Homeschool Transcripts · Outside Courses
Yes. List every high school course on one homeschool transcript, wherever it was taken, and have each college your student attended send its own official transcript as well. Parents often hear that it has to be one or the other. It is both. Your transcript shows the whole program and the GPA built from all of it; the college transcripts confirm the dual enrollment grades from the source. Mark each course's level in its title and name each provider, because a legend does not travel when a transcript is sent electronically.
Yes. As the administrator of your homeschool, you are the school of record for your student's whole high school program, so your transcript lists every high school course: the ones you taught, online classes, co-op courses, dual enrollment and courses from a school your student attended. One document shows the full course load, and one GPA is calculated from all of it.
Leaving courses off creates the problem it was meant to avoid. Colleges compare your transcript with the other records they receive, and some ask for everything outright: Virginia Tech asks applicants to report every course, including failed or withdrawn ones, and George Mason asks dual enrollment students to report all of their dual enrollment coursework. A course missing from your transcript but present on a college's record looks like an omission, whatever the reason.
For college courses, yes. Your homeschool transcript does not replace the college's own record. Catholic University, for example, requires official transcripts from any college attended, and Virginia Tech asks admitted students for official final transcripts from all colleges previously attended. Request them from each college's registrar, sent directly to each university that asks.
On the Common App, list each college in the "Colleges & Universities" section as well. Online class providers and co-ops are different: most do not issue official transcripts, and colleges rarely ask for them. Their courses are covered by your transcript and your course descriptions.
Enter the college's grade, not your own. A dual enrollment course appears on two records: yours and the college's. Use exactly the grade the college recorded, even a C or an F. Title the course "Dual:" and our transcript software adds the weighting from the title, so you never need to change a letter to reflect college-level work.
Put the level in the course title and the provider in the commentary. Start college courses with Dual: and AP courses with AP:, then add a symbol (*, †, ‡) after each outside course and one short commentary line per provider, such as "* Dual enrollment: Valley Community College". Some colleges ask for this: George Mason and JMU ask that outside courses be marked, and the University of Dallas requires the location of every course.
Many families use a legend instead, with abbreviations like DE, AP and IP explained at the bottom of the page. That works on a printed copy, but a legend has no place in the electronic transcript standard, so it does not reach a college that receives the transcript electronically. A title that says "Dual: English Composition I" carries its meaning wherever the transcript goes. Keep each commentary line short; in our transcript editor a line holds 60 characters.
| Course taken at | Title on the transcript | Commentary line |
|---|---|---|
| A community college | Dual: English Composition I * | * Dual enrollment: Valley Community College |
| A second college | Dual: Statistics † | † Dual enrollment: State University (online) |
| An online course provider | Marine Biology ‡ | ‡ Online provider: [name] |
| A co-op or hybrid program | Honors: Rhetoric § | § Hybrid program: [name] |
| Your homeschool | Algebra II | (no mark needed) |
It does no harm on a PDF you upload yourself, but it is not a substitute. Extra pages do not travel when a transcript is sent electronically, because an electronic transcript is a set of data fields rather than a document. And colleges that want a college's record ask for the official copy from that college. Attach unofficial copies only where a college says it accepts them at the application stage.
Your course descriptions are the better place for detail: what each outside course covered, which provider taught it, and how it was graded. See what colleges actually receive for what an electronic transcript carries.
Group short online classes into a course and award the grade yourself. Many online marketplaces, Outschool among them, do not issue official transcripts, so their classes count as part of your homeschool program. Several short classes in one subject can add up to a full course: award 1.0 credit for roughly 120 to 180 hours of work and 0.5 for a semester's worth.
Title the course by what it covered, grade it on the same scale as your other courses, and name the provider in the course description. Our guide to homeschool credit hours shows how to count the hours.
List each A level subject as a course in the years it was studied, with the grade the school assigned, and put the A level examination results in the commentary, for example "A Level results: Mathematics A, Physics B (June 2026)". Ask the international school to send its own transcript and the official exam results to each university that asks for them.
If your student is also applying to UK universities, that process runs through UCAS and centers on predicted or achieved A level grades and a reference, not a US-style transcript. Check each university's requirements for applicants with a mixed homeschool and international school record.
Do not drop a college course because the grade was low. A dual enrollment grade is part of the college's permanent record, and colleges that receive both documents will see a course missing from yours. One low grade explained in two factual sentences in the application does far less harm than an omission found later.
Should dual enrollment courses be weighted on a homeschool transcript?
We recommend it: a college course backed by the college's own transcript is among the most defensible weighting on any homeschool transcript. FastTranscripts.com adds a full grade point to any course whose title starts with "Dual", so the college's letter grade stays exactly as recorded.
How much high school credit is a college course worth?
Typically a 3 to 5 credit college course taken in one semester converts to 1.0 high school credit. Use the same conversion for every college course on the transcript.
Can a college course still in progress go on the transcript?
Yes. List it with its credit and IP (in progress) in the grade column, and enter the college's grade once it posts. Send the college's official transcript after the course is graded.
Do I need to name the provider of every outside course?
Name every provider that taught or graded a course, in one short commentary line each. It costs a line and answers the question several colleges ask directly: where was each course taken?
FastTranscripts.com puts every course on one transcript by year, weights Dual: and AP: courses from their titles, and adds commentary lines for each provider. Start free, no credit card.
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