High School Transcript

Your academic history is usually given the most consideration. But it is reviewed in the context of your other application materials and your high school. In addition to looking at your transcript, college admission counselors review your school’s profile, which lists all of the classes that were available to you.

“The school profile gives us the context of your high school,” Patricia Peek, Ph.D., dean of undergraduate admission, says. “What you could have taken, what you could not have taken—all that context. We don't compare schools against each other. It's what was afforded to you as an opportunity. Could and did you take advantage of it?”

Your High School Transcript

One of the most essential pieces of your application is your high school transcript, which is a record of all your academic achievements during your four years in high school. Your transcript lists all the classes you took, when you took them, what grades you got in them, your cumulative GPA, and the credits you’ve earned.

You might have been led to believe that your junior or senior year grades are the only ones that matter to college admission counselors. But that’s not true.

At Fordham, for example, Dean Peek, says that counselors are looking at not just what grades you got in your classes but also what type of classes you chose to take. Because college admission counselors receive your school’s profile along with your transcript, they can see what you did within the context of your experience.

College admission counselors are also looking for trends that your transcript might show.

“Starting off a little bit on the wrong foot, but being able to make up for that with rigor and strength” shows you’re serious about your academic future, Dean Peek says. “What we don’t want is to see the opposite—where you start off really strong, and the harder the work gets, the lower the grades get.”

Transcripts also help admission counselors make sure that you’ve met the college’s minimum requirements, such as ensuring you took three years of math, which many schools require. Certain programs within schools may have additional requirements; many business schools require an extra year of math, for example, and some science programs require additional science courses.

No matter what classes you’ve taken or where you went to school, make sure you tell your high school guidance counselor which schools you’re applying to so they can make sure to send your official transcript to that school.