Transcript - Understanding the Transcript
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.See below the different components that constitute your transcript.
- Career
- Degrees awarded
- Degree honors
- GER satisfied
- Declared plans by term
- Transfer/test credits
- Term and cumulative statistics
- geBLC
- Crosslisted course
- Repeated course
- Honors in class
- Topic course
- Drop/Withdrawal
- Academic standing actions
- Term honor
- Career totals
- Non-course milestones
- Memoranda
Career
Career name is displayed at the top of every page.Each career is listed on a separate page in this order:
- Undergraduate
- Graduate
- Law
- Medicine
- Pharmacy
- Veterinary
- Special Student
Degrees awarded
All degrees earned, in any career, display 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 will display 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:- College of Letters and Science:
- Honors in the Liberal Arts recognizes that a prescribed honors level curriculum has been completed.
- Honors in the Major recognizes that a prescribed set of honors level coursework and a capstone project/senior honors thesis is the major has been completed.
- Comprehensive Honors recognizes completion of requirements for both Honors in the Liberal Arts and Honors in the Major.
- College of Engineering:
- Honors in the Liberal Arts recognizes completion of specified honors course requirements
- Honors in Research recognizes participation in a research project with a faculty member
- College of Agricultural and Life Sciences:
- Honors in Research recognizes completion of two research projects: an introductory project and a senior thesis project.
- Honors in the Major recognizes completion of a specified number of honors credits in a designated set of courses.
- School of Nursing Honors recognizes completion of specified honors courses, including a senior thesis.
- School of Human Ecology Honors recognizes completion of required honors coursework.
- College of Letters and Science:
GER satisfied
Displays on the first page of undergraduate career, before the undergraduate record.Indicates which General Education Requirement are satisfied (excluding Ethnic Studies).
For information about GER: https://gened.wisc.edu/
Declared plans by term
Each term header shows declared major(s) options, honors, minors and certs as of that term, providing a term-by-term declaration history.- Spring 2018-2019: General BS degree, no major.
- Summer 2019: Program and major are Applied Math and Engineering Physics.
- Fall 2019-2020: Program/Major stayed the same, added 2 certificates.
Transfer/test credits
Transfer, test and other credits display with the term in which the credit was articulated/posted.
Term and cumulative statistics
Term and cumulative summary statics display after each term.- UW-Madison Term/Cum Summary.
Credits taken in UW-Madison in term/cum. - Adv Stg Term/Cum Summary
Test or transfer credits in term/cum. - Combined Term/Cum Summary
Both UW-Madison and test/transfer credits in term/cum.
- GPA
Only courses attempted in UW-Madison are counted towards your GPA.
All grades, in all attempted courses, are included in grade point calculations. - Attempted
Number of credits you’ve enrolled in term/cum. - Earned
Number of credits you’ve completed in term/cum. - GPA Units
Number of credits counted towards your GPA in term/cum. - Points
Number of points calculated after course is graded:
Grade A AB B BC C D F NR Grade Points 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1 0 0
geBLC
Courses with geBLC properties 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)
(otherwise known as geBLC codes).
While the geBLC codes denoted 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.
geBLC decoder.
- AFROAMER 272: Ethnic Studies, Social Science, Elementary, Credit (L&S)
- BIOLOGY 151: Biological Science, Elementary, Credit (L&S), crosslisted, Quantitative Reasoning Part B
- MATH 221: Natural Science, Intermediate, Credits (L&S), Quantitative Reasoning Part B
Crosslisted course
Crosslisted courses are listed as a lower-case ‘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.
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.
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 (!)
Topic course
Displays course title and the topic as a course sub-line.
Drop/Withdrawal
Courses dropped and term withdrawal after the Drop/Withdrawal date will appear along with the action date.- Dropped class on 01/30/2019, withdrawal date 03/27/2019 (additional course dropped when withdrawal is processed)
- Withdrawal date 05/26/2019, was not enrolled in any classes when withdrawal was processed.
Academic standing actions
Academic standing actions will display in the relevant term footer. Last action will always show.
Term honor
Term honor will display in the relevant term footer for undergraduate and law students. The language used to describe term honor varies:- Eligible students in the College of Letters and Science, School of Business, School of Education and the College of Agricultural & Life Sciences are given the term honor of Dean’s List.
- Eligible students in the School of Human Ecology, College of Engineering, College of Nursing and Law School are given the term honor of Dean’s Honor List.
- Eligible students in the School of Pharmacy are given the term honor of Honor Roll or High Honor Roll.
Career totals
Total number of credits/points and GPA for for all courses taken within a given career (undergraduate, graduate, law, etc.) will display on the bottom of the last page of each career.- Advanced Standing Credits
Test or transfer credits. - Cum Credits
Cumulative credits taken in UW-Madison. - Cum GPA Credits
Cumulative GPA credits taken in UW-Madison.
All grades, in all attempted courses, are included in grade point calculations. - Cum Grade Points
Cumulative points calculated after course is graded:
Grade A AB B BC C D F NR Grade Points 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1 0 0
- GPA
Only courses attempted in UW-Madison are counted towards your GPA.
All grades, in all attempted courses, are included in grade point calculations.
Non-course milestones
Displays on the bottom of the last page of relevant career.Degree progress benchmarks that are not solely dependent on course completion.
Examples: Remedial math, Engineering, Graduate student progress.
For more information contact the relevant school/college.
Memoranda
Displays on the bottom of the last page of relevant career. Includes notes about changes to the student record, academic standing actions, or other exceptions that have been authorized by the academic dean’s offices.Examples: 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.
