<p>So, I am currently applying to graduate school. I sent in all my apps and I got an e-mail from one school informing me that I had failed to list all schools noted in the National Clearinghouse for my SSN. It turns out that they had two schools listed that I had not thought to note on my application, because I took NO courses at either one. One was a CC that had classes at my high school. I had applied for it but did not ever take any courses. My transcript, if you could call it that, has absolutely nothing on it. It is, in short, a blank piece of paper with the school name at the top. I think it might have some 0s on it for credits attempted/earned. </p>
<p>The other, which was potentially more confusing, was a school that had offered me a spot for a masters program. I had accepted, but months before the program started and before signing up for any classes, I had to decline it due to a change in my financial situation. </p>
<p>In short, it was a lot of running around trying to get the schools to write letters to this other school saying that I never took any coursework there and blah blah blah. </p>
<p>I just had an interview at another graduate program and am really hoping I get in there. They never brought up these two schools, but I'm afraid that if they offer me admission they are going to do this whole National Student Clearinghouse thing again. If it were a transcript that had grades on it (which would be awful), then I would definitely send it in without a second thought just so that they have it. However, I think it would be really weird to send the school letters saying I never took courses at random other schools. Should I just wait and see if they bring it up? I am a little annoyed that it shows up in the National Clearinghouse at all since I didn't attempt/earn any credits or sign up for courses, but oh well. I just don't want an offer rescinded because of courses I never took.</p>
<p>After the unpleasant incident, I would probably do the following just to be safe:</p>
<p>I would request official transcripts <em>for myself</em>, write a short cover letter explaining past confusions caused by the Clearinghouse records, and submit that letter together with the transcripts to all graduate programs that haven’t rejected me yet. (I share your concern that schools may not know what to do with blank transcripts all by themselves.) </p>
<p>It won’t hurt and it might be better to be proactive about the issue.</p>
<p>I could do that, but I am not sure that for this particular school it would get there in time, since the transcripts take awhile to get mailed. I’m not sure if I should call the grad admissions office and tell them the situation, especially since they might not even check…but it is still causing me to lose sleep at night worrying over it lol. I just do not want to get a rejection without being able to explain the situation. I can work on getting the blank transcript from the CC, but for the grad program I didn’t attend, I’d have to get them to write a letter and mail it to either myself or the school directly.</p>
<p>Let me put this in context. I am a physics professor who is also in charge of my university’s Office of Graduate Admissions. Call the university graduate admissions office and explain. They might tell you what they need to show that what you say is correct. If it is a school that does not want to deal with individual cases in an individual way, then perhaps it is not a good choice for you.</p>
<p>Alternatively, contact the department you are applying to. Departments always make admissions decisions in graduate programs and they might be willing to help out.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply! That is what I was leaning towards doing, I just wasn’t sure I should bring it up with them if it’s not going to be an issue. Is that something they would ask me about before not approving a recommendation to accept or would that be cause alone for them to reject a recommendation? Do grad schools regularly check through the clearinghouse for this sort of thing? It sounds like I should call them regardless though, even if they don’t typically run people through that.</p>