Have you decided to head back to school? Fun is fun, but the time has come for you to return to college and get your degree. But where do you start?
One of the first steps you should figure out is how to get college transcripts from your previous institutions. This saves you the hassle of restarting the course from the beginning.
So how do you get a hold of this? Is it as simple as calling the admissions office? Surprisingly no, here’s what you need to do instead to get a hold of your college transcripts.
What Is a College Transcript?
If you’ve ever been to any type of college, there will be detailed records of the work you completed. Some of the information on file includes:
- A list of all of the class that you attended, including any you dropped
- The scores that you received from the classes
- Your dates of attendance and when you attended classes
- Your grade point average
- Your student information such as date of birth and identification details
- Details on other schools or institutions that you attended
- Official information to prove that it came from the registrar’s office
You can request an unofficial transcript that details less information. However, if you’re looking to enroll somewhere else, they may not allow it unless you provide the official documentation.
How to Get College Transcripts
Requesting a college transcript can be different from school to school. However, the best place to always start is on its website.
The registrar’s office may provide an online form that you need to fill out in order to receive your transcript. It’s likely you’ll have to pay a fee to obtain it, which you can process on their site too.
Other colleges may require you to download the form, complete it manually, and post it in. This is to avoid any fraud from occurring. On these occasions, you’ll need to include a cheque with the request for your college transcript.
This manual process can take several weeks to complete, so you’ll need to plan ahead before the semester commences. If you’re desperate to get your paperwork, contact the office and see if there’s an option to pay an additional fee to jump the queue.
Information Needed to Get College Transcripts
There are specific details that the registrar’s office will need to identify you and complete your request. It’s best to gather this information before you commence the process so that you can finish it uninterrupted. The details you’ll need to have handy include:
- Your student ID number or alternatively, your social security number
- Your phone number and current address
- The dates you attended the college
- Your full name and the relevant addresses for recipients of the college transcript
- A handwritten signature, either physical or digital
Some colleges may require additional details, so it’s important to find out from the registrar’s office everything that you need to provide. Otherwise, you’ll go to the back of the queue and have to start over.
What if You Have a Debt?
One of the most common hold-ups in getting your college transcript is outstanding payments. Once the registrar’s office discovers your debt, they’ll put a halt to the process until you’ve paid them back.
Instead of the college, you’ll speak with a collections agency. Depending on the size of the debt, you may be able to arrange a payment plan to reconcile what’s owing. Once an agreement is made and you commence payments, the registrar’s office should continue with the process of retrieving your college transcript.
What if Your School is Closed?
If your gap year turned into a gap decade, then your previous college may no longer be operating. However, your work hasn’t gone to waste. You’ll just need to take an alternative path.
Fortunately, the Department of Education in each state keeps records from all colleges. This includes any that have shut down or relocated. You’ll need to visit their website to find out the process to retrieve your official transcript.
Where Do You Send Your College Transcript?
While your college transcript may have some value to you, it’s worth more to your new school. Most schools will send them directly to your new college rather than have you pick them up or sent to you in the post.
It’s also rare that you’ll be able to print these off if you’re getting your college transcript digitally. The only information you’ll be able to print is the list of classes you took and the grades you received, but this won’t be enough for your new college.
As part of the process of retrieving your college transcript, you’ll need to provide the details of where the information needs to be sent. It’s important to speak to your new school about where your details need to go. Sending it to the wrong department could end up delaying your enrolment.
Looking for Another Alternative?
The process of how to get college transcripts can turn a lot of people off. From the fees to repaying debts to the length of time it takes before your new college receives, it is enough to make you wonder if it’s worth the hassle.
That’s why we came up with another alternative. We can quickly deliver high-quality fake diplomas and transcripts, with realistic packaging, to your door. Head to our store today and avoid the hassle of ever having to deal with a registrar’s office again.