This discussion was created from comments split from: The Freshman Who Lied Her Way In.
I know next to nothing about home schooling–anyone know abiut the transcript service mentioned in the article? How does a homeschooled student show evidence of coursework and gpa?
The article linked in OP didn’t name the specific transcript service. One commenter in the article noted that the article should have named it so other college adcoms are alerted that greater scrutiny is needed with their documentation.
I homeschool my children, and my oldest is an 11th grader so I am starting the process of preparing his transcripts, etc. for college.
I don’t know anything about transcript services. I don’t know how it works in other states, but in Texas, home schools are considered private schools. I am responsible for creating my son’s transcript and preparing a list of course descriptions (materials used, grade calculation methods, etc.) to send to colleges. We sign a statement attesting to its veracity at the bottom of the transcript, and that’s all that is required as far as I know.
All grades included on the transcript should be in line with the the students standardized test scores and grades from outside course providers, such as a community college. For example, you wouldn’t expect straight A’s on the home school transcript if a student who got all Cs in dual credit courses.
The homeschool services I am familiar with require work samples. The specifics will be determined by the provider, like certain assignments, tests and/or papers. Some want to see everything a student has done.
There are accrediting bodies for homeschool providers but anyone could potentially set up shop as a transcript provider. And, of course, families can make their own transcripts.
Some colleges ask for additional documentation or testing in support of what’s on a transcript.
Isn’t it commonly recommended for home school students aiming for more selective colleges to:
a. Take SAT subject tests for high school level home school courses.
b. Take AP tests for AP-level home school courses.
c. When appropriate (based on being at the appropriate level in the subject), take college courses at a local college.
I.e. get some external validation of quality and content of the home school courses.
We are also homeschoolers and my oldest is a junior. I think what colleges and especially competitive colleges want is some validation of ability from an outside source. That can be SAT subject tests, CLEP, APs, or dual enrollment courses. And then standardized test scores consistent with GPA.
So it’d be interesting to see what this girl’s transcript looked like. I suspect it is a service that just takes the info you provide and grinds it out to a pretty format. Maybe she had some ACT scores to file with this info? I’m curious about her references too. Following up with references may be a good idea to verify identity. Also curious what her parents role in this was.
I hope homeschoolers don’t get punished for incidents like this. Her school followed up and she was kicked out as was appropriate. I fully expect fraud is not uncommon in college applications and certainly doesn’t always come under the guise of homeschooling.
https://www.petersons.com/college-search/top-five-admissions-scandals.aspx
I homeschool my dd who is a junior. We use an online transcript service in which I enter my students courses, course descriptions, grades, units, awards, test scores, etc. etc. It’s great for record-keeping. But they don’t do anything except make it look pretty and calculate the GPA. I sign off on each page, affirming that everything is true. Her grades are backed up with high test scores, and now that she’s in high school and taking mostly online courses, I simply copy and paste whatever grade she earns.
Now that another homeschool mom helped me beef up my excel skills I will likely make my own transcript that better highlights my daughter’s accomplishments. I’ll still use the transcript service for record-keeping because it keeps me caught up.
I homeschool my senior son in Georgia. I keep the class records but I use a transcript service that sounds like @daijobu . It calculates GPA for me. Since half my son’s courses are now online (AP courses, foreign language), I have the state virtual school send their own transcript to my son’s prospective colleges. In addition, I made S18 take the ITBS every year (to provide a norm-based test), so the colleges know his grades and skill abilities match up.
@ucbalumnus Why do you assume the student didn’t have those tests and scores? Does CB list the school attended on the score transcript or just send the scores? I never really thought about it and just assumed that batch scores sent to universities only included actual numbers, not high school information, and was just input into applicant files as numbers. (Out of curiosity, I just looked at my kids’ copies of their AP scores that we have received and they do say homeschool on them. But, I don’t know that a university receives the same detailed info.) For subject tests and standard SAT/ACT, though, anyone can enter the homeschool code.
My guess is that in terms of test scores (including subject tests and APs) this student did submit scores and that they were competitive. (See below.)
Fwiw, my Dd was accepted to Rochester this past admissions cycle (not attending, though). Her transcript, like her 4 older siblings, was printed off our home printer. It was designed by me and signed by me. But, and this is where I suspect that the parents and at minimum a friend had to be complicit in this fraud, putting together the guidance counselor info/homeschool supplements to apply to these schools requires effort. It takes me weeks to put together the course descriptions, write the counselor letter, generate the school profile, etc. (Unless the articles’ referenced “diploma mill” did all of that for the student and fabricated the info, someone put time into supplying the required material.)
From UR’s website, this is some of what is required from homeschoolers:
I cannot imagine the ability to lie through the admissions interview. This student must have put immense effort into creating a false persona. I can’t fathom how those questions were answered with a straight face.
It is ironic (in a pathetic way) that this student was NOT homeschooled and yet the fallout falls on homeschoolers.
(Another fwiw, I hope that it does not make admissions for homeschoolers more difficult. My Dd who was accepted to UR was absolutely qualified for admissions. There is no way to prove you homeschool in some states bc it would be like proving a negative. You can’t prove you homeschool bc you’d have to prove you don’t attend a school. The laws are different in all 50 states. Universities do not have the ability to know the laws in all states. I have been contacted by schools asking questions about our homeschool that have no bearing on us bc our laws are different. )
“I fully expect fraud is not uncommon in college applications and certainly doesn’t always come under the guise of homeschooling.”
