High School sent wrong transcript and kid was NOT admitted?

Just read about an instance on another site where a kid with comparable stats was rejected from a CA school. Once the mother investigated, she found out that the HS had sent a transcript but did not include the Fall Senior year classes on the transcript so was outright rejected as the university thought he apparently was a junior drop out (and the small detail that he had checked on the application that he did not have his HS diploma). Or at least that is how it was explained.

Does this sound strange to anyone else? I’m trying to remember but have no idea with either of my kids what kind of transcript the high schools send in when applying Fall of Senior Year or even Spring of Senior Year. Anyone know what is exactly supposed to be on there? I mean it’s not anything we can check over as they are sent directly from the high school and have to trust the school sends the correct grades? And in Spring Senior Year they do put your Fall Senior year grades on there too correct?

Another thing that got me thinking. I know final transcripts to my son’s accepted university is due in July after graduation. I could swear for our son already in college that his high school sent a transcript automatically then. Do not all high schools do this after graduation and do you send ANOTHER transcript initiated by you or???

It does sound strange. I think it would depend on when the student applied. I recall seeing posts last summer (august) of students who were applying to college and using transcripts that were from before the summer break. Those would not have the senior courses. I would have thought any transcript a school sends out from the start of school on has the senior courses. For my son’s EA apps, the courses were listed with no grades. For mid-year reports, the transcript was updated to include grades. That is how others transcripts were, based on postings I read, as well. It may vary at some schools. Hopefully they can request reconsideration.

That sounds odd to me as well.

I think clerical errors like this might happen more often than we would like to think (if the story you said is true).

Depends on the timing of the application. For my kids’ school, given the academic calendar, if a student applies ED, EA, or rolling, the college is usually going to only see grades through end of junior year. Sometimes, between the submission and notification dates, first trimester grades come out and can be submitted. If a student applies for RD due around 1/1, fall grades will be part of the transcript. So, in the example provided above, it’s hard to opine without knowing when the application was sent, what the academic calendar looks like, etc.

Unless things have changed in the past 2 years, students enter their courses on the Common App. Not sure what the procedure is for state schools in CA.

Somewhere in the Common App package, it asks for date of hs graduation (projected or past, if the student took a gap. Maybe this is on the School Report.) Yes, the student is asked to list fall and spring classes in his CA.

The initial transcript should include everything up to the point it’s sent; a lot of hs don’t have fall semester grades done by, say, 12/31. Usually “in progress” courses show. They then send a mid-year report, showing fall grades. On a quarter system, they should have 1st quarter grades and then send second qtr.

I’d love to know where this story comes from. It seems there’d need to be a string of mistakes and I don’t think adcoms would just “assume” he dropped out. Seems to me something else was fishy that already put this kid behind the 8 ball. You do get apps without fall grades. If they’re missing as things roll on, doesn’t that show on an applicant’s portal? Any idea what college?

We knew through checking school portals that one particular state university had received S’s fall transcript but listed him as not meeting admission requirements. S emailed to ask and was told he didn’t have enough credits for a particular category. He knew he’d meet this requirement by end of senior year and had listed his senior year classes on his application. After a couple of exchanges with the university, he had to have his GC send a letter listing senior year classes, and he was admitted. I don’t know if he would have been rejected if he had not checked the portal and followed up. Always seemed like an odd situation to me since he was admitted everywhere else based on the same transcript and application info. So, I could see it happening.