Should I send this now?

[Lizzy23]

Hello,

I am extremely nervous about my application and I wonder if sending my most recent transcript would help. It will be available this Wednesday.

I have applied for fall 08 to these universities: Duke, Notre-Dame, Toronto, Western Ontario, NYU, Fordham, Michigan. So far, I received a rejection from Duke, no news from the others. I applied in Classics (Medieval Studies in Notre Dame).

I included what was then my most recent transcript, along with my application. My new transcript includes 6 additional marks (A+, A+, A+, A, A, , all of which came from classes I did during the fall semester, and all of these classes are in my major (no optional courses here). As you can see, these are great marks, and I feel that they might help my application (GPA is 3.6 without these new marks).

Should I get copies of this new transcript prepared, to be sent posthaste to the different departments which have not yet informed me of their decision? Or is is already too late? I have been informed last Friday that I have won another small scholarship from my university. I suppose that if I were to send my new transcript, I could mention this scholarship too.

Also, I would sincerely appreciate it if some people can give me their opinion about my candidature.

I am from a French Canadian university. TOEFL 116/120; GRE: Q.670 V.740 AWA.5; GPA 3.6 (very steady through the years); won scholarships from my university, worked as a Latin tutor, won 4th place at the National Latin sight translation contest (junior level) of the Classical Association of Canada.

[NO8DO]

Good luck, you seem like a good candidate for the programs you listed. I'm not quite sure I understand why you would need to send an updated transcript - if they like you (which some are bound to), then they'll see your final transcript eventually anyway - and since you just have a solid application across the board, I don't see how the updated transcript could help you any further.

[Lizzy23]

Well, assuming that the final decisions have not been made, for some smaller universities like Fordham or Western Ontario, better marks could improve my chances for decent funding... perhaps. Some other universities seem to give a lot of weight to the marks obtained last. I think I read on Western's website that they consider only the last 10 classes for funding.

Sending the transcript and obtaining them is somewhat costly (about $20 per university) so I want to make sure that it will not be useless...

[rising_star]

Why not contact individual schools and ask if they'll accept/review updated transcripts? No sense in sending them if your application has already undergone review...

[LaraAnn85]

Why don't you just call and ask? I did that and ended up sending an entire batch of transcripts, but that was really just because my early GPA was pretty low and I had a 3.9 fall quarter with some impressive classes. It was probably a waste of money for some schools though. You should just call up the graduate secretaries and ask if they have already extended invites, and if not then ask if you can send an updated transcript. Good luck!

[Lizzy23]

True... true... I will call and see. Beside, perhaps they'll want me to send it directly to their department...