Midlife students, did your high school every lose your transcripts?

Saysfaa · Feb 1, 2013

Are you sure you need high school transcripts? It is common to not need them once you have a certain number of credits (less than is needed for an associates degree).

pmabraham, BSN, RN · Feb 1, 2013

Thank you, Saysfaa for responding.

The main reason I want to have all the "official" transcripts sent out is there are three courses (social studies for one; I would have to look up the other two) that I might not have to take based on having them in the past with a reasonable score.

My wife and I will be paying for the schooling; so these three courses being removed will save a reasonable amount of money.

That plus just wanting things to be complete in terms of all of the paperwork.

Thank you.

Devon Rex, ADN, BSN · Feb 1, 2013

Hello!

I would encourage you to make a photocopy of your diploma and send a letter to the Principal. Perhaps the person who can't find your transcript or records may not have been as diligent as they should have... or perhaps they moved offices or storage units (back then everything was written, not electronic) ... and it just might need for them to do a very thorough search to find your information. It is not acceptable for them to tell you they don't have them and leave it at that.

Also, have you tried going to your college to find out if they have a copy? If they do, ask them to mail a copy to your high school, so they can issue an original to your current college.

I know it's a lot of goose chasing, but hey! ... sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do.

Good luck to you ! :up:

Exhaustipated, ADN, BSN · Feb 1, 2013

Have you tried contacting the school system your old high school is in? When I went after my transcripts, because my graduation year was prior to 2005 (waaaay, waay prior), I had to request my transcripts from the county public school retention office. I know every school district is different, but it might be worth a shot.

Saysfaa · Feb 1, 2013

I see.

I second the previous person who said to ask about other places in the school district or county that might have such records. It is unlikely the high school itself has them but the Intermediate School system (or whateve it is called in your state) may.

You could try the colleges you went to before - they might have a copy of your high school transcript or at least the information from them if you took college level classes, because you probably had to send it to them. It is a long shot.

If you gained the credit through AP or CLEP or a college-in-high-school type of program, those organizations or that college probably have a record of it.

If you can't find it, you might want to check out CLEP... it can be a much less expensive way to get the credits (about $80 for the three credit class plus the saving of time, books and possibly travel expenses). The iffy part is that colleges generally acknowledge the ligitimacy of the credits but find ways to limit such credits - usually by either allowing only certain CLEPs or only a certain number of classes that way. Also, even if the school accepts the credits, the specific program within the school may not or may give you gen ed credit but require a letter grade for prereq purposes.

KelRN215, BSN, RN · Feb 2, 2013

In my state, public schools are only required to keep records for 7 years. After that, they destroy your permanent records. They post an ad in the local newspaper saying "come get your records if you want them, records not retrieved by X date will be destroyed."

HALL-2010 · Feb 2, 2013

I graduated in the early 90's. Recently, I needed my HS transcript and when they sent it to me, I realized that they did poor data entry. Some state exams don't show. Some grades are inaccurate. I guess they figured no one will ever notice...who knows.

Juryizout · Feb 2, 2013

Happened to me, too. I graduated in 1980. They had to "create" a transcript for me, which being a little Christian Academy they didn't mind doing. Yeah, they are pretty picky about that stuff. I had an associate's degree in Legal Assisting, but that didn't matter. They wanted the real McCoy.

Had a similar problem when the credits from Christian college I attended were accepted by the SAACS accredited college I received my AS from but not for the nursing program I applied to. It was so annoying. :mad: But I just blinded them with emails (all three schools) and they were tired of me, so it went through.

Best of luck and hangeth thou in there!

pmabraham, BSN, RN · Feb 2, 2013

Good day:

Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts and experiences.

I did talk with the principal several times this past Friday; he verified they don't have a copy. He's not sure why or what happened.

Thank God, my college stated they do have a "scanned" copy of my transcripts; though they need the high school to authorize them giving me a copy or mailing a copy to the nursing school.

So now, I'm playing telephone tag trying to hook up the appropriate person at the high school to the appropriate person at the college.

This morning my wife and I went to the nursing school open house -- Lancaster General College of Nursing & Health Sciences (though I'm told their name will be changing before spring of this year). Another would be student asked about the need for high school transcripts (in their case, they graduated in the 1990's) and they were told the transcripts are still needed.

Part of the prerequisits is a science course with a lab; and that would have been in high school for me as the college course and business school (for which I did graduate with an associate degree) didn't have any science courses that I took.

Good idea on the clep part; though LGC stated they are picky on CLEP (at least that's my take).

Thank you.

Exhaustipated, ADN, BSN · Feb 3, 2013

In my state, public schools are only required to keep records for 7 years. After that, they destroy your permanent records. They post an ad in the local newspaper saying "come get your records if you want them, records not retrieved by X date will be destroyed."

Wouldn't that make them unofficial? Mine had to be sealed in order for my school to accept them. If I'd had to retrieve them prior to destruction and sent them to schools myself, they would have been unsealed, unofficial and unacceptable.

Thank God, my college stated they do have a "scanned" copy of my transcripts; though they need the high school to authorize them giving me a copy or mailing a copy to the nursing school.
So now, I'm playing telephone tag trying to hook up the appropriate person at the high school to the appropriate person at the college.

Glad to see you're getting it worked out.

Saysfaa · Feb 3, 2013

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