What do admissions officers learn by looking at your high school transcript and profile?

Your transcript is perhaps the single most important part of your college application. The following information can be found on your transcript:

Where you are attending high school. No big surprise here! But this is important information because many college admissions officers are very familiar with the schools in their territory (many colleges assign their admissions officers to specific geographic territories for just this reason, Vanderbilt University has a great graphic and map where you can find your admission counselor here).

The courses you have taken: The curriculum at many high schools is fairly set for your first several years. At Hunter, everyone takes a similar course load through junior year, with a couple of electives and some variation in math and language courses. One thing that makes Hunter unique is that our students take all electives in their senior year, and often include internships, independent studies, and courses at Hunter College and Columbia University. Colleges do take note of such accelerated schedules, but students should not feel pressure to accelerate.

Elective choices, especially in senior year: The courses you take in your senior year can play an important role in your possible admission to college. Your courses provide insight into the way you make choices when given the opportunity to go outside of your high school's prescribed curriculum.

In your senior year you often have the greatest flexibility in selecting your courses, and the college admission offices will be paying attention to your choices. Specifically, you are able to choose from courses of relatively greater or lesser academic challenge. The colleges like to see students who challenge themselves academically. They like to see that you are taking advantage of all that your school has to offer. The rule of thumb is this: challenge yourself as much as you can given the courses that your school has to offer; take senior year courses that are appropriate to your academic record, abilities and interest. Challenge but do not overwhelm yourself!

You will select your senior year courses in the second semester of your junior year. When the time comes, discuss your possibilities with your counselor, teachers, parents, and possibly students who have taken the course.

The grades you have earned: Yes, colleges want students who have done well in high school. It is often said that past performance predicts future performance. Colleges do look back to your freshman and sophomore years. Your junior year grades, however, being the most recent, receive a more careful review. When your first semester senior year grades are placed on your transcript and then sent to the colleges to which you are applying, those grades get an even more careful review.

In most cases, the grades you have earned and the courses you have taken will help you to form a framework for finding schools to which you have a reasonable chance of admission. You can see what kind of student you have been by reviewing your grades just like an admission officer can. Are you an average student, a poor student, an exceptional student? Late bloomers are not necessarily doomed. Admission offices notice trends, both up and down. Have your grades been getting better with each semester? Did you have a bad first semester sophomore year? Why? Are you stronger in the sciences and math than in the humanities? These are questions you should certainly think about addressing in your essay or during an interview. Unless you have applied early somewhere, colleges do not see your quarter grades or your exam grades, unless you request to have your first quarter senior year grades sent.

Your High School Profile: Many of the college admission offices will be familiar with your high school, as many will have been reading applications from your high school for many years. They will be reviewing your performance relative to your classmates and looking at your course load relative to the courses available. Even if the person reviewing your application is not familiar with your school, they receive a profile from your school with your transcript that is mailed to a college admission office. A typical profile could include: a brief history of the school, accreditation information, general information on the students and faculty, information on admission policies, a brief description of sports and activities available, a summary of academic procedures, grading scale and program of study, a description of our curriculum, a summary of our course offerings by department, a distribution chart of SAT I scores, a chart displaying the mean grade earned by course for junior year courses, and a listing of the colleges acceptances for the past academic year. The profile explains usually explains your school's ranking policy. HCHS does not rank its students (more on this in later posts). If you are ever asked about your rank in class, it is appropriate to say that your school does not rank. This is a very generic example of a high school profile from the College Board.