Transcript Fees

Transcript fees are here, woo!  Lots of people upset.  Most school charge for this sort of thing, but SMCM never used to which was kinda cool I guess.  So the new fees are in part due to the service Transcript Ordering which lets you know via email when your transcripts are sent out and such.  Transcripts now cost $5, and Transcript Ordering, which provides several services (online order tracking, 24/7 access, paperless, blah blah blah), adds another $2.50 charge.  So if you want to apply to two schools, it will cost $15 now.  Not sure why you would want to send two transcripts to one place, but you can do that too.

I asked Susan Bennet why this costs money, and this was her response (yes she writes emails in Comic Sans):

Hi Ken,

Thank you for your interest in this service.  The cost for providing transcripts is a process that several SMCM administrators have been studying and evaluating for quite some time.  The President’s cabinet gave approval for this charge over a year ago.  We decided to wait until we could offer the convenient transcript request process before initiating the transcript fee.

Although Transcript Ordering collects the $5.00 per transcript fee, these monies are forwarded to SMCM. Transcript Ordering is a non-profit organization and charges the $2.50 per address to cover their processing fees.

Transcript Ordering only provides an electronic way for individuals to request transcripts and to receive email updates of their request. When the Registrar’s Office receives the transcript requests electronically, we will in turn process the transcripts as we have done before.  That is, we still print the official transcript on official paper, seal it in an official envelope and mail it to the requested recipient.  Or, if the individual requests an unofficial transcript, we will email as a pdf, fax or mail as requested.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Take care,

Didn't really answer the question as to why there is now a $5 charge for transcripts (other than that people decided it would be a good idea).  The $2.50 fee is a third party group that takes in all of the transcript requests and sends them to the school.  Not really sure what the purpose of that is, but I don't work in the Registrar's Office so I don't know how that all works.  I'd rather not pay $2.50 and just assume that my transcript was in fact sent out.

Either way, lots of people seem upset about this/have found something to whine about.