<p>Hi,everybody.I'm new here and this seems like a good place so I thought I'd ask about something I'm really confused about.
I'm about to finish my junior year of high school and I've been home-schooled ever since I started school(I know, weird, right?).My problem is,my mother and I(my mother is the teacher) have never kept transcripts because until recently we never knew we needed to.We can start keeping transcripts now, but could I apply for college with only transcripts for the first part of my senior year, or possibly even with no transcripts at all?I ask this question because I'm guessing this wouldn't work.If that isn't an option, then is there any way I can get around that problem and apply for college anyway?
Thanks for reading.I'd appreciate any help you could give me.</p>
<p>Dont worry</p>
<p>Geekmom/Creekland will set you straight!</p>
<p>That shouldn’t be a problem. You can easily create a transcript with the work that you’ve done in the past. Start with the subjects you’ve taken. I also wrote up a separate Course Description for my daughter, one page for each course, and listed what she did for each class, including a grade. It’s not unusual for homeschoolers to have all As–at my house, mastery is the goal, so I generally expect my kid to get an A (although there have been a few exceptions to that).</p>
<p>It may be a bit more challenging if you’ve completely unschooled, but you can get help here for that too–or someone can at least point you in the right direction.</p>
<p>And, for what it’s worth, I <em>knew</em> all along that my daughter would need a transcript, but I didn’t start working on it until the summer after her junior year. You shouldn’t have anything to worry about!</p>
<p>lol kypdurron!</p>
<p>You could get into community college with nothing other than their placement tests, probably. And there’s nothing wrong with community college, and lots and lots of people go there. Then you could take those transcripts and use them to transfer to a four-year college or university.</p>
<p>But if you want to go to schools other than community college, you’ll need to create transcripts for all four years of high school. So yes, you’ll need to figure out what you did. But a transcript is a large general thing - “Algebra 1, 9th grade”, “Biology, 11th grade”. You don’t need to say every item you studied. You will need to support your claims with at least some outside verification, such as SAT Subject tests, letters of recommendation, etc. </p>
<p>To figure out what you did, wrack your memory, check your calendar, look at the documents you wrote on your computer, dig under your bed for the textbooks you used, check your checkbook for money you paid for outside classes.</p>
<p>For the format, google “homeschool transcript form” and you’ll get many examples. That gives you a standard-looking transcript. Schools want to see a standard transcript that they can recognize as a transcript; it should be one page, or two at most. Many people and schools also like narrative transcripts as addenda to the one-or-two-page standard form. We never created any, but I’m guessing they would say “Biology - used _______ textbook, chapters 1 - 19. Also dissected earthworms and used Virtual Frog Dissection online. Wrote paper on reproduction, and took survey of height/weight of all family members back to grandparents.”</p>
<p>If you haven’t yet started taking SAT Subject tests, or the SAT/ACT, you need to get going for those. And since you didn’t know you needed transcripts, I’ll tell you something else you need to know - college applications are typically due the winter before you want to start in fall; what this means is that you need to be doing your applications this fall if you want to go to college in fall 2014.</p>
<p>I know I seem clueless asking all these questions(and I probably am pretty clueless), but how many subjects do I need to make transcripts for and which subjects should they be?For example, would it need to be a broad definition like “Grade 10 social studies” or something more specific like “Grade 10 American history” or “Grade 10 world history”?And also, do I need to send in transcripts for however much of the 12th grade I finish before I apply?
Anyway, thanks to everybody for all the helpful answers.I really appreciated all the help.</p>
<p>You don’t seem clueless at all! Since you’ve not done this before, of course you will have questions! </p>
<p>Make a transcript for each of your subjects. You want to show your entire high school career. Some people set up their transcript by year, others by course (all English together, for example). It’s been my personal experience that schools prefer transcripts by year, but I believe that can vary quite a bit.</p>
<p>You can decide to use a broad definition or more specific. It’s really up to you. I was more specific, “Geometry,” and to show a progression, “English 3: World Lit and Composition.”</p>
<p>Have you had a lot of freedom in your homeschooling? Continue to think outside of the box. Find a way to show what you’ve done. It’s been our experience that colleges love homeschoolers, and they want to see how you stand out! You can find ideas on how to word things by googling a few key words of what you’ve done, along with the word “course” or “course description.” </p>
<p>Example 1: My D spent a lot of time studying on her own, and preparing in a group for a missions trip. She spent 11 days outside of the country. We counted it as an Intercultural Service" course and detailed her prep and experiences in a course description. </p>
<p>Example 2: She spent literally hundreds of hours pursuing two very different topics on her own, reading all that she could on the subjects, watching videos, making charts, doing research, writing, and more. We turned those into subjects on her transcript, Linguistics, and Native American Studies. </p>
<p>When you apply to colleges, you will need to send in an up-to-date transcript for the courses you’ve completed. My D’s transcript included classes she was currently taking, with “tbd” in the grade section (“to be determined”). When you are accepted and make your decision, you’ll later send in a final transcript to the college.</p>
<p>You can google “homeschool transcripts samples” and similar to get ideas. There are so many different ways you can set this up. (But there’s definitely no need to pay someone else to do this for you.)</p>
<p>How you approach the process has a lot to do with the types of schools you are applying to, and whether you’re only aiming for admission or trying to win large merit scholarships.<br>
Make sure you check the admission requirements for the colleges you plan to apply to. Find this info. on their websites. Also, check application deadlines. Many colleges have priority/financial aid/scholarship deadlines as early as Nov. 1.<br>
You may need to categorize your learning to fit colleges’ admission requirements (4 years of English, 4 years of math, 3 years of science, 3 years of social science, 2 years of the same foreign language,etc. )
My two oldest kids were homeschooled (unschooled, really). But I gave our homeschool a name and made their transcripts look like school transcripts–I only listed year, course titles, grades, credits, GPA. Clean, simple, neat. It was fine. No questions asked. (I did not list textbook titles, topics covered, or include a portfolio or any extra information.) </p>
<p>Colleges want to see that you’ve met their course, GPA, and test score requirements.<br>
IMO, standardized test scores are EXTREMELY important for homeschoolers. SAT/ACT scores are the only OBJECTIVE way they can compare you to other applicants. If you haven’t taken any standardized tests, (might not be required for community college), you should look at the testing schedule and start prepping now.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot to Marbling and Atomom for the replies, which were helpful as always.I’ll keep your advice in mind and I’ll try my best to do the things you suggested.And Marbling, to answer your question I have had a lot of freedom in my homeschooling.Even though I clearly came into my junior year less prepared than I should’ve been, homeschooling suits me really well for some reason and I think the freedom is a big part of that.I’m getting ready to take October’s SAT, some SAT subject tests in November and an ACT sometime this year too.My number 1 college has a deadline in March, so I should be able to get everything ready in time for that, but for some of my back-up colleges it could be a different story.
I plan on trying to get into a regular college in 2014, but if that fails I’ll just head to a community college and move on to my desired college later.
I want to volunteer at the library and maybe do some writing for the local newspaper.Do you think that would increase my chances of being accepted?Thanks again to everyone for all the help.</p>