Transcripts School
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For homeschool families, now and then the question of whether or not to prepare a transcript for their student is not the only question. Many times, the more challenging question is how to put this document together. The fear is that colleges may or may not think your transcript is “real” if you do it incorrectly. After you have taken the basi step and determined what you will include on your transcript, the next step is to determine how you will do that. The starting percentage of your homeschool transcript layout is to determine whether you will buy a form, and there are a large total of them out there, or whether you will construct your own. In either case, colleges will still categorize your homeschool transcript as “mommy made.” A purchased transcript form is no more “official” for homeschoolers, so, my counsel is to save the money, spend it on actual homeschooling, and prepare your own transcript. If you opt to prepare your own homeschool transcript, then the easiest way to go is to use either Microsoft Excel or Word blank documents and invent the form you need. In Word, you may construct tables to parallel all that Excel may do, but Excel will also concede you to input formulas for figuring GPA calculations. Whichever you use, you will start out with four groupings of columns and rows, each group to reflect the four years of high school. Using your state’s graduation standards, fill in a row for each semester half-credit that is required, by subject. Be sure to include each subject that is required for meeting your state’s standards. If your state does not indicate in which year a student will have to have a queer subject, then you may either determine in which year you will include that subject, listing it there, or you may give rise to a new grouping of columns and rows and label it “Additional Requirements.” After you have lined out each subject that will be required for graduation, the next step is to include a summary box. In this box, you will provide a cumulative total for credits earned as well as the GPA. GPA stands for “Grade Point Average” and it is a composite number reflecting the number of A’s, B’s, C’s, etc., assigning a weight to each letter grade, and calculating an intermediate to represent the student’s academic competence. If you are using Excel, you may enter formulas in these two boxes so that the totals are figured for you, but if not, there are some online GPA Calculators that you may use to figure your homeschool student’s GPA. You will want to update this figure, and the credits earned, each semester. This keeps your homeschool transcript current and ready to go ought to you need it for driver’s education discounts, state ID cards, etc. Now you are ready to group another set of columns and rows for the SAT and ACT scores that your student has received. You will need to list the date that the test was taken, the test sections, such as Math, Verbal, etc., and the person scores earned. Depending on how a lot of times your student has taken these tests, you may want to include only the two most recent test dates on your transcript. Colleges will suppose you to forward the finish test histories from the test suppliers anyway, but visually being competent to see the scores on the transcript gives a wealth of prompt validity to your homeschool program. This division of your transcript may be in littler fonts as necessary to fit, but it is highly encouraged that you include this info in your layout. The final aspect to your homeschool transcript layout is arranging these sets of columns and rows, along with heading info such as student’s name, address, social security number (if desired), name of your homeschool (if you use one), and current year in school. This will take a little tweaking but the goal is to get the entire bulk of info on one visually likeable page. You will have to not include graphics, cute images, or any other items that reduce the professional aspect of your transcript. A transcript is a formal document, and as the saying goes, it will have to reflect “just the facts.” If you would like to see a sample copy of a transcript, visit the National Homeschool Academy website, sign up for the newsletters, and when prompted, indicate that you are responding to the “Sample Transcript” free offer. |
