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Comment by Scoundreller | Hacker News Reader

Heh, that euro approach to education can create a real nightmare for Europeans moving to North America.

US: “we require transcripts sent directly from the university”

Euro university: “no, we don’t have a portal for students to request transcripts and mail them to any address they request. It’s the student’s responsibility to keep a copy of their own transcripts each year.

[9 calls/emails later] If you reallyyyyyy need us to do something for you, fiiiiiine, you can pickup a copy at this office (except during summer). If you’re overseas, send a friend to pick it up, what’s the problem? What do you mean nobody but us can touch it and you can’t just send it to them yourself?

Why are you being so difficult about this? This is way more than anybody else ever requires from us”

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I've never heard about such a concept. Do American universities offer that as a button click online? Do you mean transcripts to apply to grad school, or jobs in companies?

Getting the university to mail something in my name to somewhere, for my own purposes seems nonsense from my European view. Like what do they have to do with a third party?

Of course they will certify and stamp any documents that state objective facts about my studies (during opening hours, after waiting through a long queue). And probably if you explain the things and it sounds important like you git accepted at

That said, things do differ between countries. In Hungary most universities switched from physical booklets where the profs had to physically sign each grade they gave, to an online system about 15 years ago. So no need to collect copies physically now.

In Germany, universities vary in their practices but you can at least print out a proof of enrollment yourself which includes a verification code that third parties can check.

But I think it's possible to get such things done in the end but it will need a lot of explanations and appearing in person.

In 2012, I ordered my transcripts from my university (from the 90s) and they sent me a copy. I didn't ask them to send it anywhere else. I was expecting a fee, but there wasn't any (perhaps just because I was sending it to myself?). There was no portal to click, but I emailed in, and had a back and forth email with someone, then got it in the mail a couple weeks later.

It was surprising to me too when I encountered it, but yes, at least at my college, in the rare instance that you needed an "Official Transcript", you filled out a form on a portal that included the address for it to be sent to. I think we got three for free and then they were like $15 a pop or something. I have no idea why they did this and did not just stamp/seal it and expect me to mail it myself.

The goal is to prevent fraud. They don't want people passing fake transcripts.

What if you also fake the envelope and pretend that the sender is the university?

> Getting the university to mail something in my name to somewhere, for my own purposes seems nonsense from my European view. Like what do they have to do with a third party?

They’re a business and it’s a useful service.

Good example for the above comments on how certain business practices can make people have expectations that can be interpreted as entitled

I get it. Trying to highlight the difference in attitude. Almost all universities in Europe are public universities (state owned) so they are not seen as businesses and we don't consider them service providers in that sense.

> Do American universities offer that as a button click online? ... transcripts to apply to grad school, or jobs in companies?

I believe yes, usually. You pay a small fee, like $25, for the service, of course. With some schools you may have to do it over the phone and/or mail a cheque.

The official transcript would be needed for further study like grad school, or for transferring credit if you transfer schools. I've personally never had a company ask to verify my degree or grades, though I suppose if I was a new grad from a prestigious school applying to a big-name firm, they might check. (I think there is a commercial service most schools use for this, which confirms basic things like graduation date and degree.)

The rules are because the school assumes that if it didn't come directly from the other school, that you could have altered it. Although I've also heard of schools providing sealed, tamper-evident, embossed envelopes to the students, and as long as you don't open that inner envelope it would be accepted as authentic by the other school. They refer to these as "official transcript" and the kind that are unsealed are called "unofficial transcript."

> print out a proof of enrollment yourself which includes a verification code that third parties can check.

This would be the "modern" way of doing such a thing, assuming you have at least say, 2000-era technology, but the way they have it set up is a custom that started probably 50+ years ago and to my knowledge no colleges have yet gotten together to establish a standard, so that they would be able to accept them from each other and verify them.

> The official transcript would be needed for further study like grad school, or for transferring credit if you transfer schools.

Also for applying for professional licenses. Some government fields that pay more if you have a Masters or whatever may want verification, especially if you're one of the non-locals.

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