Policy on transcript submission for admission

CMU-Africa considers applicants who have graduated or are in their final year of a three or four-year undergraduate degree. To assess your academic qualifications, you are required to submit your applications with transcripts showing that you have completed at least ¾ (three quarters) of your undergraduate degree program:

  • If you are in a three-year program, you should submit at least two years of transcripts and be in your final year of study by the time you start your application.
  • For a 4-year program, you must submit transcripts for at least three years of undergraduate study and be in the program's final year by the time you start your application.
  • If you pursued a diploma program before earning your bachelor's degree, you must submit all the transcripts from both programs. This also applies to candidates who attended two universities to earn their bachelor's degree.
  • If you have already completed your undergraduate studies and graduated, you must submit your final transcripts and diploma if it is available.

Difference between an official and an unofficial transcript

  • An official transcript is a complete academic record of all individual courses and grades achieved at an educational institution. The Office of the Registrar usually issues this document.
  • An unofficial transcript can be a student record obtained from an institution's self-serve web system. It should include the system's URL and print date.
Unofficial academic transcripts may be submitted for admission review; however, an official final transcript will be requested if you get admitted to the program.

Content of an academic transcript

During application verification, ensure that the document you are submitting is clear, legible and provides the following information:

  • Full name of the institution and/or letterhead or institution seal
  • Applicant’s full name
  • Program of study
  • Duration of study
  • Courses completed
  • Description of course codes (where applicable)
  • Grades & Marks/Points received (completed)
  • Grading scale
If your transcript is not in English, please submit an official, certified English translation and the original transcript. See the section below for more details.

English translation

If English is not your institution's official language of instruction, please include the original language document and a certified English translation of the transcripts and grading scale or transcript legend. Translation should be done by a certified translation service or through the registrar’s office, where possible. Transcripts translated by the applicant or anyone other than a certified translator will not be accepted. Translations of academic transcripts and course descriptions must be accurate.

Reporting your Grade Point Average (GPA) accurately

If you have transcripts from a non-US University, please use the Scholaro GPA Calculator (previously Foreign Credits GPA Calculator) to recalculate and convert your GPA to a 4.0 scale.

Do not round up the GPA to the nearest integer when recording the GPA. The reported GPA must be consistent with the GPA generated by Scholaro.

Accepted format of a digital transcript

For your transcript to be considered, please see below the required formatting guidelines:

  • Each transcript must be scanned and uploaded as a single PDF file. Only one file per institution can be uploaded (if you completed more than one degree or attended different institutions, both transcripts can be uploaded in separate files). You can combine multiple pages from the same transcript into one file. The pages MUST be ordered by academic year or semester.
  • The transcript must be scanned in its entirety (front and back pages), including the transcript legend typically printed on the back of the transcript, and be legible. Ensure that no information is cut off during scanning.
  • If the document's quality is unacceptable (the scan of the transcript file is not legible), you will be asked to resubmit your transcript.
Failure to adhere to the above criteria will make your application incomplete and eventually denied if you do not provide the required documents before the deadline.

 

Incomplete or falsified transcripts

CMU-Africa will only consider complete unofficial transcripts that are clear, legible, and certified by your institution. Providing an incomplete or falsified transcript will result in your application being incomplete and eventually denied if you fail to provide the correct documents by the deadline.

Below are the criteria that will disqualify your transcript:

  • Falsified transcripts
  • Incomplete transcripts - less than the required ¾ (three quarters) of transcripts for in-progress undergraduate studies
  • Incomplete or missing final transcripts for completed undergraduate studies
  • Missing institution’s names or letterhead
  • Missing applicants’ full names
  • Missing grades and/or marks for completed classes
  • Missing course code description
  • Missing grading scale
  • Grade or exam sheets are submitted instead of transcripts
  • Missing or unofficial English translation for transcripts issued in a language other than English. Please refer back to the section about translation for more information
  • Unclear scanned document that is illegible