I transferred from a school in China to a school in Iowa this year due to my parents’ job changes. I am a senior this year, which means that I will be applying to college soon. The problem is that the school here in Iowa is not reporting my scores from my ninth to eleventh grade courses in my transcript because of “the different grading scales”. I know that in order for AOs to learn about my academic performance in China I must be sending another transcript from my old high school to colleges. However, it seems that the Common Application system only supports me to have one single counselor from my current school to upload my transcript (in this case, through Naviance), and every school I’m currently applying to seems to have bizarrely different policies regarding transcripts but none seem to directly address my issue.
Has anyone ever run into a situation that I am in, where after switching schools your new school would not report your old grades to colleges? What advice do you guys have?
Your current school should attach your prior transcripts to your current transcript. There is an explanation on the transcripts about the grading policies of that school.
My kids had 3 high schools but the last school sent all the information. The only exception was for the NCAA and the NCAA has to receive an original transcript from each school individually.
Not uncommon. You find out how to attach the prior transcripts (and a counselor letter, if wanted, all in English,) as a supplement to the CA. Or have them mailed separately. (Generally needs to be an official copy.)
Not all US hs incorporate a prior record into the current. There should be CA instructions. Many kids have an additional transcript to report, from another source of classes.
So what if the schools I’m applying to require “OFFICIAL transcripts sent DIRECTLY” from the high school? How can my previous high school actually send colleges my transcript, when I cannot name my old counselor anywhere in the application forms?
Old-fashioned regular mail. Your old high school can mail a copy of your records to the colleges you are applying to. Colleges may accept transcripts as an email attachment sent by an official at your old school, but I would check first.
Unfortunately, it’s not common everywhere in the world for high schools to send transcripts directly to colleges. If that’s unusual in China, you might find that difficult to arrange from a distance.
The easiest solution, if your current high school cooperates, would be for them to attach a copy of your prior transcripts to the school report that they are submitting. It’s okay if the transcripts are obviously issued by a different school and the grades are on a different scale, as long as the scale is explained and the documents are in English (or you attach a translation).
Ask each of the colleges that you are applying to what they want you to do. Do not be surprised if each of them asks for something different. Just do whatever College 1 wants for College 1, and what College 2 wants for College 2.