Adding a Note on Transcripts

[Cambienta]

I did a search on this question, but didn't find anything helpful... probably because this is something which doesn't exist.

I'm currently applying to master's programs in computer science, and generally feel good. When I was in high school, though, I took a bunch of extra-curricular classes at the local community college in chemistry and biology. This was for fun, since I was planning to study something unrelated and wanted to broaden my horizons. However, for a variety of reasons (health issue, and overloading myself), I did very poorly in these. It didn't matter for my undergraduate (and I didn't even use the credits, actually, in undergrad; still earned >130 units at my institution), but now I'm concerned since I imagine that there's no way schools I'm applying to would know that these were taken in high school.

So, I'm sending these transcripts to all the schools, and a friend of mine suggested adding a "note" to my applications giving a timeline which basically specifies that those classes were taken in high school on top of an already full high school workload, etc. However, I've never heard of this "adding a note" thing before. Pretty sure they didn't mean that I should include it in my statement of purpose...so...is that even a thing? What would you recommend I do to address this in my applications?

Apologies if this question sounds totally ridiculous.

(Unfortunately, the number of courses I took at the college is non-negligible, otherwise I wouldn't be so concerned. I was a full-time student at both the college and the high school during my junior and senior years, and completed ~91 units while there (2.95 GPA at the college). Got an associate's. Ach, high school mistakes.)

[napoleon87]

It is a thing.  I have an issue where my graduation year doesn't line up with my dates attended, primarily due to an non-resolvable clericle error.  I'm writing a short, explanatory statement to supplement my transcripts.  You could do this to explain which courses you took during high school.

 

Depending on the school, many applications have a section for "additional uploads", where you can submit this.  To be safe, I'd email the grad office at each school asking where would be the best place to include an explanatory statement.  I'm finding that some schools prefer you upload this as though it were an additional transcript, though it varies.

 

Good luck!

[pentaprism]

Use it to your advantage.

 

In your SOP, there should be a paragraph about how you are prepared for grad school; in that paragraph, insert something like this: "to explore and to prepare for what I would do for undergrad and grad studies, during highschool, I took a lot of classes at XXX, a local comunity college.  I did not do extremely well in some of those classes, in particular those in chemistry and in biology, but I discovered that I liked computer science, and decided to pursue it....."

Edited November 22, 2014 by pentaprism