Transcript from EVERY college EVER attended?!?

The Situation:
When applying to any school here in the U.S (and I presume this is the same abroad), I am requested to provide "one official transcript from each institution attended, whether or not a degree was conferred." Over the past 20 years, I have -- at last count -- attended over 10 colleges and universities. Nine in the US and 1 abroad. I have taken 1 course here, 2 courses there...

The Problem:
At roughly $20/transcript (maybe more via Express), simply applying to a graduate program, means having to spend $200 and countless hours of clerical tasks for EACH school I apply to.

The Solution (?):
Please, someone, let me know if the following already exists (might make a great business idea):

Is there an educational institution to which I can send all my official transcripts ONCE. That institution, then issues one set of official transcripts upon my request at a resonable charge of, say, $20/request.

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Any and all comments appreciated!

 

Way back when Excelsior College was called The University of the State of New York they offered a "Credit Bank" service... I feel reasonably certain that they still do... however... I'm not sure that this would "satisfy" an institution's admissions requirement for transcripts... I believe an additional benefit of the individual transcripts is to validate your financial responsibilities have been fully satisfied... kind of like an academic fiscal responsibility credit check...

I'm in the same boat that you are in... I have about 18 schools (being military we move so much that it's hard to start and finish your residential programs in the same school)... I have developed a pattern of leaving schools out of the picture where I did not graduate from and didn't need their credits for a transfer... There were several instances where a school presented me with 1 qtr hour for this military course or that... etc...

THE BOTTOM LINE: I'm sure that Excelsior still offers this service (it's great for employment purposes), but again, it may NOT satisfy admissions requirements of an academic institution.

Bruce in Colorado Springs
[AS, Univ of the St of NY, 1982]

 

Two pieces of good news:

1) While $20 for a transcript isn't unheard of, most schools seem to charge in the $4-$6 range. When I requested sealed, notarized official (non-student copy) transcripts to forward along to the appropriate Australian Ph.D. program when the time comes, I ended up paying CSUDH a whopping $6.00 ($4 for the first transcript, $2 per extra).

2) Check with your prospective school's admissions office and ask if they really want to see all those transcripts; if they can be consolidated under one institutional roof (e.g., if you transferred them all into Excelsior), a "secondary" transcript may suffice. It's hard to imagine that an admissions office wouldn't take the official word of another regionally accredited school, or that an admissions officer would really want to sort out all those transcripts. But do check--and if they do require all of them, take heart in good news item #1.

Good luck!


Peace,

------------------
Tom Head
www.tomhead.net

co-author, Bears' Guide to the Best Education Degrees by Distance Learning (Ten Speed Press)
co-author, Get Your IT Degree and Get Ahead (Osborne/McGraw-Hill)

 

When I worked in an admissions office, we always required all transcripts for undergraduate transfer applicants; unfortunately, schools that accept transfer credits sometimes make mistakes when putting these credits from other schools on their own transcripts. This is particularly true with credits from overseas institutions- for example, there is a wide variety of practices with regard to what grades are acceptable. Plus, many schools only list the credits they accepted in transfer, and not all of the credits earned at the previous institutions.

For graduate admission (I'm not sure from the post what level of program you're applying to, rinri), on the other hand, I would imagine that you'd likely only need to submit the transcript showing the degree earned as well as any transcripts showing particular prerequisites. But check with the school to be sure.

Another option is to check to see which of your schools participate in SPEEDE/ExPRESS- this system allows for the electronic transfer of transcripts between institutions. Some institutions which participate in SPEEDE/ExPRESS charge lower fees (or no fee) for transcripts transmitted via this service. Typically, however, only larger schools participate in this service.

 

$20/transcript seems too high, I remember paying much less than that ($4-$6) for sealed, official copies of my transcript mailed to the school of my choice. I admit that it was a few years ago, and I had only attended 4 colleges, but the price shouldn't have gone up that much. The problem I had was that one school was very slow to respond to the transcript request, and missing that transcript the college I was applying to would not make an admissions decision. Eventually all of the transcripts arrived and I was duly admitted to IIT’s Armour College of Engineering as an undergraduate.

Applying as an undergraduate, it was actually to my advantage to have all transcripts sent in for evaluation. First of all, it was the honest thing to do. The college asked for all my transcripts, and I had them all sent in. I didn’t leave anything out, and believe me, at one school I earned a pile of Fs I would rather have “forgotten” about. Second of all, between all the failing grades I had passed a lot of courses & duly received about ~90 semester credit hours for my chosen program, which was a lot more than I was expecting.

 

I just went through this process as well for gradute admission to 2 seperate U's, and each school wanted 2 copies of an official transcript.

2 schools were $7.00 each
1 was free for the first, $10 for the second (I don't get that thinking behind that one...)
1 was free for however many you wanted sent (Gotta love the Community College of the Air Force!)

 

rinri.

Even if you do have to pay $200+ for these transcripts, that is only a tiny portion of your total investment for your post-grad degree.
Personally, I would be more concerned with the uni fees, which could be in excess of $10K.

i.e.
Transcripts = 3% of total cost
Tuition fees = 97% of total fees

CFr

 

Hey, CFr!

What you said is applicable only if you attend the same university that you apply for. However, most people apply to many universities (sometimes even more than 3 or more than 5) to finally choose one.

Take care,


Karlos Alberto Lacaye, who has applied to more than 3 universities.
[email protected]

 

Try <http://www.eAcadem.com>
They offer a transcript and recommendation banking service for a very reasonable fee.
(I am yet to try them myself, though.)