cautionary tale: transcript from errors by the guidance counselor

educateme

5-Year Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2009
Messages
323
My son has submitted online application and trying to arrange an interview.

Meanwhile, I insisted on seeing the copy of the transcript from mailed by the guidance counselor to Cadet Command, both the keep it on file as a scanned document on my PC in case they "lose" stuff at Cadet Command, and also to make sure everything is OK.

Lo and behold. I was surprised to see his cumulative GPA out of 4.0 scale (required on the scholarship transcript form) much lower than I thought. His school only uses 4.5 scale, weighted, + and - in addition to the letter grades. So, the guidance counselor thought he should convert it to the straightforward 4.0 scale manually. Math computational and equation error on his part. The GPA was entered was about .6 lower than a correct conversion. I caught the error. Guidance counselor insisted that he has been doing his job for 8 years, he knows what he is doing, and no way he made a mistake. I had to build a whole excel spreadsheet, entered all of my son's grades, converted then into the 4.0 scale to prove to him that his conversion equation was wrong. Only then he sheepish admitted that math was not strong suite.

Can you imagine what would be the result if I did not check the submitted transcript form, caught the error and fought (in a very respectful manner) to have the guidance counselor admit his error? 3.0 vs. 3.6 out of 4.0 scale. This is a HUGE difference. Granted the actual grades are supplied as a transcript, but when the selection board is going through thousands and thousands of applications, the single number submitted by the guidance counselor sticks to their mind and gets entered into the OML, I suspect, without anyone poring over the actual grades to make sure there is no error/inconsistency between the actual grades and the GPA supplied by the guidance counselor. Who has that kind of time?

I would hate to guess how many errors made by him in a similar circumstance, unchecked and uncorrected, cost students various opportunities without them ever knowing what really happened.

Now, we have to make sure that the new, correct form is sent again, AND we have to make sure that the cadet command ACKNOWLEDGE the receipt of the correct transcript form.

I suggest all student and parents check and recheck the form filled and submitted by the school, and whoever.
 
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