<p>I took a summer course last year in US History at a local community college, and received a B. The plan was to do my USH requirements before junior year, but that didn't turn out so well. Instead, I'm now a senior in the AP US History class. The question is, should I still turn in my B from the community college? It won't be on my high school transcript nor will it affect my GPA, but I heard it was required for all course grades to be turned in. Is that true? Also, how would colleges check?</p>
<p>Bump for an answer?</p>
<p>Yes, it is true you have to report it. Somewhere on every college app it requires you to report all classes you have taken, and when you sign the app you are promising that you are complying. As for checking, that’s the easy part. There is a company called the National Student Clearinghouse that gets records from colleges to track attendance. They are more interested in rooting out financial-aid fraud, students trying to get more aid then they are entitled by “forgetting” to list schools they have attended, but another purpose of the registry is to catch students thinking of just the kind of hijinks you are contemplating. So if you like to roll the dice, go ahead and don’t list it – but I wouldn’t recommend it!</p>
<p>Informative. I guess I’ll just turn them in then. Thanks for the advice though!</p>
<p>You do not need to submit courses and colleges you don’t want to. I contacted CommonApp. Here is their response to the question:</p>
<p>Thank you for contacting the Support Team.
No, if you do not want the course and college to be considered as part of your application, you do not need to include it.
Again, thank you for contacting us; please do so again if you need additional assistance.
Regards,
The Support Team</p>
<p>Well, the support team is WRONG.</p>
<p>When you apply for admission to a degree or certificate program at any accredited college or university in the US you are obligated to provide official copies of your transcripts from every single college or university that you have ever studied at. In my case, this now means seven (yes, 7, the number that comes between 6 and 8) different transcripts. The college/university that you end up attending is obligated to keep copies of these transcripts in your permanent file because when the regional accreditation crew comes through every four years or so, they can pull any student’s file, look through it, and if anything is missing, that college/university could lose its accreditation. And, they would really, really, really, hate that. If you don’t provide the transcripts, your application can be rejected. If the college/university finds out that you didn’t provide all of your transcripts they can even nullify your degree after you have graduated! So, pay the money and send the transcripts.</p>
<p>Now, if you are applying as a non-degree or special student, then it is up to the college/university to decide which transcripts you need to give them. An open admission community college won’t necessarily require transcripts until you formally become a degree-seeking candidate. And as always, unaccredited institutions get to make their own rules - but then again why would you go to an unaccredited college/university in the first place?</p>
<p>I’m highly doubtful that CommonApp is wrong regarding a question about the Common App. I would understand if you planned on submitting the course for credit at your college/university or have already submitted the course somewhere for credit. The situation I’m specifically referring to is in the case that the course wasn’t taken for credit and won’t be submitted for credit.</p>
<p>Nope, I learned this one the hard way when I was almost dropped from a graduate program because of a missing 30 year old transcript for a 6 credit summer class! If a course is recorded on a college transcript you have to report it. Period. Now, if the course was offered through a non-credit division of the college/university that would be different. Sort of like not submitting a report that you got your driver’s license or a lifeguarding certificate.</p>
<p>This doesn’t have to do with Common App. It has to do with the colleges/universities playing nice with each other. They would rather deny admission, toss out, or nullify the diploma of a student than lose their accreditation.</p>
<p>Point taken. I think I will contact CommonApp once more though because I would really rather not turn in the grade.</p>
<p>I agree with happymomof1, the general policy is that you have to submit all courses taken regardless of the common app (which is just a tool for applying)</p>
<p>I’ve decided to directly contact the colleges. It seems policies vary as Stanford requires but Columbia does not. Sorry for the confusion, and disregard what CommonApp support says.</p>
<p>I can’t understand why the folks from the Common App would have told you that; sounds like some uninformed staffer. Here’s what it actually says on the Common App itself
Nothing about “list the ones you want to list”. And it also says this right above your signature
</p>
<p>It possibly could be because the statement requires you to list colleges that you’ve taken courses at for credit, and I specified that I will not be submitting the course for credit. I’ve gotten split responses so far from top tier universities. I’ll list the colleges and their responses to the question for informative purposes after I’ve received them.</p>
<p>You need to find out how the community college where you were studying categorized the class. What matters is how the college recorded it, not whether or not your high school will use it for HS graduation credit or whether or not you want to submit it for transfer credit.</p>
<p>Is it recorded in their system as being a credit course? Then you have to report it even if it is 0.5 semester hours of Tap Dancing from the Phys. Ed. department.</p>
<p>Is it recorded in their system as not being a credit course? Then you don’t have to report it if you don’t feel like it.</p>
<p>Have you taken some courses for credit, and some not for credit at this community college? Then you have to send a copy of the transcript, and it will probably show both the for-credit and the not-for-credit courses.</p>
<p>What I get from your initial post, is that you are concerned that the B on this transcript might look bad in your college application. You shouldn’t worry about that. Earning a B in an intensive summer course is not easy! This grade demonstrates that you can meet the standards in a real college-level course. </p>
<p>If your concern is that someone might wonder why you took the class in the summer and then essentially repeated it in HS, that question could be answered by giving a bit of information about your reasons for taking the AP course this year. Is there a significant difference in the content and nature of the two courses? Is your HS teacher an amazing instructor who you want to have another class with? Did your HS require an A in the summer course in order to not take the class during the school year? Do you want to specifically prepared for the AP exam because a good score on that will be more useful for your college goals than a B in the community college course (for example your target college/university will give you only a semester of credit for the summer course but a year of credit for a 4 or 5 on the AP exam)? Did you fall so in love with the course material that you want to be able to have more time to cover it in greater depth? If you can clearly state your reasoning, you will be fine.</p>