If you’re someone who helps to facilitate the delivery of academic records during pivotal times in students’ lives, it is of utmost importance to have clarity about admissions office preferences and how they affect record processing through Parchment. Undergraduate and graduate admissions offices continually make decisions about their processes and document delivery preferences. The decision around electronic versus paper delivery not only affects applicants from the thousands of high schools that use Parchment Send, and many other document delivery services that deliver to admissions offices through Parchment Receive. It is rare, but at times a college might opt out of receiving electronic transcripts through Parchment. Here is what that means to counseling offices, administrators, and students.
What are the delivery options that an admissions office can choose from?
Every institution makes a choice between receiving academic records electronically through Parchment, email, paper mail, fax, or some other electronic delivery method.
Will there continue to be a free Parchment Receive service?
Yes. We are committed and continue to support a free version of the Parchment Receive service that admissions offices use to collect transcripts and other admissions documents. These documents come from schools that use Parchment Send, as well as schools that use Partner Services, such as Naviance eDocs, MaiaLearning, XAP, and BridgeU. Our free service supports the downloading of electronic transcripts sent through a secure network with student tracking.
What happens if a college elects to only receive transcripts via paper mail?
While we think electronic delivery is the best experience for students, we of course respect a college’s decision and want to assure Parchment Send schools that your students are still able to deliver to any admissions destination. Your students will see the institution in the destination list they search when placing a request. When selected, the appropriate postal address for admissions will be auto-populated. *Your office will fulfill as usual. And Parchment will mail the transcript as we do for you in serving many destinations around the world, including any admissions office, employer, military branch, etc.. The process for you and your students remains unchanged.
**Please Note** that schools using Parchment Partner Services need to consult with that Partner on how to deliver transcripts Print and Mail.
Are transcripts mailed through Parchment considered official?
As a part of our contract with high schools, Parchment is an authorized legal agent, enabling us to deliver official paper records on their behalf. Transcripts that Parchment prints and mails on the school’s behalf are considered official.
Curious about Parchment Receive service options available to Admissions Offices?
We’ve consolidated the features that go beyond collecting and are more about how a college processes what they receive into our premium service. This change allows us to serve all admissions offices — low volume receivers and high volume receivers alike — with a service that fits their needs and can continue to be improved and supported over time. You can learn more about the changes here.
We believe strongly that making the student and counselor experience stress-free and streamlined is the top priority for all stakeholders involved in the admissions process. Parchment is always able to send to any destination worldwide, helping to turn those hard-earned credentials into opportunities.
