It’s that time of year again; everyone is applying for scholarships.  Our parents bug us to apply for as many scholarships as we can in hopes of receiving even just one that could relieve some of the financial strain caused by paying college tuition.
These applications can be time-consuming because many require letters of recommendation, essays or a personal statement, some type of portfolio, and the worst part — a transcript. Right about now, you might be asking why submitting a simple copy of your transcript would be the worst part of that awfully long list of things you have to do. 
If you have started applying for several scholarships like I, then you’ve probably noticed the rise in transcript prices from $7 to $15, effective last August. Oh, and I forgot to mention, this doesn’t even include sending the transcript.  If you need it mailed or faxed somewhere, tack on an additional $15 for a total of $30 for a single transcript.  I discovered this when I went to the Registrar’s Office last week to pick up two transcripts, but thankfully mine did not have to be mailed. As if this doesn’t sound bad enough, if you are paying with a debit or credit card, there is an additional 2.7 percent service fee added. What, like raising the price by $8 wasn’t enough to cover that service charge?
Well, then you think, “OK — I guess I’ll pay with cash to avoid this service charge.”  Nope, you can’t do that either because the office doesn’t accept cash.  Apparently, the only way to avoid this fee is to order your transcript online with Transcripts on Demand. Well, unless you knew all this, then you probably already spent your time going to the Registrar’s Office to find out this piece of information.
While complaining about a few extra dollars may seem like a waste of breath to some of you reading this, think about how many transcripts you are going to have to send out by the time you graduate. I have already needed about five or six, and I am only in my second year.  That money can add up quickly, and, in this economic recession, everyone is trying to hang onto every dollar one can save.
Raising the price discourages students from applying for scholarships because they run the risk of losing that $15 or $30 getting an official transcript if they do not get the scholarship.  Unless I feel like I have a pretty good shot at getting the scholarship, I’m not going to waste my time or my money on a transcript which, after submitting the application, I will never see again.
Besides scholarships, students need transcripts to apply to graduate schools, law schools, medical schools, etc.  The last thing they should be worrying about when choosing which schools to apply to is how much money they are wasting in transcript fees. The application process for these institutions is stressful enough as it is.
What are we really even paying for to have an “official” copy of a transcript?  Well, to me it just looks like a piece of paper with your grades on it and an envelope that says, “transcript enclosed.” Wow, that really sounds like $15 well spent. 
Some universities provide transcripts to its students for free. At Louisiana State University, the first two transcripts per day are free, and each additional transcript after that is $5.  Now I don’t expect the transcripts to be free, because I realize providing free transcripts would be a loss to the university because of the cost of the paper, ink and postage.  However, the price of the transcript should reflect the cost for the supplies, which is maybe only $2, if that.
I write all this not to offend anyone but instead to shed some light on something that really needs to be changed.  If someone in the Registrar’s Office is reading this right now, I hope you seriously take this problem into consideration. 
Tacking on extra money for a service that already costs too much is going to get noticed.  I noticed, and now I am not the only one.
Megan McKeown is a junior majoring in communication. She can be contacted at [email protected].