A high school transcript is a detailed record of your high school career. It should include:

• student demographics

• courses taken and completed

• credits earned from completed courses

• grades received

• GPA (grade point average)

• extracurricular activities

• achievement test scores (SAT/ACT)

Academic ranking

High school academic ranking (or, class rank) compares a student's cumulative GPA against fellow classmates' GPAs. This commonly result in either a percentile (90th percentile) or a ratio (top fifth of graduating class).

Many colleges see academic ranking as an important part of the application process. Despite this fact, only about 45% of high schools in America practice class ranking, public schools being more likely than private schools to rank their students. Because of this, colleges are looking to other sources to estimate a student's academic ranking, such as standardized test scores.

Homeschoolers need not worry

Today, most colleges look kindly upon homeschoolers, allowing them to be eligible for all sorts of benefits the same as other students. These benefits include financial aid, scholarships and other helpful programs.

An advantage that homeschoolers have is their well-rounded education. Focusing on those areas as a supplement to the transcript is essential to creating a solid application.