Hey, so I am a senior looking to apply to colleges and I just found out that my school doesn’t include any grades on the transcripts submitted for my senior year. They only include grades for the semester, which comes AFTER all of the application deadlines. Additionally, despite the fact that this school is one of the top public schools in the nation, VERY few people get accepted to schools out of state, especially the more prestigious ones (not even Ivy League, like NYU and Swarthmore). Obviously other factors contribute to this, but I am wondering if maybe the fact that no grades from senior year are included raises a red flag to colleges out of state. The colleges in state are very familiar with my school are most likely are very aware of this policy.
It is normal for transcripts not to include grades until the semester is finished.
Colleges that want to see your fall semester grades will ask you to send a transcript or have your counselor send a mid year report with that information once the fall semester is finished.
Of course, a college that admits you will typically make the offer conditional on finishing your last semester with acceptable grades; you are expected to send a final high school transcript to the college you matriculate to after your last semester grades are available.
@ucbalumnus That makes sense. What about an online course? I am taking AP Comparative Government online because my school doesn’t offer it. They won’t list it as a class on the transcript (it is listed as a study hall) and refuse to provide grades until the end of the year. The will not provide a midterm grade to colleges.
If a high school follows a semester system, it typically only releases final, semester grades which – depending on the school calendar – may not, be released after the RD applications are due in January. This is normal. Colleges usually request that updated transcripts be provided for pending applications, certainly that was the case for all the schools my kids applied to. Colleges are generally not interested in interim grades.
Sounds like your high school handles it exactly the way other high schools do.
High school or college courses taken outside your regular high school will have to be reported on college applications. For any which you have had grades assigned, you would have to self-report grades or send transcripts (depending on how the college applied to wants your high school record given to them).
If you on-line AP comparative government course does not assign a fall semester grade, then you would presumably report it as in progress to colleges that want to see your fall semester grades. But ask each college directly how they want it handled if there is anything that is unclear.