Mommy Maestra: Homeschool High School Transcript Program

The following is a sponsored post in collaboration with Fast Transcript and MommyMaestra. All opinions are my own.

This is my first year homeschooling a high schooler. My eldest decided to go to a private high school when she started 9th grade. But my middle child started 9th grade this fall. Up until now, I haven't had to worry to much about keeping track of grades or credits. But as we look to the future and plan for scholarships and college, both are heavy on my mind.

When your homeschooled child graduates from high school, they'll need a high school transcript. Why? Because a transcript is required for pretty much every college application. It's like a resumé that gives admissions officers an overall look at your child's accomplishments in a straightforward, concise format. A transcript can make or break your child's acceptance into the college of their choice.

Some homeschool parents are super organized and detail oriented so creating a transcript is easy. But for the rest of us, help is needed. I've already attended one lecture about it, but I'm not sure I walked away feeling any wiser or more confident about it. So I've been looking for additional resources, and I'm excited that I had the opportunity to review FastTranscript.com.

How it works

When you first sign up, you're prompted to begin creating the transcript for your student. It's very straightforward and provides a form for you to fill out with all the basic information, such as your student's name, birth date, address, etc.

You can then choose to fill out the information for your child by grade. This information includes the year(s), course, grade, and credits earned. If you need help figuring out how many credits each class counts as, the sidebar has course suggestions and how many credits they are worth for each subject. And you have three options to select from:

General High School
General College Prep
Rigorous College Prep

The form also automatically calculates your child's GPA and the total credits they've earned as you fill in the information. And it provides a cumulative summary of your child's work over the entire four years.

Finally, there is a section for writing additional important information, such as their ACT/SAT scores, awards, club involvement, etc.

The one-page transcript will include a space at the bottom of the page for a signature when it prints. And you can preview what your transcript will look like at any time with the press of a button. Here's a sample:

Fast Transcripts - high school transcript service

What makes Fast Transcripts special

There are two or three sites that create transcripts for homeschoolers, but there are a few things that really make this site stand out. First, they have developed an error-catching algorithm (audit) that flags 703 common mistakes often made when putting together a transcript.

Second is that they send secure watermarked or digital transcripts directly from their Homeschool Clearinghouse to 4,397 colleges & universities! This is really an amazing deal. It makes applying to a LOT of colleges so much easier - especially by saving you an incredible amount of time that you would otherwise spend hunting down emails for each college.

And finally, the program includes automated course names and course descriptions. This is a HUGE timesaver!

Overall, this is such a great program that takes the guesswork out of creating an outstanding transcript for your homeschooler, and relieves the burden of trying to figure it all out without any mistakes.

Try it yourself first

I ALWAYS encourage you guys to try samples or free trials before you purchase anything homeschool related. So I love that you can try the program first free for 30 days with NO CREDIT CARD REQUIRED.

Try it out! Sign up for the free trial.

Pricing

Fast Transcripts offers three monthly subscription options. The Essentials package ($11.99) lets you print the professional transcript and provides the transcript audit. And the Guidance Counselor package ($18.99) gives you the option to include class rank and access to a real transcripts library. And the Expert Review ($84.99) includes all this plus expert advice, a final review, and offers phone-in support.