Transcript - Understanding the Transcript

An overview of the components featured on UW–Madison transcripts.

Transcript Components

Your transcript is the official record of your UW–Madison academic history, including courses taken, grades received, and degrees that have been awarded. Below are the different components that constitute your transcript.

Career

Career name is displayed at the top of every page. Each career is listed on a separate page in this order:
  1. Undergraduate
  2. Graduate
  3. Law
  4. Medicine
  5. Pharmacy
  6. Veterinary
  7. Special Student

Degrees awarded

All degrees earned, in any career, are displayed at the top of the first page of every career along with:
  • Confer date(s)
  • Degree GPA
  • Majors
  • Degree honors (if applicable)

Degree honors

Applicable degree honors are displayed beneath the corresponding degree at the top of the first page of each career in which the student has been enrolled.

The language used to describe degree honors varies:
  • Eligible undergraduate students who have at least 60 UW–Madison credits completed (residence credits) and whose cumulative grade point average placed them in the top 20% of their graduating class will have “Graduated with Distinction” indicated.
  • Eligible undergraduate students in the College of Agricultural & Life Sciences, School of Human Ecology, and School of Pharmacy who meet the criteria for Graduated with Distinction and rank in the top 5% of their graduated class will have “Graduated with Highest Distinction” indicated.
  • Upon recommendation of a department to the Dean, eligible undergraduate students who have not earned the Honors Degree in the College of Letters and Science may earn:
    • Distinction in the Major for outstanding work in the major and passing a comprehensive examination on that work
    • Thesis of Distinction for writing an exceptionally good or original thesis
  • Eligible Law School students will have the Latin honors indicated as follows:
    • Cum laude: a cumulative GPA of 3.35 to 3.64 on reported 4.3-scale letter grades
    • Magna cum laude: a cumulative GPA of 3.65 to 3.84 on reported 4.3-scale letter grades
    • Summa cum laude: a cumulative GPA of 3.85 or better on reported 4.3-scale letter grades
  • Undergraduate students may also have honors posted recognizing their participation in Honors Programs. The following honors programs exist at the undergraduate degree/major level, by school/college:
The Degrees Awarded page with an orange box around Degree Honors

GER satisfied

This is displayed on the first page of the undergraduate career before the undergraduate record. It indicates which General Education requirements are satisfied (excluding Ethnic Studies).
For information about GER: https://gened.wisc.edu/.

GER satisfied box showing satisfied requirements

Declared plans by term

Each term header shows declared major(s) options, honors, minors, and certificates as of that term, providing a term-by-term declaration history.
  1. Spring 2018-2019: A general BS degree with no major.
    Declared plan

  2. Summer 2019: The program and major are Applied Math and Engineering Physics.
    Declared plan

  3. Fall 2019-2020: The program/major stayed the same, but the student added two certificates.
    Declared plan

Transfer/test credits

Transfer, test, and other credits display with the term in which the credit was articulated/posted.
Transfer and test credits

Term and cumulative statistics

Term and cumulative summary statistics are displayed after each term.
  • UW–Madison Term/Cum Summary: Credits taken at UW–Madison in the term/cum.
  • Adv Stg Term/Cum Summary: Test or transfer credits in the term/cum.
  • Combined Term/Cum Summary: Both UW–Madison and test/transfer credits in the term/cum.
  • GPA: Only courses attempted at UW–Madison count toward your GPA. All grades in all attempted courses are included in grade point calculations. Courses, credits and grades attempted within the same career (e.g. Undergraduate, Graduate, Law, etc.) are all included in a student's GPA for that career. 
  • Attempted: The number of credits you’ve enrolled in for the term/cum.
  • Earned: The number of credits you’ve completed in the term/cum.
  • GPA Units: The number of credits counted toward your GPA in the term/cum.
  • Points: The number of points calculated after a course is graded. Points correspond to grades as follows:
    • A: 4
    • AB: 3.5
    • B: 3
    • BC: 2.5
    • C: 2
    • D: 1
    • F: 0
    • NR: 0
Term and cumulative statistics

geBLC

Courses with geBLC properties (otherwise known as geBLC codes) will display the relevant code(s) after the course name.
The alpha codes indicate how courses count toward undergraduate student’s requirements:
  • General education
  • Ethnic studies
  • Breadth
  • Level
  • Credit (L&S)


While the geBLC codes denote general education categories for undergraduate students only, if a course carries a geBLC value, it will always display, even if the student enrolled in the course is a graduate, professional, or special student.