Agreed. That said, the high school transcript is the single weightiest factor in most colleges’ admissions systems, and it’s easier to commit fraud on that part of the application if there is no external high school involved.
The point here isn’t that there is anything wrong with the transcript service, necessarily, but that the young woman used it as if she had homeschooled but she had actually been attending school.
One of mine got a diploma through a transcript service. She is in a performing art and didn’t attend part of junior and all of senior years. The transcript she used, along with the one from the brick and mortar high school in our town, was perfectly acceptable and above board.
The larger issue is why do colleges rely on home school transcripts at all. It’s difficult enough to try to compare a GPA from a rural public school to a strong public to a private HS. It’s ridiculous to try to compare home school GPAs to the rest of the applicant pool. Yes, you can look to see if the home school GPA is in line with standardized test scores, but that’s another way of saying the transcript doesn’t provide much additional information beyond those standardized test scores.
In principle, I think all high school transcripts are absolutely useless if the student can offer scores on externally validated subject tests.
But for home schooling, the point for some people is basically unschooling, not staying at home and grinding through the same tedious high school material over the same four year period.
The better the university, the more willing they are to accept standardized tests plus letters and an impressive EC, and not to require any transcript at all. The state universities seem most rule-bound and bureaucratic about this.
This doesn’t have anything to do with homeschooling.
Colleges are able to compile enough information about our children to determine whether or not they’re qualified to attend their school. The issue is how do colleges verify what ANY applicant, NOT just those claiming to be homeschoolers, says. We see posts here from public and private school students every year who want to lie about something – income, race, courses they took, disciplinary records, grades – you name it and somebody probably wants to lie about it.
Academics are easily verified. A quick glance at standardized test scores of most neurotypical kids will give adcoms an idea about where the student stands academically. This is a situation that can’t be controlled for – adults (parents, whoever posed as a guidance counselor, recommenders, and even the student) – boldly lying about the student’s record.
What can help prevent these sort of things? The same thing that prevents dishonest applications from public and private school students now. Acceptances can be rescinded, degrees can be withdrawn, financial aid obtained fraudulently can result in charges and families can be required to pay it back. Verifying the data in every application would be a costly endeavor. Home schools are under the umbrella of public schools in some states, and private schools in others, so colleges would have to verify them all. The cost will be passed on to families in the form of higher tuition bills.
The fall out for this particular girl won’t be good. I can’t imagine anyone at her private school writing a reference for her. And because the applications went out while she was attending their school, I imagine that some sort of dishonesty notation will appear on any transcript that is sent. It’s too bad the adults in her life put her in this terrible position.
I would argue that many transcripts aren’t necessarily giving a clear picture or a good story.
As a homeschooler, it is just easiest for us to teach to mastery. That means a bunch of A’s. My kid got an ACT > 30 his sophomore year so I think that holds up to a pretty solidly high GPA. He’s doing some dual enroll classes this year, we’ll see how he does in those classes that require more hoop jumping. Those classes should be a good indicator for colleges he applies to. My own kid wants to do a BM Music Performance right now so I’m not even sure how much academics are going to matter in the end if he’s auditioning for programs. I’m hoping it can’t hurt merit wise.
I have a neighbor that has an offspring that went to Harvard a few years ago. The parent admitted to me calling the school every time that offspring got below an A. I don’t this is at all uncommon where I live. In the same breath, I’m urban so there are absolutely parents who don’t have the band width to jump through these kind of hoops to make sure their children have the best possible transcript. And this student who went to Harvard is bright and motivated and had good standardized test scores. But the grade point of that kid was absolutely manipulated.
Like I said, if this fraud involved parents and references, that’s really challenging. I wish the story were more clear.
“As a homeschooler, it is just easiest for us to teach to mastery. That means a bunch of A’s”
At my kids’ private high school, it took a lot more than simple mastery to get As on your transcript. Do homeschooled kids even get Bs and Cs? Curiously want to know how grading works in a homeschooled environment.
“In principle, I think all high school transcripts are absolutely useless if the student can offer scores on externally validated subject tests.”
They’re useless if they are intended to measure mastery of a subject. They’re not useless if they are intended to show a combination of mastery and cooperation. If you know the material, but you won’t do what the teacher tells you to do, you’ll get an F. If you know the material but can’t manage to turn in your homework, you’ll probably get a C. I see those patterns pretty frequently.
@doschicos If my kids earn a C, then they have a C on their transcript. My oldest 2 had C sand Bs on their transcripts. The next 1 had Bs. The next 2 had all As bc they were straight A students. (And the older of these 2 is a college sr majoring in physics and math with a 4.0 GPA.)
Not that it is relevant to this discussion bc it is NOT about homeschoolers, but about a private school student who committed fraud, but my older kids graduated from college with high GPAs and with honors.
Or @hanna kids in ps earn high As in their AP classes and then 1s and 2s on the exams? So the student and school has demonstrated what exactly?