Back to School FAQs (Part 2: Transcripts and Financial Aid)

Welcome to the Back to School Part 2: Transcripts and Financial Aid! My name is Ethan Thornton, I’m the Administrative Coordinator to the Dean of Students. Today we’re going to answer some of your top FAQs about the transfer process and going back to school today. I’ll be interviewing a couple of very knowledgeable guests about the transfer process.

These can get confusing! An official transcript will often be the transcript you will use if you are transferring schools. Some transcripts include: grades, courses you’ve taken, GPA, number of credits for each course, and other academic achievements. This will have the college seal and is signed by the institution’s registrar. Unofficial transcripts are for student use only. They can be used to check records and can be modified. They will not be sent to colleges or have the school seal.

Remember! Since official transcripts will not be sent to you directly, make sure you follow up with the school you are transferring if they received it. And some schools will offer more in transfer credit than others, so be sure to shop around!

It’s very similar to the high school transcript process! The high school transcript process may require a phone call or email but for college transcripts, you may have to use a third party site such as National Student Clearinghouse Services that requires a fee.

Ask your previous school’s registrar and what you need help with. This could take some time at larger schools, so be sure to ask earlier rather than later.

Absolutely! So, all students have something that they can complete called the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in that process you can add a bunch of schools to this document to show what you’ll be eligible for from school to school. Once you apply or out of school to your FAFSA it automatically gets sent to the university that you add so you’ll be able to see information like scholarship qualified for Pell Grants whatever loans that you’re eligible for and would like to add a lot of things like that and you can get kind of a snapshot at just by stopping into the financial aid office.

When you apply to Spalding, you are automatically considered for institutional scholarships. Any need-based scholarships are determined by your FAFSA, when filing with Spalding’s school code.

You can also watch all of our videos on our Back To School YouTube Playlist!