For more information about geBLC codes, see Key to geBLCX Codes.

geBLC codes for three courses

The image above shows three courses and the corresponding geBLC codes. They correspond as follows:

  • AFROAMER 272 (eSEC): Ethnic Studies, Social Science, Elementary, Credit (L&S)
  • BIOLOGY 151 (BECx r): Biological Science, Elementary, Credit (L&S), crosslisted, Quantitative Reasoning Part B
  • MATH 221 (NIC r): Natural Science, Intermediate, Credits (L&S), Quantitative Reasoning Part B

Note: If the General Education Communication Part B designation is assigned only at the section level (and not the course level), it will not appear on a student’s transcript. Please consult the student’s degree audit.


Crosslisted course

Crosslisted courses are listed as a lowercase "x" appearing immediately following the geBLC codes (or where they should appear).

A crosslisted course is a course offered under more than one departmental heading.
An example of a crosslisted course


Repeated course

Repeated courses are listed as a lower-case "x" appearing immediately before the course name.

A repeated course is a course taken more than once.
An example of a repeated course


Honors in class

Courses taken for honors display the appropriate honors designation as a course sub-line.

  • Honors Optional: (%)
  • Honors Only Courses: (H)
  • Accelerated Honors: (!)

An example of honors in a class


Topic course

This displays the course title and the topic as a course sub-line.
An example of a topic course designation


Drop/Withdrawal

Courses dropped and term withdrawal after the Drop/Withdrawal date will appear along with the action date.

  • In the following image, the student dropped ENVIR ST 319 on 01/30/2019 and has a withdrawal date of 03/27/2019. An additional course (ENGLISH 169) was dropped when the withdrawal was processed.
    Boxes highlight a withdrawal date with drops

  • In the following image, the student has a withdrawal date of 05/26/2019 and was not enrolled in any classes when the withdrawal was processed.
    A box outlines a withdrawal date with no courses.

Academic standing actions

Academic standing actions will be displayed in the relevant term footer. The last action will always show.
Academic standing


Term honor

Term honor will be displayed in the relevant term footer for undergraduate and law students. The language used to describe the term honor varies.

A student who receives any of the above term honors is considered to be on the University’s Dean’s List for a given term. More information about term honors/dean’s list can be found here.

A box outlines a term honor.


Career totals

The total number of credits/points and GPA for all courses taken within a given career (undergraduate, graduate, law, etc.) will be displayed at the bottom of the last page of each career.

  • Advanced Standing Credits: Test or transfer credits.
  • Cum Credits: Cumulative credits taken at UW–Madison.
  • Cum GPA Credits: Cumulative GPA credits taken at UW–Madison. All grades in all attempted courses are included in grade point calculations.
  • Cum Grade Points: Cumulative points calculated after a course is graded. Points correspond to grades as follows:
    • A: 4
    • AB: 3.5
    • B: 3
    • BC: 2.5
    • C: 2
    • D: 1
    • F: 0
    • NR: 0
  • GPA: Only courses attempted at UW–Madison count toward your GPA. All grades in all attempted courses are included in grade point calculations.

Career totals


Non-course milestones

Non-course milestones are displayed at the bottom of the last page of the relevant career. Degree progress benchmarks that are not solely dependent on course completion include: Remedial math, Engineering, Graduate student progress.

For more information, contact the relevant school/college.
Non-course milestones


Memoranda

Memoranda are displayed at the bottom of the last page of the relevant career. They include notes about changes to the student record, academic standing actions, or other exceptions that have been authorized by the academic dean’s offices.

Examples include: Grade changes, GER requirements not met, disciplinary/academic standing actions.

All notes under memoranda display on an unofficial transcript. Active disciplinary standing actions will display on an official transcript until cleared or expired.
Memoranda



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OwnerDanielle C.GroupOffice of the Registrar
Created2019-12-10 12:13:41Updated2024-01-23 15:07:11
SitesDoIT Help Desk, Office of the Registrar
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