Do colleges ask for references from all high schools attended or just exam result transcripts?
Which grades are they interested in? From 9th grade onwards?
What are you referring to by references, exam results, and transcripts?
A transcript with all grades from 9th-12th is a standard expectation with college applications. If you attended more than one high school in that timeframe, transcripts from all schools must be sent. Some schools may only be interested in core courses, and will review/recalculate GPA based on a subset of grades, but you must send them all.
References from a high school counselor and teachers is required at more selective colleges. Sometimes more than one.
If by exam results you mean ACT or SAT scores, some schools require them, many schools accept but don’t require them this application season, and some schools won’t look at the even if you send them.
Every school has its own set of requirements, defined on the admissions web site.
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@RichInPitt is right. If you are sending AP or IB scores and are looking for credit, be aware that each college has its own policies regarding those. Some will give credit, some will just offer placement, some will only offer credit for scores of 4 and 5, and so on.
The UC system of colleges considers your grades from years 10-12. I’m not sure which other colleges do this.
Give us an idea of the colleges you are thinking of applying to. Am I right in thinking you are international? For teacher recommendations, typically, more selective colleges that require them might want two, one from a humanities teacher and one from a STEM teacher. You can get information from the internet about what these letters might say because if your teachers are not familiar with them, they will need some guidance. You are not allowed to see these letters.
Slight correction about grades and UC’s. The California UC’s use 10-11th grades for their GPA calculations (core a-g subjects) but you self-report all grades for 9-11th in their application.
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Question is about whether High Schools just provide exam results or also commentary on the student?
Still unclear what you mean by exam results.
If you mean SAT/ACT scores, some high schools include those on a high school transcript and some don’t. But you would likely still be expected to either self-report or send an official score report, depending on the school, if they are to be considered For a test optional school, you can still indicate that you donkt want scores considered, even it included on the HS transcript.
I haven’t seen a high school that provides actual scores of every individual exam you take in each high school class, if that’s what you mean by exam.
If the school requires a Counselor recommendation, then they will receive commentary on the student from the counselor.
I’ve never seen a school that sends commentary/subjectice feedback as part of transcript, when not required, but I haven’t dealt with every high school. I know there are “non-traditional” high schools that provide narrarices instead of grades, so I assume this is what would appear on a transcript.
For an accurate answer, ask your high school what they send.