Homeschool Transcripts · College Applications
A homeschool school profile is a one- or two-page document that tells a college how your homeschool works: your setting and reasons for homeschooling, where courses came from, how you graded and assigned credit, and any testing or outside classes. Send one whenever you act as the counselor in the Common App, even if no college lists it. Skip it for the University of California and Cal State, which do not read supporting documents when you apply.
Not always, but send one whenever you upload documents as the counselor. A high school profile summarizes the student body, the courses offered and the grading system, and the Common App reports that more than 70% of its applications include one. For a homeschool, no other document explains the school behind the transcript.
Some colleges say so directly. Vanderbilt asks homeschool applicants to upload, with the transcript, "a detailed curriculum guide, and/or school profile, if available." Duke wants to know how and why the family chose homeschooling and how grades were set. Stanford encourages a detailed description of the curriculum. A one- or two-page profile answers all of these at once, and you upload it once in your counselor account so it goes with every School Report.
Take the sections a public high school profile uses and keep the ones that apply to a school with one student. NACAC, the national association of school counselors, lists school facts, contact information, the grading system, test information, outcomes and curriculum. For a homeschool, that becomes the eight items below; leave out enrollment counts, score averages and lists of past college admissions.
| Section | What to write |
|---|---|
| School facts | Homeschool name, address, years in operation, the homeschool code 970000, and how you meet your state's homeschool law (notice, umbrella school or association, if any) |
| Contact | Your name as administrator, email and phone, so a reader can ask a question |
| Setting and approach | Why your family homeschools and how a school day runs: at home, co-op days, online classes, a part-time job |
| Course sources | Which courses you taught and which came from a co-op, an online provider, a tutor or a college, with each provider named |
| Grading | Your grading scale, how you set grades (tests, essays, labs, projects), and who graded the outside courses |
| Credit | What one credit means in your homeschool, for example one year of a subject, roughly 120 to 180 hours of work (our credit hours guide shows how to count it) |
| Weighting and rank | Which titles carry extra weight (Honors:, AP:, Dual:) and how much, and what a class rank or percentile means if you report one |
| Testing and outside work | Exams beyond the SAT or ACT, such as AP or CLEP, and dual enrollment colleges that will send their own transcripts |
The profile is where you explain what the transcript cannot. An electronic transcript carries course titles, credits, grades and GPA. It has no space for why you homeschool, who taught chemistry, or what an A meant in your house. The Common App's homeschool questions ask for exactly that context: your setting and philosophy, your grading scale or other evaluation method, outside coursework and extra testing. Write the profile first, and those answers become a matter of copying from it.
One to two pages. The Common App's guide to school profiles says to aim for one to two pages, and respondents to a NACAC survey favored two to three pages at most. A homeschool profile describes one student's program, so one page usually holds it; go to two only if outside courses or a long testing record need the room.
Each answers a different question, so keep them separate. The profile describes the school, course descriptions describe each course, and the counselor letter describes the student. Repeating one inside another makes the file longer without telling the reader anything new.
| Document | It answers | Length |
|---|---|---|
| School profile | How does this homeschool work, and how were grades and credit set? | 1 to 2 pages |
| Course descriptions | What did each course cover, with what texts, at what level? | Varies by college: Hillsdale caps them at 5 pages |
| Counselor letter | Who is this student, beyond the grades? | No official length |
| Transcript | Which courses, which grades, how many credits, what GPA? | One page if you can |
Not at application. The University of California says not to send transcripts or letters unless a campus asks, and it does not read letters of recommendation when you apply. Students self-report every course in the application's academic history, and homeschoolers explain their homeschooling in the personal insight questions. UC asks for official transcripts only after admission.
Cal State also works from self-reported coursework and says applicants do not need to send letters, resumes or personal statements, except for its Educational Opportunity Program. Its admission handbook adds that homeschool applicants may be asked for supplemental information such as course descriptions, so keep them ready. At UT Austin the transcript must list every course by grade level with a brief description and the format of each course, signed by the adult primarily responsible for the student's education. If your student applies only through systems like these, the profile's work moves into the application itself, so write the personal insight answers from the same notes.
Include the credit and leave the grade on the transcript. Our course description standard is the course title, the year taken, the credit, two to four sentences on what was covered, the main text or curriculum, and how the grade was set, in about 60 to 100 words. The credit lets a reader match each description to its transcript line; the grade adds nothing the transcript does not already show.
If a course came from an outside provider, name the provider and the teacher in the description, and list it in the school profile's course sources as well. The University of Dallas asks for the same thing in its book list: each course name, where it was taken, and the texts used.
Write about what the grades cannot show: how your student handles a full load, works without being told, and takes part outside the home. Neither the Common App nor the colleges above set a length; the counselor form itself has two short answers and one longer assessment. One parent we heard from this fall wrote a page and a half.
Leave curriculum and grading out of the letter, because the profile already covers them. Our guide to recommendation letters for homeschoolers covers who else should write and what makes a letter specific.
No. A resume is not a counselor document, so do not attach it to the transcript or upload it as a second one. The Common App's activities section holds up to ten activities and is the resume most colleges read. Send a separate resume only where a college asks: UT Austin accepts an optional expanded resume, while Cal State says applicants do not need one.
Do not hide documents inside the transcript PDF. A resume, a profile or course descriptions merged into the transcript file make the one document every reader opens harder to read. Upload each one in its own place in the counselor account, and keep the transcript to the record itself.
Is a school profile required for homeschoolers?
Rarely; most colleges do not list it. Vanderbilt invites a curriculum guide or school profile, and Duke and Stanford ask for the information a profile contains. Since the Common App says more than 70% of its applications include a profile, sending one puts your homeschool alongside the schools that do.
Can course descriptions replace a school profile?
Not fully. Course descriptions explain each course; the profile explains the school around them, including your setting, grading and credit. A short profile also helps a reader understand the descriptions.
Should the school profile list my student's test scores?
No. Scores belong in the application's testing section and in official score reports. In the profile, name the kinds of testing your homeschool uses, such as AP or CLEP exams, without repeating the numbers.
Should I put class rank in the school profile?
Only if you have one that means something, and only if you label it. A percentile against other homeschoolers is a different comparison from rank in a school class. Our guide to class rank reporting explains how to present it.
Where do I upload the school profile in the Common App?
In your counselor account, with the School Report. The Common App has counselors upload a profile once so it travels with every School Report. Our guide to the Common App counselor section walks through the forms.
FastTranscripts.com builds a one-page transcript with courses by year, credits, Honors:, AP: and Dual: titles, and weighted and unweighted GPA, so your profile can explain the record instead of repeating it. Start free, no credit card.
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