Students in the class of 2011 will be the last to carry manila envelopes with transcript request forms to the office before application deadlines. That’s because starting in 2011, Paly will submit students’ transcripts to colleges online.
The Palo Alto High School administration has contracted with an electronic transcript provider and intends to submit seniors’ transcripts to colleges electronically starting second semester of this year, according to Assistant Principal Kim Diorio.
The change to electronic transcripts has been delayed because of technical difficulties as the district switched to Infinite Campus.
Diorio cited students’ concerns as well as college’s preferences as reasons for contracting with the transcript provider, Docufide.
“We wanted kids to know that their transcripts are reaching colleges,” Diorio said. “It’s kind of the way the world is heading. We want to go electronic because it’s less cumbersome for students.”
Under the new system, students will be able to submit their transcript request forms to the guidance office online. The guidance office will process the request and then submit it to Docufide, Diorio said.
A few students in the past have received letters from colleges saying their paper transcripts have not been received under the current system, Diorio said. This is often because transcripts are misfiled in admissions offices or are not delivered on time.
“Colleges actually prefer to get it electronically,” Diorio said.
Currently, seniors wishing to apply to college submit a transcript request form to the guidance office. The guidance office then mails an official transcript to the colleges that the student requests. Registrar Suzie Brown processes the majority of this paperwork.
Once it takes effect Docufide will collect data about Paly in addition to seniors’ transcripts, according to Diorio. It can then send the data to colleges in a digital form that the colleges can customize to suit their preferences. For example, some colleges choose to re-calculate GPAs according to their own formula.
The administration had intended to have the electronic transcripts system functioning in time for early decision applicants to submit transcripts, but technical difficulties with the district’s Infinite Campus server made this impossible, Diorio said.
“The plan was to start using electronic transcripts at the beginning of the year,” Diorio said. “We trained our staff for the system on Aug. 12.”
The old district server, SASI, malfunctioned in transferring data to the new server, Infinite Campus.
“It wasn’t calculating GPAs correctly and it wasn’t putting information in comment boxes,” Diorio said.
The guidance office and administration are ready to work with the new system.
“We’re all ready to go, Diorio said. We’re just waiting for Infinite Campus to create a proper template. I’m now saying it will be ready by Dec. 1.”