Transcripts from Study Abroad?

[Maziana]

I found out that my school (A) offers "a certified photocopy of my official transcript" from the university B that I studied abroad at for a semester. However, if I need an original, official transcript from school B, then I will have to contact B directly and get transcripts sent from Europe to the grad programs I am applying to.

 

Do you think I have to contact B? Or will it suffice that school A guarantees that the transcripts they send out are certified?

Edited September 13, 2013 by Maziana

[pears]

Yes, contact B as soon as possible! I actually ran into this problem & it probably shaved a year off my life. I spent my semester abroad in Australia, & as much as I loved my school there, they're ridicuously bureaucratic; the only gave out "official transcripts" by snail mail. Turns out one of the programs I applied to wanted that hard copy. I had a scanned version that my study abroad program sent me, but when I asked their admissions folks, I got a different answer every time about whether that would be sufficient.

 

Long story short, I had to pay a good chunk of change to have it sent quickly because they couldn't make up their minds. I wish I'd just ordered the hard copy original directly from the school way sooner; would've cost less money & sanity.

[Loric]

Did school A award grades for the classes at school B?

 

If so, i'm betting you'd be fine. I think it's the matter of if it was an "exchange" in the sense that the two schools are paired and thus share records and the -original- school is the one who actually assigned your grades, or if you just spent a semester at another college.. be it Burbank, BFE, or Brisbane. Then you need to get a transcript from the second school.

[Maziana]

No, it school B assigned the grades. :/ Thanks for the advice; I guess I will contact B now.

[Maziana]

An update for those in a similar position:

 

The University of Akron just told me my the certified photocopies would suffice. So this might be a thing where individual programs differ; thus I will ask admissions for other graduate programs that I apply to. 

 

Here's my email, so you can be sure that your situation is similar:

 

I have a question with regards to official transcripts. I studied abroad for a semester, and sent a transcript from that abroad university to my home university (where I completed my Bachelor's). My home university offers their service in sending certified photocopies of that transcript to graduate programs. My question is, may I send a certified photocopy of the transcript from my home university, or must I contact the abroad university to directly send a transcript to Akron's graduate programs? Thank you.

 

Their response: 

 

Please be advised that because your home university offers the service of certified copies of the original transcripts, the certified copies will suffice.

[stereopticons]

I actually stopped listing my study abroad program because a) it was only a summer program, so I only took 2 classes, b.) the classes were not reported to my home university and were not relevant to my degree (or any future degree I might pursue in my field) and c) my study abroad university wanted 50 euro (roughly $65) for ONE transcript. Most schools I contacted the first round of applications didn't care about my study abroad transcripts since the classes weren't relevant.

Edited September 17, 2013 by stereopticons