“Now that grades are coming in, I’m worried about the C my son earned in Precalculus. Can a parent chose not to report it on the high school transcript? How does the school he/she is applying to know?”
Hey, great question! There are 2 parts to this question, the first is whether to record the grade on the homeschool transcript, and the second speaks to grade disclosures. Let’s start with grade disclosures because I think it can inform your decision about whether or not to record it on the homeschool transcript.
It’s important to know that dual enrollment grades stick with you permanently, but don’t worry, there are ways to replace them if you need to (you probably don’t need to replace a “C” but if you’re reading this and your teen earned a “D” or an “F” you will most certainly want to replace those!) If you want to protect your student, you’ll need to know why grades need to be disclosed when applying to new colleges.
When your student takes a college course (not credit by exam like CLEP or alternative classes like Sophia or Studycom), a record of their enrollment is generated. This record is put onto their official college transcript, whether they withdraw or earn a grade. If your student stays at that college, their attempt will be a part of their grade point average.
Now, when your student applies to a new college, they’ll need to disclose all prior colleges attended. This is where transcripts come into play. Colleges will ask for official transcripts from all prior colleges.
But what do they do with these transcripts? Let’s find out!
- Evaluate prior courses for potential transfer credit.
- Evaluate GPA and grades for admission or potential transfer credit.
- Check for financial holds on your account (colleges won’t release an official transcript when you have a balance due, so no payment = no transcript). You’ll have to have a zero balance to get your transcript.
- Waive placement tests or admissions tests where applicable.
- Determine if prerequisites have been met.
- For students who earned college credit earned after high school, they will determine if you should apply as a freshman or transfer student. (students who only earned college credit during high school will apply as a freshman).
Can prior classes and credits be kept private?
Not usually. If your son is applying to college, he’s going to need to disclose these credits by sending an official college transcript.
When your teen attends a college for dual enrollment or a degree, the college reports their enrollment to the National Student Clearinghouse. “The National Student Clearinghouse’s StudentTracker® is the only nationwide source of college enrollment and degree data. Nearly 3,600 colleges and universities — enrolling over 97% of all students in public and private U.S. institutions — regularly provide enrollment and graduation data to the Clearinghouse.”
Since the NSC is so widely used, it is nearly impossible to hide prior enrollment.
What about the homeschool transcript?
Separately, as the homeschool administrator, you don’t have to award him high school credit for any class. Whether it’s a gym class at the YMCA, private music lessons, or an online AP course- awarding of high school credit is 100% your call. So yes, you can leave it off his high school transcript, but doing so doesn’t avoid the paper trail that has already been generated by his attempt, and he WILL have to send all college transcripts, so discovery is imminent.
C’s Get Degrees
This is not an off-handed remark, it’s literally true that students graduate high school and college every day with an occasional “C” grade. It is not the end of the world for most people. If, on the other hand, this grade did not reflect your teen’s ability and will derail future plans to enter a competitive university, then you may want to consider grade replacement. Grade replacement, does not hide a grade (both attempts will be displayed on the official college transcript) rather the old grade will be replaced in the student’s GPA with the new grade. This matters very little most of the time, costs extra money, and will take valuable time used for other needed credits. In all but the most critical circumstances, my advice is to let the grade stand and keep moving forward. Colleges almost never bring in grades for transfer, it’s usually just “cr” or “credit” so this effort will probably go unrewarded.
There may have been one time in my entire career when my college GPA mattered.
The truth of my story is that I barely avoided flunking out over the first half of my college experience.
Eventually I matured, learned “the system” and made dean’s list, landing with a 3.0 GPA.
GPA matters in some career and educational areas, but as a practical matter, after getting your first job, almost no one will ever care about GPA.