<p>I'm annoyed. S is applying to a couple of rolling admissions schools, and our school won't let him submit the request for a transcript until the first day of school, and then says it will take three weeks to send the transcript. That's pretty much four weeks from today.</p>
<p>Applications are not considered complete without this information, so basically this means that his apps won't be in for another month at the earliest.</p>
<p>Am I right to be annoyed? Does it matter that he has to wait a month? Anyone else have this situation?</p>
<p>Heck, the schools here don’t ACCEPT transcript requests until the last week of September (a month into the school year), then take three weeks to process. I suspect this has to do with GCs finalizing LORs and updating the school profile with NMSFs, both of which are included in the transcript package sent to schools.</p>
<p>Those policies are pretty standard at high schools around here, so you’re certainly not the only one facing this issue. </p>
<p>Seniors can’t request transcripts until the first day of school. The reasons given are because staffing levels are lower in the summer due to vacations, and also because late August/early September is their busiest time as they get ready for the upcoming school year. The “official” turnaround time they quote is 3-4 weeks (which is what it might take at the very busiest times right before ED and RD deadlines) because they want to reinforce the idea that students shouldn’t wait until the last minute to put in their request. But quite frankly, at the very beginning of the school year, they will actually get it out in far less time – maybe a week or two.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about it. If the rest of his application has already been submitted to the colleges, and his transcripts show up in mid- to late September, he’ll still be very near the front of the line.</p>
<p>Sounds fairly standard. Our school publishes a college guidebook with request deadlines. For the bigger deadlines like 1/1, the school asks for 4 weeks lead time since so many kids have apps with 1/1 deadlines, the shortest stated turn around is 2 weeks. The school will often get them out much sooner. Don’t be too annoyed, your S’s apps should be fine. Then end of September is still very early in the app season.</p>
<p>We have the same time frame. I agree with CountingDown that it probably has to do with GC doing the LOR, school profile, etc. At our school, the transcript is sent in a packet with the GC LOR and school profile.</p>
<p>I agree with others that if the Rolling Admissions schools receive the “completed” app (when school transcript, etc. is received) by the end of Sept., your S is in good shape.</p>
<p>I agree completely with the previous posters - the larger schools will take 2-3 weeks to send out transcripts. A bigger problem that I have experienced is the lag time in sending out first semester grades and final transcripts. My son attended a large MD hs. His first semester ended roughly January 20th - the school did not send out first semester transcripts until the very end of February. Same issue with final transcript - he graduated June 3rd and they did not send his final transcript to his college until the very end of July and we were getting stressed by e-mails from the college saying the final transcript was past due and would prevent him from registering. The joys of attending a large public hs never end!</p>
<p>Bear in mind that the “three weeks” may be a way for the school to protect themselves, and ensure that students are giving them enough lead time to meet deadlines.</p>
<p>Schools tend to get LOTS of last-minute requests that push deadlines, and it can be difficult at times to try and meet them.</p>
<p>DD’s school sets a standard 2-week timeframe regardless of when the request is submitted, but I found that in most cases the transcripts were sent out much sooner, most likely because my daughter submitted her requests during a slow period.</p>
<p>rockvillemom,
The issue seems to be that the transcript database is through the central office, not each school, so they update everyone at once. </p>
<p>Our experience was that if kids needed transcripts for competitions (i.e., Intel, JSHS, NMSF or scholarships), the school would turn them around in a day or two. An email to the GC may help to expedite the process in these circumstances if the registrar is balky at rushing a request. Sometimes it’s the tight deadlines, not lack of planning on the kids’ part, that drives the urgency.</p>
<p>The beginning of the school year is a very chaotic in many places. In NYC, we do not begin school until September 9th so right now there are probably not even 15 people working in the building today. GCs are usually asked to come in to complete programming based on summer school grades because every student must have a program in hand on when they walk into the building.</p>
<p>If you have students who attended stummer school, you must certify all seniors for august graduation, send out updated transcripts to colleges for students and get diplomas issued for students who graduated in August. In addition, you must discharge all students from your roster who graduated in August before your new school year begins.</p>
<p>Because some one always leaves or retires and programs get added or cut at the end of the summer, chances are that some of your programming you did at the end of last school year will need to be redone. In additon, you must deal with these changes and still make things work out for your student. You will have students entering and leaving school based on moving, transfers, etc. You must have a program in the hands of all students for the first day of school.</p>
<p>As others have stated, once things slow down, your child with get transcripts and everything will be ok</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about the delay. In the end the transcripts will get there well before they need to be, but it’s nice to get things crossed off the list early this year.</p>
<p>I mentioned on another thread that I was beyond impressed with DD’s counseling center this summer. At least one of the schools she requested a transcript for received it 3 days after she turned in the form. Not sure if it was mailed, or sent electronically, but either way we were pleasantly surprised and I’ve made sure to let all in charge know that we were appreciative.</p>
<p>My son’s school had a specific schedule – get us the request by date x and we will send the transcript by date y. A lag of about 3 weeks, I think. Couldn’t submit requests until mid-September. It took them less than the time allowed to get his out.</p>
<p>I would not be annoyed or concerned – the “competition” will largely be
be working with the same constraints within their high schools.</p>
<p>Here’s something I learned last year when S was applying to a rolling admission college: the college didn’t start reading applications until something like Nov. 1, and of course the application had to be complete by then. BUT, S could send in his part of the application well before that, and the date the college received that determined the order his application was read. He submitted his part by early October, and he had a decision by early Dec. Perhaps it works the same way at the schools your S is applying to?</p>
<p>The importance of deadlines is more for the students and less so for the schools and scores. Colleges know that schools are a)busy or b)not yet in session. Just be certain that your child gets all of the important info that he is supposed to send, on time. It will be just fine! Good luck!</p>
<p>My school also required 3 weeks, frequently actually took longer than that. It took exactly 6 weeks for a college to get it from my high school in the same city (though that includes an up to 2 weeks delay on the college’s part in processing it) and the wait was worse for others. They also didn’t accept requests until the 3rd week of school (which was Sept 15th I think last year).</p>
<p>Everyone has these sorts of issues. It’s annoying, but tell yourself there’s nothing you can do about it, and be as happy as you can about it not being worse.</p>
<p>Is the school is now in session?
Has you son has not had the opportunity to review his transcript at the end of the last school year?
If not, then now is the time for him to meet with his GC to ensure that everything on his transcript is correct before it gets sent out.</p>
<p>^^^
Another vote for checking the accuracy of the transcript before it is mailed out. I had checked my older son’s transcript and it was fine, but when I check my younger son’s transcript there were 2 big mistakes. One of which will result in a slight - but still significant - increase in his GPA.</p>