SOPHAS transcript update for international students

[parapluie]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi guys,

First of all, merry Christmas and happy new year! We're almost there!! ~sigh~

I just have another quick question about the transcript updates: because of my international status, I can't edit my marks on SOPHAS because under "GPA calculations" there's nothing there. Has anyone had experience with this before? Do I just send SOPHAS an updated transcript and notify WES separately?

Also, in terms of schools that don't use SOPHAS, like UNC-Chapel Hill and Columbia, can I still update my marks or are they only interested in receiving additional transcripts AFTER acceptance?

Thank you so much for all your help! Take care and happy holidays! (Oh yes, and GOOD LUCK!)

 

[parapluie]

hi parapluie sophas doesn't list a GPA for international students. Send an email to SOPHAS explaining your transcript has been updated and send them an updated copy. I would also suggest letting the schools you've applied to know if there is a discernible different to the new transcript that could make or break your application and offer to send a copy directly.

Word of warning, WES is an absolute joke! They managed to calculate a completely erroneous GPA for me (as they have done for countless others) and even somehow invented courses that I'd never taken and gave me substandard grades for them! When I tried to contact them it was impossible to speak to someone and their system was automated. In the end, I took my chances and told the school I applied to to ignore the WES evaluation and to take my original transcripts as they were. Thankfully I was accepted but no thanks to WES! You never know though, some people have had undeservedly boosted GPAs with WES so it could go either way!

Hi splik, thank you so much for your words of advice! SOPHAS replied back to my e-mail a few days ago and basically told me to contact each school individually and ask them what they want. I applied to quite a few schools and just sending out these e-mails took me almost two hours. ~sigh~ The admissions ppl are not back in their offices yet, but hopefully they'll reply soon.

WES. The one time I called them--because their application requirements were just so damn confusing--it took them half an hour to put me through to a representative. The girl sounded really unamused over the phone but hey, at least I got to talk to a real live person right? My evaluation was not *too* weird, but it did drop by 0.1 in terms of my overall GPA. Is this considered normal?

 

[malyafi]

hi parapluie sophas doesn't list a GPA for international students. Send an email to SOPHAS explaining your transcript has been updated and send them an updated copy. I would also suggest letting the schools you've applied to know if there is a discernible different to the new transcript that could make or break your application and offer to send a copy directly.

Word of warning, WES is an absolute joke! They managed to calculate a completely erroneous GPA for me (as they have done for countless others) and even somehow invented courses that I'd never taken and gave me substandard grades for them! When I tried to contact them it was impossible to speak to someone and their system was automated. In the end, I took my chances and told the school I applied to to ignore the WES evaluation and to take my original transcripts as they were. Thankfully I was accepted but no thanks to WES! You never know though, some people have had undeservedly boosted GPAs with WES so it could go either way!

Hello splik,
Just wondering how you were able to speak to the schools about this issue. I'm facing the same problem with WES evaluation (absolute CRAP!). Who did you speak to?

 

[Drink Water]

I am one of the folks who had to use WES. I did not have a very high expectation for its analysis, but I did it since it was one of the hoops. I think the money I paid for it was not so worth it. If you ever need to get answers from WES, I wouldn't bother spending your time being waited on the phone, especially if you are those international students in need of making international calls. Instead,

1. Go to https://www.wes.org/
2. On the bottom of the right hand corner, click on the icon "Help?"
3. Fill out the quick online form with your document ID (or whatever it is called) and ask your question there. They do get back to you within 2 days or so. It seems that their response to this online inquiry is more thorough than over the phone because it gets left in writing as a record.

Good luck!
Drink Water