Homeschool Transcripts - Are Narrative Transcripts alright?

One of the most critical jobs in homeschooling high school is creating your student's homeschool transcript. From time to time I get questions on how crucial it is to have a typical looking transcript with grades, credits and a GPA vs. a more narrative form of transcript, or even one with courses listed but no grades.

Perhaps it would help if you thought about it a little differently. When you are preparing transcripts, think of yourself as a foreign language translator. Your job is to translate your homeschool into words and numbers that colleges will understand. Your job is not to change your homeschool - you need to do what works for you and your student. You job is only to translate your experiences (whatever they are) into the "love language" of colleges.

I know some colleges tend not to mind a narrative explanation of a homeschool. I went to a Christian college fair and there were a handful of colleges where 15-20% of their student body had been homeschooled. Those admissions people mentioned narrative records in a very warm and open way. This weekend I went to a Homeschool College Fair, and these colleges were equally welcoming to several homeschool records (otherwise they probably wouldn't be at a fair just for homeschoolers, right? )#) But I feel the majority of colleges won't understand anything apart from a regular transcript because it will seem like a foreign language to them.

You might prefer to group your student's learning experiences together into groups that are approximately 1 credit worth. Label it something that sounds like a class title. Once he has put in a year's worth of math work, for example, you could call it "Discrete Math, " "Concepts in Math" or something similar. You could look at CLEP exams, and see which ones look like academic content that your student has learned, and list those subject names on your transcript. Check out Barb Shelton's Homeschool Form-U-La book. It's not for everyone, but she does have a good explanation of how to take what you have done and explaining it in college-friendly language.