Wednesday, September 27, 2017

What is a Self-Reported Student Academic Record


A newer movement in the world of college admissions is the concept of the self-reported student academic record. This is a clever initiative on the part of colleges who choose to use it and seems to be gaining momentum with larger schools.
The self-reported student academic record, often called SSAR, is essentially the student’s version of their transcript. In other words, the student inputs their course history into a college’s database themselves rather than that coming from the high school. Therefore, students who are applying to a school that uses a SSAR do not need to have their transcripts sent to the college from the high school like so many students and families are used to. Instead, students should request an unofficial transcript and use that to transcribe the information themselves. When I explain this, sometimes I get pushback from families who insist I send a transcript to the university. I promise this isn’t how this works. If the colleges who utilize a SSAR get a transcript in the mail for one of their applicants, they are going to throw it away.
When you think about it, using a SSAR is really a genius move on the part of the universities. Decoding transcripts is an extraordinarily labor-intensive task. High school’s use a wide array of databases to store their student information. Everyone is using a different system so the process is not as simple as just downloading a transcript and instantly having the information you want, how you want it. With the SSAR applicants are doing the hard work here for the colleges. They are decoding their own transcripts into the systems of the university.
So, isn’t easy for a student to, you know, lie? Well, yes, but the concept of SSAR has a safety net for this too. Students who are admitted will then be required to send in an official transcript from the high school. Those transcripts will be processed by the university and checked against what the student input. Getting caught in a lie would not have a good outcome for the student. Their admissions offer would most likely be rescinded. This is still a time-saving measure for the college. If they get 40,000 applications and they admit 10,000, they really only have to process 10,000 applications themselves. The applicants have done the legwork on all the others.
I suppose there is one downside to the SSAR. I find many families, who don’t deal with transcripts every day like counselors and college admissions offices, are paranoid they’ll answer a question on the SSAR incorrectly and their offer will be rescinded. “I said I took AP Microeconomics on the SSAR and I just realized I took AP Macroeconomics!”, “I was using a transcript I got over the summer for the SSAR and it said my rank was 14 of 228, I just got a new transcript and with all these new students my rank is 15/240! I lied on my SSAR!”  Don’t sweat the small stuff. The colleges understand they have people who are not experts completing the SSAR. If a question is a little confusing to you, it’s certain someone else is having a hard time too. If you made a D in a course don’t tell the school you made a B, but minor inconsistencies shouldn’t make or break you.