HELP PLEASE - College transcripts

[Teacher4Life]

Hi, all,

I've been home schooling my kids since the beginning, and now my oldest is set to launch. I used to be a teacher before parenthood and when I was growing up I saw that much of the curriculum I was taught in school didn't work as well as it should. Or perhaps it was the methods.

I never registered my kids and now I have to face the consequences. The community college where my son will go needs a sealed envelope with his transcript, and I'm stuck. I have made a truthful transcript but have no way of making it official.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, even suggestions to get his GED, (though we are temporarily moving and time is tight). I have known for years that this would be coming, but choosing to educate all year long and to focus on the arts for my musically talented son made me shy away from registering. Hope that doesn't sound bad, I just wanted to tailor his education to suit his needs, and thankfully, it has worked.

Thank you all so very much for your pearls of wisdom!

[alegna]

What state are you in?

-Angela

[CariOfOz]

You don't say where you are? I think I would have the student to be contact the Dean of Admissions office at the school they are applying to and discuss options for home educated applicants? Even 'registered' home educated students won't have an 'official' sealed transcript, so I am sure there has to be an exception/way around it.

Have you got any kind of portfolio that he can wow them with? (since you mention that your child is musically talented, things like orchestra's played with and other achievements would be good to have documented for this!)

[Dar]

Put it in an envelope, seal it, and sign across the seal. That's all a sealed transcript is.

If for some reason they want the official school stamp across the seal, you can buy a personalized one at Office Depot for $10 or so. When Rain needed an entertainment work permit at 11 they were totally dead set on a school stamp, so that's what I did.

I'm never heard of a community college making a fuss, though. Have you spoken with someone at the college, or are you going off their website or something?

[CariOfOz]

I think I love you Dar Epic suggestion!

[SagMom]

I second the idea of contacting the school directly and finding out what they want specifically from homeschoolers. I would tell them what documentation you DO have and see what they say. It could very well be that a "sealed official transcript" is their standard requirement but there are exceptions made in certain cases (like hsers.)

I live in a state where there IS no registration and would not have anything "officical" to submit at all. My dd and others we know have gone to college without sealed transcripts. In fact, we were recently at a college fair where we spoke to many admissions reps from around the country and not one said a word about sealed/official transcripts from hsers, though they were all delighted about the idea of hsers applying.

I'd be really surprised if there wasn't another avenue open to your ds.

[mom2ponygirl]

I've also heard that schools required an 'official' transcript. So, parents put the title on their transcript XXXX family homeschool OFFICIAL transcript. That made it official enough.

So, put official in the title on top of the transcript, seal the envelope and sign across the seal as Dar suggested.

[One_Girl]

Is there an option for taking one of the test like SAT or ACT? I went to public school for high school, but I didn't have to submit my transcripts to the university when I went. I just had to submit my scores from the ACT and write down what my GPA had been. It was a very easy process. I think you should ask someone at the college for your options.

[emilysmama]

In addition to contacting the person in charge of the admissions department, I would also contact the person in charge of the registrar's office because they are the people who decide whether your child is qualified to take whatever courses your child is going to take. I wouldn't rely on just the admissions office because they don't always know what they are doing for people who are not plain vanilla high school graduates. Somewhere in the registrar's office, there is a person who looks at a transfer student and decides what transfer credit the school will give the student. I know that your child is not a transfer student, but you need to find that person because you need that person's skills because soon that person is going to be looking at your child and evaluating which courses your child is ready to take. So that is why you want an appointment with the head registrar or the associate registrar of the cc. You also probably want to ask the community college if taking the ACT would be helpful for placement or evaluation of scholarship awards.

Don't stress out. It is not a big deal. Community colleges are not unfamiliar with dealing with homeschooled kids. They probably have a procedure already in place to deal with homeschooled kids, or if not, then they are flexible enough to work with you to figure out what you should give them so that they can figure out what classes they can put your child in.

On the other hand, it would be a waste of time to just guess what they want. I.e. instead of putting the stuff in the envelope and submitting it and then having them waste time calling you back to tell you that you need to submit something else instead, it is a lot faster if you just make an appointment with the head registrar at the cc, show them what you plan to give them, and ask them if that's good enough or if there is something else that they want.

You are not going to need a fancy seal. Just make an appointment for a face to face meeting, and bring the information that you have (including samples of your child's recent work in each subject) so that they can figure out where your child is at right now.

It is really not a big deal.