transcripts include this. However, it is useful for admissions officers (and you want to make them happy).

Look at the top left corner. There is a little section on the transcript that looks at the core subjects. That box shows the core courses and what years those courses were completed.

A legend or key

It is wise to include a legend or a key that tells what the levels of rigor for your teens courses. (You can see that in the top-right box.)

Testing scores and GPA

In the box with the legend, you can also include SAT or ACT scores (or other pertinent tests).

• Also include the GPA
  • Colleges look for a solid GPA, although there is variance from college to college
• And the grading scale

A breakdown of courses, year-to-year

Note on the sample transcript, each year has it’s own section (grades 9, 10, 11, 12).

• Include the amount of credit earned for each course
• By the name of the course, include the level of academic rigor
• Also, include the grade earned for each course

Picky details and sticky questions

Colleges want know that your homeschool high schooler is capable of pulling a good, strong GPA in high school so that they can transition well to college.

Should we weight our GPAs or not?

With traditional GPAs, you have a letter grade and a number assigned to that letter. So

• A would receive a 4.0
• B would receive a 3.0
• C would receive a 2.0

Um, some high schools would break that down even further:

• B plus was a 3.5
• C plus was a 2.5

There are even more ways to break down a GPA.

Some high schools weight courses

A weighted GPA, on the other hand, is for high schools who want to show that their teens are working at very rigorous levels.

So they might give a highly rigorous course (like an AP course) more “points”. For instance:

• 5.0 for an A instead of a 4.0 because they are rewarding the level of rigor

That is why colleges want to know grading scales, and the GPAs!

In their admissions algorithm,

• they unweight the weighted grades
• or weight, the unweighted ones

And so everybody ends up in the same kind of algorithm. In other words, one transcript is comparable.

What are levels of rigor?

Levels show the amount of rigor a student has worked on each core course.

• Level one, remedial level. (Teens with learning problems.)
• Level two is average. An average high school student could do this course. (A young person going to a competitive college will not work at a level two.
• Level three is college prep, so this is much more rigorous than an average.
• Levels four and five. Students going to a more competitive college, will want to have at least a good proportion of their courses added level four or level five.
• Level four is advanced, it’s significantly more rigorous than college prep for our teens. (For our teens, level four courses included the college prep course, plus about half a credit extra (however, this only shows at one credit).
• Level five is our honors. These include AP courses, dual enrollment courses at level five. (Remember that you cannot call  a course an AP course unless it, unless it has been approved by the College Board.)
  • Level five honors includes double the work for one credit. That really, really, really prepared them for the rigors of college and helped them to really become a like high school level subject matter experts in the courses they took at that level.

What does your teen’s favorite college want to see on transcripts?

Check college websites. They will tell you what they are looking for. For instance:

Building courses in the potential college-major areas

Transcripts should show the ability to develop interests in the future college major. For instance, future English majors could spend a whole semester or a whole year on like CS Lewis studies or world literature. So they’ll, they’ll go in depth on a topic and not just stay at the surface.

Personal Development

Courses in personal development help teens build their own transcript, but also their lives, with courses like career exploration or really dive into health and make it an enriched credit. Those kind of things show academic richness.

Extracurriculars

Then very important is you want to include, not for credit but for richness, extracurriculars or activities.

Volunteering/Service

Teens build a powerful transcript with they volunteer at the museum, church, or some other cause.

Competitions

This is an optional suggestion. Teens who compete in some way are showing that they have competitive drive. One of our favorite podcast episode about a competition that homeschooler Nathaniel Mack participated in for the conservation district in Virginia. (Nathaniel is the son our friend and Cousin Natalie Mack.)

Remember, there’s not ONE right way to create a homeschool transcript, but these suggestions have worked well. Join Vicki for a discussion on college-attractive homeschool transcripts.

Thanks to Seth Tillman for editing.

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