Transcript Course Titles Missing

[MaytheSchwartzBeWithYou]

Hi there, 

I'm applying for Fall 2017 PhD admission, and am submitting both undergraduate and master's transcripts. A good number of my master's degree courses were "special topics" classes - that is, courses that use the same course number every year, but cover varied specific field interests. However, I was surprised to find that my final transcript does not include course titles for these classes, and it seems very difficult to obtain them. One or two of my PhD applications require a listing of previous pertinent coursework, and I am concerned it will harm my chances of acceptance if I can't retrieve these course titles.

I've already spoken with my prior university department, and they apparently don't keep a record on file of the special course topics each year. Likewise, the university registrar has said it would require an extensive amount of work to go back and research the course titles for my transcript (they did not seem willing to do this). I have some idea of what courses I took (this was at least three years ago) and could probably guess on a few (so I could likely create a partial coursework list), but nothing complete.

Can anyone offer advice about my situation?  Thanks so much in advance!

[TakeruK]

What you are describing is normal and you don't have to worry. All of the "special topics" classes I've ever taken only appeared on my transcript as "Special Topics in Astronomy" or "Special Topics in Planetary Science" etc. I don't think you are expected to have these course titles on your transcript.

When my PhD schools asked for a listing of pertinent coursework, you are able to just enter them directly into the application or create a PDF of the coursework. You don't have to have the exact course title if you can't remember it. However, for the future, for you and anyone else reading this, I highly highly recommend saving a copy of your course syllabus. I've used old syllabi to retrieve course titles and I (and my friends who took the same course) have used them to show to a graduate school that we have already completed some pre-req and that allowed us to get some courses waived. 

For your specific situation: Can you ask your friends who took the same classes if they remembered the course titles? Can you ask your former professors (most transcripts list who taught the course)? Do you have any old materials from the class that can help you determine what they called the class? Did these courses have websites and are they archived somewhere?

[Crucial BBQ]

I agree with TakeruK;  professors would likely have copies of those syllabi specific to the sections took.  

[MaytheSchwartzBeWithYou]

Thank you to both of you! Your comments are something of a relief, as I feel the university seems unwilling to help me track down these course titles. I'm going to look into some of my old files, as well as try and contact professors - unfortunately, as I'm no longer a student I don't have access to course syllabi.

:-)

[rising_star]

6 hours ago, MaytheSchwartzBeWithYou said:

Your comments are something of a relief, as I feel the university seems unwilling to help me track down these course titles.

Try to think of this from their perspective: Departments run multiple special topics courses each year. Multiple that by the number of departments on campus and then the number of students who take one such course and perhaps you can start to see why the university isn't trying to track down these course titles for you. It's also the case at many institutions that since those course titles aren't in the online system, they would have to go through and contact every professor themselves (the same as you). They're busy people so doing that for every student applying to grad school would amount to a full-time job for someone!

[MaytheSchwartzBeWithYou]

17 hours ago, rising_star said:

Try to think of this from their perspective: Departments run multiple special topics courses each year. Multiple that by the number of departments on campus and then the number of students who take one such course and perhaps you can start to see why the university isn't trying to track down these course titles for you. It's also the case at many institutions that since those course titles aren't in the online system, they would have to go through and contact every professor themselves (the same as you). They're busy people so doing that for every student applying to grad school would amount to a full-time job for someone!

Oh no, I think I wasn't clear. I completely get why it would be a big inconvenience for them, and don't expect them to do all this work just for me. My frustration is really with the system itself (both for the university and for applying) - I have a really hard time understanding why neither the department nor the university keeps a log somewhere, as I can't be the only student with this issue. Course listings are required for a number of applications, and while I'm perfectly comfortable matching up the years/professors/titles to my own record, at least having a generalized list by year they could hand out would make things so much easier. I would just think the department, at least, would need these sorts of records for their own use. 

Perhaps not!

Edited August 2, 2016 by MaytheSchwartzBeWithYou