I have always loved the word labyrinth. I first used it in a college paper to capture the complicated storyline of a book that forced me to re-read passages again and again to follow along. By using the word in my paper, I felt like I reclaimed my confidence as a reader and writer.
In many ways, when the college admissions process becomes too complicated, it feels like a labyrinth, deliberately confusing and unnecessarily complex.
STARS, which stands for Self-reported Transcript and Academic Record System, is the college admissions version of a labyrinth. Instead of having the school counselor send a student's transcript to each college where the student applied, many colleges now require the student to do the heavy lifting. Students have to manually enter every single course, grade, and credit on their transcript into a clunky, archaic platform that looks like it hasn't been updated since I had my last child 13 years ago.
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The onus is on the student. STARS is not intuitive. It can be very difficult for a student, who is navigating this maze for the first time, to figure out how to accurately and honestly recreate their transcript in STARS.
Yes, STARS offers a quick and easy option to simply upload your transcript and it will supposedly and magically translate into what STARS wants. Don't be fooled, though. This is not completely accurate and needs more advancement before I recommend that a student use it.
In the meantime, here are my recommendations on how to use STARS:
- Have your most recent/current transcript on hand.
- Create a split screen to see the transcript side-by-side with STARS. It helps you avoid making mistakes.
- Enter information in the order it appears on your transcript. That usually means chronological order (middle school courses if applicable, 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade).
- Enter your coursework, grades, and credits as they appear on the transcript. If there are abbreviations in the title, enter it with abbreviations. If your grades have +'s or -'s, enter the grades exactly as they are listed on the transcript. If your GPA has three digits past the decimal point, enter every last digit.
- Despite entering your coursework in the order that it appears on the transcript, STARS creates its own order, grouping semester, year-long, and summer courses together. Don't be alarmed. There's nothing you can do about this.
- For senior year courses, enter "IP" (in progress) for your grades.
- Use the "Back to Summary" button to review your work.
- You will need to link your STARS account to a college's admissions portal. That adds time. If a college uses STARS, submit your application a few weeks in advance of the deadline. It can take several days and often several weeks to get admissions portal information from a college after you apply.
- Be honest, accurate, and meticulous when entering information. If there is a discrepancy between what you enter and what's listed on your official transcript, you will need to explain it and this could lead to an offer of admission being rescinded.
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You might be wondering why colleges are using STARS if it adds more work onto the student's plate. The reason is that it makes things a lot easier for colleges to view transcripts from all over the world in a consistent way. It's also easier for the colleges to manipulate the data they need and want.
One of the biggest surprises families realize about the college admissions process is that it's surprisingly not student-friendly. Every policy made by a college is done to benefit them. Every additional platform, like STARS, is built to be profitable. As new technology is introduced, STARS needs to step up. If not, I hope every student has someone in their high school or community who knows how to navigate the labyrinth of STARS.
