This section of the website provides high school personnel with tips on preparing transcripts, covering topics frequently addressed by high school counselors.

Unofficial Transcripts

Schools may send unofficial transcripts. Pertinent information may even be handwritten on transcripts.

Letter Grades

To be considered in the ELC evaluation, a course must have a letter grade. Courses that have number grades, pass/not pass grades or credit/no credit grades will not be included in the ELC evaluation. High schools should identify and resolve any incomplete or non-letter grade issues on student records prior to submitting them to UC.

Credits

To be considered in the ELC evaluation, a course must have credits. For example, if a course has a grade of A, but zero credits, then that class is not used in the ELC evaluation. Exceptions are considered in instances where a school does not assign credits to any of its courses.

Grade Changes, Including AP Courses

The ELC program cannot accept revised transcripts once evaluations are complete and students have received notification of their ELC status. Therefore, the ELC program cannot reevaluate student records for late grade changes. It is the policy of some high schools to change AP course grades after the exam results are known in the fall. These grade changes come too late to be reflected in the ELC evaluation and cannot be considered. Schools are urged to review the report mailed to them two weeks before student notification to identify any necessary changes to record(s) prior to student mailings.

Courses Taken in Seventh and Eighth Grades

Language other than English and UC-approved math courses that are completed successfully in the seventh and eighth grades will be used in the ELC evaluation if they are on the high school transcript and show letter grades and credits. Like ninth-grade courses, the grades are not factored into the GPA.

College Courses

The ELC evaluation can only consider college courses if the courses appear on the high school transcript or are submitted to UC by the high school prior to students receiving their results. To be considered in ELC evaluation, the UC-approved college courses must clearly indicate the name of the college and note the course name, number and discipline. If UC evaluators do not see where the college course was taken, the course cannot be considered in the evaluation process.

Grade Point Averages

For the purposes of ELC evaluation, UC uses an uncapped, weighted GPA based on UC-approved coursework taken in the 10th and 11th grades. High schools may use any method of calculating a GPA to rank students, as long as the method identifies their top students.

Test Scores

To be included in the ELC evaluation, test results must appear on the high school transcript submitted with the original submission packet. Test scores considered in ELC evaluation include SAT Subject Tests, AP exams and IB HigherLevel exams. Only test scores that clearly indicate the type of exam and the subject area can be considered in the evaluation process.

High School Transfer Students

Some students attend more than one high school between their ninth and 11th grades. To be considered in the ELC evaluation, all transfer courses must have a letter grade and credits.

The high school may address transfer students' courses in one of two ways:

• Articulating the course to one of its own (that is, renaming the course to one of its own courses). The University honors articulation decisions made at the local level. For example, a student could have taken "Modern World History" at a previous school, which the registrar at the new school could articulate to match its UC-approved "World History and Cultures" course by renaming it as such on the transcript.
• Leaving the course name unchanged but including the name of the original school on the student's transcript so the course can be matched to the original school's UC-approved course list. For example, a registrar may not know whether a transfer student's "Modern World History" is equivalent to the school's own "World History and Cultures." In that case, if the registrar would not change the name but would include the name of the original school on the transcript, UC evaluators can attempt to match that course to the original school's Doorways list.

Language Other Than English Requirement

ELC requires that students satisfy 1 unit of language other than English. Many students satisfy the requirement by demonstrating proficiency in another language without taking a high school course. Students may meet the requirement in one of several ways, which are given below, along with the documentation needed from the school.