I have a balance with my former undergrad, which prevents them from releasing the official transcript to the grad school.
I’ve been told by the grad program facilitator that they can accept me with my unofficial, but to admit me into the program, they’ll need my official.
I am working hard to have my balance paid before August 16 (when grad semester start), but I’m curious as to if they can rescind their decision to accept me or’d if they’ll wait for my official to be sent.
The earliest I can have my balance paid is mid/late July, and my undergrad will email the official transcript immediately to them through email once the balance is paid.
Is it typical for grad schools to accept students without official transcripts?
I’m very excited to start in August, but I’m concerned they may take back their decision if they don’t receive it by a certain date. They’ve sent out an award letter for me already and all they need is this official transcript, which wasn’t required to be accepted, so should there be established rules for a situation such as this?
It is not often but not unusual to take an unofficial transcript or just fill out ones grades on a form during the application process and have to send the actual upon acceptance, before official matriculation.
Not that it matters, if this is rare or not. It’s the way this college does things. You need to talk to the Admissions office and let them know when your official transcript can be sent. Hopefully, it’s acceptable to them
Back when I was going to grad school, I was accepted into a PhD engineering program based on preliminary transcripts, but needed 2 classes during the summer to finish my BS degree. My graduate program was aware, and had no issues with it. My summer classes for my BS degree finished on the day my graduate classes started, halfway across the country–I arrived on the 2nd day of classes, and again, my graduate program was fine with it because I’d communicated my circumstances. They got my transcript with my degree posted as soon as it was available. It can work, if you’re open and honest about your situation.
(A small side note–my transcripts arrived soon after I started my grad program, but for some unknown reason, the registrar’s office never posted my BS degree into my record. This was before the time of all electronic transcripts… They’d send me a “reminder” to send my transcript every semester, and I would go to the office every semester to tell them they already had it–they would look in my physical folder, and say, “Oh yeah, here it is, we’ll post it to your record.” And they NEVER DID! The semester I was defending my dissertation, they sent a nasty letter that I couldn’t get my PhD because I hadn’t proven I had a BS. I went to the office the next day and SAT IN THE OFFICE until they actually posted the degree into my record. SIGH…)
Thank you so much for your response. What a trip! Glad it all worked out for you. My main concern is that they could rescind their decision to accept me because I never explained to them why my undergrad couldn’t send my transcript. I just said they were unable to at the moment…so the program facilitator sent my undergrad registrar their acceptance letter for me, and I’m assuming my undergrad responded back saying, “We can’t release them cause he owes us money.” Could they rescind their decision?
And a great point that you made with your dilemma: if they accepted me with only my unofficial transcript, for all they knew I could’ve been taking a summer class. I guess I don’t understand them needing a REASON for why my offices isn’t being sent if they accepted me without it anyway.
You need to tell them why, I think. Otherwise it just seems like maybe you fished the unofficial version or something. You don’t want to start grad school coming off as dishonest.
My daughter was accepted with unofficial but had to provide official that also showed that she completed her BS.
Some grad schools are more lenient than others. Some will accept with unofficial but need official to actually enroll. If for some reason, you can’t get debt paid off in time, ask if enrollment can be deferred until spring or Fall 2020.
Some grad schools are more desperate for students, so they’re more lenient. When my older son was looking at MBA programs, some were waiving GMAT req’ts if the undergrad degree GPA was high enough.
I work at a grad school, and we accept with unofficial but require officials before school begins. I have worked with individual students who were unable to provide the transcript for one reason or another … but I always required the transcript before they could register for their 2nd semester. This protects the student, because we cannot award the degree without the official transcript from the program that qualified them for admission to the graduate program. In cases where the grad program is funded, the school may be less lenient & require the transcript prior to matriculation. Every school is different. Talk to the graduate admissions office, explain the situation, and they will let you know for sure.
My D attended a grad school that accepted an unofficial transcript for the admissions process. Her acceptance was contingent on the official transcript matching up with what was sent in with the admissions packet. She was required to send in an official transcript before she began the program.
You can contact the grad school and give them an estimate of when you should be able to get the official transcript to them and be sure that will work. I usually don’t recommend this but is there a parent or someone who can pay the balance at the undergrad school and then you can repay them over the next month so you could get the transcript sent out quickly? Hopefully you have things in place to fund the grad program you are embarking on.
Thanks to everyone who responded with such great insight. I talked with my admission counselor and they’re fine with receiving it at any point before the actual semester begins. Thanks again, everyone!