What Is a Narrative Transcript?

A college transcript is an official record of your work as a student. It shows which courses you took and what grades you received. Usually, transcripts are simple and to the point.

Narrative Transcripts are different from traditional transcripts in that they are a narrative evaluation that explains your activities during the time when you were in college as opposed to just being an easy-to-glance-at list of classes and grades.

The narrative transcript usually gets written by the faculty members who advised you during your final semester at the college but sometimes information from all of your semesters gets included in the narrative transcript, thus making it quite hefty and time consuming for the reader.

Pros

• If someone is very interested in your educational experience, they can read all about it.
• If you did something really amazing in college, or had an amazing advisor who was also an eloquent writer, then you might end up with a compelling and supportive narrative.
• If you plan to work or continue to learn in an experiential environment, your narrative transcript will be recognized as familiar proof that you are an experiential learner.
• A narrative transcript can help you stand out and get noticed in application processes.

Cons

• Not everybody is going to read the narrative transcript. HR is just not that invested. They want to glance at a class title list and a GPA. They’re comparing statistics when in the hiring phase, they don’t want to read a novel about your education from years ago.
• Many hiring professionals attended traditional education and so they expect to see traditional familiarity in your transcripts.
• Most people don’t know narrative transcripts are and so you’ll have to explain yourself (which could be an opportunity).
• Some advisors don’t realize that whatever they write is going to illuminate or haunt you for the rest of your academic and professional career. For example, my undergraduate advisor, Heather Dune Macadam, casually used the word “shit” in my final narrative transcript. It’s still there, much to my chagrin. *

* At the time of earning my BA I didn’t know to review my narrative transcript. I found out what my advisor wrote when I applied to graduate school because a copy of my transcript was returned to me as part of a rejected application! After writing a letter, my undergraduate alma mater was gracious enough to only send my course list and grades as my transcript from then on.

As a student with narrative transcripts from both my graduate and undergraduate education, I can assure you that you are screwed if you have narrative transcripts! Okay, it’s not that bad. There’s crap in every institution, but with narrative transcripts that crap sticks to you forever. No, no, I’m kidding—sort of.

Simply make sure your transcripts are well written when they’re written and you should have no problems standing out as a unique candidate when you apply for future opportunities.

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