Some schools/scholarships still require the mail in transcript. At our school, you bring your own stamped and addressed envelope, no charge beyond that.
Our public high school provides 8 transcripts for free and charges $12 per transcript after that. I’m sure it’s perfectly legal, and is a pittance compared to some of the other charges we incur.
Maybe OP meant more than cost of sending ACT and SAT scores ($13 for ACT, $11.25 for SAT, $over $24.25 total).
Still sounds unreasonable. My high school doesn’t charge (thank god) but I have two college transcripts that cost 5-15 dollars per send.
Our hs charged $2 per transcript, but you had to pick them up and send them to your colleges yourself. There was a $50 charge for graduation, which included the final transcript sent to the college you were going to attend (and for one of my kids, the final transcript sent to the NCAA). It also included the 3 additional transcripts sent to my daughter’s school because they kept saying they didn’t get the first one, or the second… turns out they had received it, but had misfiled it. Three times.
I’m sure there was a provision made for free transcripts for any students who couldn’t afford them, but I think the free or reduced lunch percentage at our school was about 5%. Also, I think the transcripts to the state public schools were sent electronically, so free.
Here’s a first - my high school is actually cheap and reasonable compared to others.
We use Parchment. If you are a current student, it’s free (it’s around $5 if you are not a current student). Request it through your account, the secretary sends it electronically and you can see when it’s been received/downloaded. We also saved some money because most of the schools would take the ACT scores off the transcript and we were only required to send them separately to one school.
We haven’t gotten to graduation yet, so I don’t know if it is any different for final transcript. And maybe, because that comes after graduation, there will be some kind of charge for it.
Now, getting the guidance counselor to do her part on some of these apps is a different story … :-?
@snowfairy137 You were correct. I meant the cost of sending SAT and ACT combined. @thumper1 it is more than $24 but less than $50. I do not want to post the exact amount as I think it is so unreasonable that only our high school charges this amount. If it is legal, I think it should be changed but I am not sure how.
@sybbie719 we use Naviance and common app, I don’t know they can just use one upload, this makes the charges outrageous. It is a monopoly, as parents do not have an option of getting the transcript from another source.
Naviance can be linked to the common app. If the transcript is uploaded in navuance it will go to all of the common app schools
If the transcript is uploaded in the common app, it is going to be sent to any other school on the common app
Right @speechless17
Once the transcript is uploaded to,the common AP…it can be used for a gazillion schools.
There is no reason for you not to post the exact amount.
Is it per college, or per transcript sent? I.e. if one transcript sent or uploaded can be used by five colleges, does it count as one or five for the purpose of this policy?
My kid’s school used Naviance, but we paid for each transcript that was sent, no matter how it was sent. I don’t know how they were sent to the Common App schools - I never saw anything on the Common App that indicated a transcript was linked to it. I don’t know how other schools handle the process, but my kid has to fill out a information sheet for each college that she was applying to with all the specific dates, deadlines, and individual college requirements (how many letters of recommendation, other required school documents, etc.) and provide them to her GC. Even if transcripts can be easily uploaded and automatically sent to the common app schools, I can see how all the other administrative tasks could become overwhelming for school staff. Maybe the costs of all of them put together are rolled into the “transcript” fee?
@ucbalumnus I believe it is per college (not sure whether it is per transcript), I will update if it were not. We follow similar procedure as described by @LeastComplicated , i.e. we fill out a paper form for each college the student applies with specific deadlines. The counselor specifically told the students not to send transcript to colleges that accept self-reporting grades and only send transcript to colleges that the students apply.
I do not know it is so easy for them to send the transcript.
Our school district sourced the transcript reports. We pay for each submission just like SAT and ACT on that company’s website. The cost is probably more than you if submitting less than 10 transcripts.
For Common App and Naviance schools, this really isn’t an issue. You only need to submit a transcript once. You will ultimately need to submit a final official transcript, but I cannot understand why you would be doing that to many colleges. And again through the Common App and Naviance this only needs to be done once.
I know that some scholarships require transcripts, but most only require official ones for finalists, which should cut down the cost.
If they are “making money” on the transcript requests, it’s not going into anyone’s pocket-- public schools aren’t making a profit. It’s paying for paper and toner and the time it takes for an employee to pull together 11 or 15 or 20 packets for a single kid. It’s saving the taxpayers the expense of spending all those resources on a single kid who is applying to more than 10 schools.
My kids school has 5 free and then you pay after that. Fwiw I haven’t heard anyone locally talking about applying to a huge number of schools like people do on CC. My D applied to 6 which was about average for kids at her stats level. I’m aware of some that only applied to two if three. The policy of charging for over 5 doesn’t really affect that many people.
Apply to less schools in order to avoid paying the fee. You can only attend one.
First 3 are free. $5 each after that. $5 late fee if you need sent withing 15 working days. Plus we have to provide the stamped envelope.
The school does not charge for the mid term report and sends that to all schools that you requested a transcript for.
GCs at D’s public magnet school will only support 8 college applications per student. They say that any more than 8 is too many.
It would hard to apply to 10 schools EA/ED. If you plan it well, you probably don’t need to apply RD with additional transcripts needed.