<p>My son is a junior, so he will be hitting the college applications hard in the early fall (if not summer). Since we were overseas for many years, he will need his transcript from our last school sent to any colleges he applies to.</p>
<p>The school is basically closed the entire summer, and (from experience) I know that the first month or so is really chaotic. And it's likely to be even worse next year because there will be some major administrative changes.</p>
<p>There are several colleges that we KNOW DS will be applying to....and I was thinking about contacting the school in late May and having them send the transcript to those colleges. I am guessing that the transcripts would not reach the schools until mid-late June.</p>
<p>Is that too early? I am just trying to avoid any problems in the fall with transcripts potentially arriving late.</p>
<p>Can you get official sealed transcripts sent to you to include in the application?
Typically each would be enclosed in an official school envelope with a signature written across the seal.
As long as these are complete from a prior school year, I see no harm in obtaining several now to be included in whichever applications you son chooses in the fall.</p>
<p>Check with the current HS. S’s HS took care of all of this as they had the previous school’s transcript as part of the current school’s official records.</p>
<p>I thought colleges required official transcripts from each school. </p>
<p>Besides, the current school “adjusted” DS’s previous coursework/classes to match their system…changing names of courses to match state offerings, not recognizing that all of the classes were basically pre-IB, and only using grades from 2 of the 3 grading periods. So, our current school’s “version” of the transcript is not accurate.</p>
<p>I would do a number of things:
1.Request the overseas school to send transcripts in May to those schools you know will be on the application list.
2. Request the overseas school to send you several copies of official transcript in sealed envelope.
3. Discuss/dispute with the current school the way they have registered his transferred courses- this is imperative. You want the current school transcript to accurately reflect the proper level of courses he took.
4. Seek out a transcript evaluation service if necessary- they can, for a relatively small fee, do an official evaluation that the current high school and prospective colleges will accept.
5. As to finding such a service- any local state university can tell you what services they respect when it comes to them evaluating foreign transcripts. Often the websites will tell you under the section for foreign students. This wouold hold true also for transcripts from English speaking schools abroad.
6. If the transcript is in a foreign language, pay for a translation. </p>
<p>I went round and round (nicely, of course) with the registrar when we moved back last summer. I spent years doing college transfer credit evaluation, so I had a pretty good idea of how things should go. On the whole…the transfer evaluation went pretty well for my kids. Actually, it went better than it did for some other kids I know at other schools because of the time I spent with the registrar getting things sorted out. Some parents…well, not my problem…</p>
<p>Basically, she said (and I have had this verified by other parents who have moved back from this particular overseas school and by the district level folks) that the transcript “format” that they use must be consistent. SO…</p>
<ul>
<li>new school does semesters, old school did 3 terms …and registrar did pick the higher grades to include</li>
<li>new school has AP and pre-AP classes, the old school was a full IB school and DS was in the MYP…so the new school can only designate classes as pre-IB for IF they offer at the class at the pre-AP level. For example, foreign languages don’t have a pre-AP level until the 3rd year. So for DS’s 3 years of French…only the 3rd year was listed as pre-IB (and given the extra weight). Same for music and art…no pre-AP level, so no pre-IB designation</li>
<li>there was nothing in the state listing of HS courses to match the Design Technology class my kids took, so the new school took the class description and matched it best as she could.</li>
</ul>
<p>This is why an official transcript from the other school is critical.</p>
<p>I am not too worried about how the transfer shows up on the new school’s transcript. It is quite obvious that it reflects work from another school. It is being used to determine GPA/class rank, but he is not in the top 10% (will be between 20-25%) so that is not an issue with respect to the TX state schools and their admissions policy. </p>
<p>Oh - no language issue. This was a small international school for expats, so all taught in English.</p>