Homeschool Tracker helped organize my senior's studies, she's been accepted to five universities so far! The Ivy League schools said it was an outstanding transcript!

One of the biggest hurdles for getting our kids accepted into college can be demonstrating to admissions officials that our student’s homeschool education included all the rigors of traditional school (and more!). A professional homeschool transcript can go a long way in accomplishing this goal.

In this post, we’ll go over 5 tips to help you plan and create a great homeschool transcript for your high schooler.

1. Have a plan

It is absolutely critical to decide what information you need or want on your homeschool transcript well in advance of creating it. Knowing all the information that you want included on your student’s transcript ahead of time will help you plan out your their high school career and your responsibilities as their teacher.

If you are unsure on what to include on a high school transcript, take a look at some example homeschool transcripts to see if your schooling plan is on track to complete a similar transcript. Does your state have specific requirements for high school? Will you be tracking grades, GPA, credit units, and activities? These are all important elements to include in a professional transcript.

2. Keep accurate records

Keeping accurate records in your homeschool will make creating a transcript much easier. Having a system to track and record your records will give you the data to create a transcript with confidence. While we certainly endorse Homeschool Tracker for its ability to keep accurate records and generate a homeschool transcript with ease, you need to choose the system that works best for you. The key is to choose a system, learn it, and be consistent!

If you need an editable transcript template, based on the same format used by thousands of Homeschool Tracker users, download our free homeschool transcript template instantly.

3. Stay on track

The same way you want your students to stay on track with their schoolwork, it is also incredibly important for you to keep up with your record keeping. Creating a transcript at the end of each school year is a great way to do this. This process will effectively “test” your record keeping to make sure you and your system are working well. Not only will you have a running transcript of your student’s work, but it will make creating their “final” transcript a breeze.

Besides, who doesn’t like to see how they are doing along the way?

4. Remember to be flexible

One of the greatest advantages of homeschooling is the ability to be flexible! Just because we’re trying to capture our student’s experience in a formal document, doesn’t mean we still can't enjoy being flexible! You can display this flexibility right on the transcript.

If your student didn’t finish an entire course in one year - no sweat! You can continue that course the following year and still include it on the transcript. On the flip side, maybe your student finished all their high school coursework and requirements in less than the standard four years. Again, this isn’t a problem as long as it is clearly captured on the transcript.

5. Don’t wait until graduation

It can be extremely difficult to create an entire high school transcript after the fact. Pouring through old records, grades, curriculum, and trying to synthesize all that information into a 1-3 page document is a daunting task to say the least. This is why it is important to start early and add to your transcript along the way.

For those that do find themselves deep into high school without a good system in place, you can still use Homeschool Tracker. Check out our guide on how to include information from prior years without spending hours entering data.

Conclusion

As homeschoolers, we devote significant time, energy, and effort into providing the best for our child’s education. Having all our hard work, and more importantly, our student’s hard work reflected on a transcript is a great way to cap off an excellent high school experience.

If you start early with a solid plan, keep accurate records along the way, stay on track while remaining flexible, and don’t wait until it’s too late, you will be celebrating your transcript as much as your student’s success!