Faculty FAQ_unofficial_transcript

Faculty FAQ

Unofficial Transcript

What is the difference between the Unofficial Transcript and the Degree Audit? 

 The Unofficial Transcript is a record of a student's academic career at UMBC including all transfer credit.  It includes not only the attempted and completed credits that a student has taken at UMBC and other institutions, but also the GPA of a student. 

The Degree Audit is a tool to be used during advising to track the student's progress towards completion of degree requirements.  The calculations made on the degree audit reflect the student's progress towards degree requirements, which may differ from the raw calculations on the Unofficial Transcript. 

How are courses formerly designated as "institutional credit" e.g. PHED and LRC courses reflected in SA documents?  

 In the old SIS system, institutional credit was not included in the total credit and gpa calculations.   This past practice was driven by inherent limitations of the SIS system; SA enables us to count these types of courses in line with best practices at other institutions,  This means that these courses are included in official and unofficial transcripts just as any other credit bearing courses.  Keep in mind, although credit-bearing, these courses do not count toward the 120-credit requirement for graduation.   As such, the degree audit excludes these courses from the degree requirements.  Therefore, the total credit count on the unofficial transcript and the degree audit will not be the same if the student has taken any courses formerly designated "institutional credit".
 

How do I read the Transfer Credits on the Unofficial Transcript?

 Transfer credits appear first on the Unofficial Transcript and are listed by academic institution.  If the student attempted to transfer credits from two institutions, each institution and the list of attempted transfer credits will be posted.  All classes that the student attempted to transfer to UMBC are presented in the list of classes.  The two types of transfer credits include:
 Non-transferrable Credits:  If a class was transferred but not accepted by UMBC, then Non-Transferred Credits will be listed under the academic institution, followed by details of the class.  The details include catalog name and number from the transferring institution, grade the student received for the class, and the term the class was taken.
 Transferred Credits:  If a class was transferred from another institution and accepted by UMBC, then Transferred Credits will be listed under the academic institution followed by two listings of the  course.  The first listing will include details about the class coming from the transferring institution.  The second listing will be how the course was applied at UMBC, as well as the grade associated with the course.  The grade associated with the course will be followed by a T (i.e., AT)  as a reminder that, in general, grades associated with transfer courses are not included in the UMBC gpa.
 

How are transfer credit classes applied to the student's overall GPA?

 Transfer credits are not applied towards a student's overall GPA.  The only exception is courses taken under provisions of an approved Inter-Institutional enrollment program.
 

Are transfer credit classes included in the cumulative attempted credits or earned credits?

 Yes, transfer credit classes are included in the cumulative attempted credit and earned credit totals on the unofficial transcript.
 

Why did the historic term GPA adjust after a student completed a repeated class?

 In SIS, when a student repeated a course for a higher grade, the repeat flag (R) was placed on
the listing of the attempt to be excluded from the cumulative GPA but no adjustment was made
to the summary statistics for the term (and term-by term cumulative statistics were not reflected
on the SIS transcript.) In SA, the historic term record is adjusted: Attempted Credits, Earned
Credits and Quality Points (if any) associated with the repeated class are subtracted from both
term and cumulative statistics. Academic standing (suspension/dismissal and semester honors)
notations are not adjusted, however.

Why is the Attempted Credit amount different in the SA transcript than it was in the SIS transcript? 

 The definition of "Attempted Credit" in SA is very different than it was in SIS.  In SA, Attempted Credit includes not only completed classes, but also dropped classes.  The Attempted Credits for classes dropped with a grade of W are included in the display of term
and cumulative summary statistics but are not used in the calculation of the term or cumulative
GPAs.
 

How will SA handle Inter-Institutional Enrollment?

 Courses taken at other institutions under the provisions of approved Inter-Institutional
Enrollment programs will be handled differently in the SA environment than they have been in
the past; thus, there will be a discontinuity in the portrayal of this coursework on student
transcripts. 
Inter-Institutional courses completed prior to Summer 2009 will appear on the transcript
as INTR courses in the terms they were taken with descriptive notations. Academic data
associated with those courses will be shown and calculated in term and cumulative
summary statistics.
Inter-institutional courses taken after Spring 2009 will be shown in the listing of transfer
coursework; however, in accordance with applicable policy, academic data for those
courses will be included and calculated in term and cumulative summary statistics.
 

How do I read the summary statistics in SA?

 The SA unofficial transcript displays several rows of summary ("GPA") statistics at the end of
every term: two rows relating to the term and two cumulative ("Cum") rows. In both sets, the
first row ("UMBC Term GPA" and "Cum GPA") include only UMBC coursework* : the second
rows include transfer credit.
Courses taken through Inter-Institutional enrollment prior to Fall 2009 are included in UMBC statistics; Inter-Institutional coursework completed after Spring 2009 is recorded as transfer credit but will be included in GPA calculations.

I noticed that the GPA in SA is rounded to three decimals in SA.  Is this correct, or is there a problem with SA?

In SIS, GPAs were presented with two decimals; GPAs are shown with three decimals in SA. In both cases, conventional rounding rules are applied.