Every fall, several freshmen are surprised to learn they cannot register for classes because ASU does not have a record of their final high school transcripts, said Director of Undergraduate Admissions Timothy Desch.
But this year, some students did not discover they were ineligible to register for classes until their pre-registration requests were denied - after an adviser had cleared them to register.
High school and transfer students admitted to ASU before the end of a semester are informed they must send a final transcript from their former school before they can be unconditionally admitted and eligible to register for classes for their second semester, Desch said.
The Undergraduate Admissions Office sends two reminder letters to students still conditionally admitted during the summer, he added.
"For someone to fail to send one in means they failed to follow through on three reminders," Desch said.
Of the 11,000 new students admitted to ASU for the 2003 fall semester, 5,160 were still conditionally admitted the 21st day of the semester, Desch said.
Interior design freshman Nicole Palumbo was surprised to learn her pre-registration request was denied because ASU did not have her final high school transcript.
"I was mad," she said. "I was pretty sure that I had mailed one in, but I guess not. I wish they had told me sooner."
However, an absent transcript is not always the student's fault.
Business freshman Lee Glickstein also discovered his pre-registration request was not approved after an adviser told him he was cleared to register for classes for the spring semester.
Glickstein said his high school has a record of his transcript being sent to ASU on June 17.
But the University has no record of receiving Glickstein's final transcript. Glickstein requested the transcript to be sent on two separate occasions since the beginning of the semester.
"[My high school] sent it twice in three weeks. [ASU] probably has three transcripts now," Glickstein said.
Desch acknowledged that transcripts sometimes do get lost.
However, ASU processes more than 35,000 applications for undergraduate admission and 100,000 transcripts every year.
While there is no way to track how many of these transcripts are misplaced, Desch said the number is "remarkably few" when considering the number of documents the Undergraduate Admissions Office receives every year.
"We try very diligently not to misplace or lose transcripts," he said.
Reminders to send ASU a final transcript are not distributed after this point, although the Undergraduate Admissions Office may begin sending e-mail reminders to students who have not been unconditionally admitted to ASU, he added.
The system was never designed to allow students to register for second semester classes without being unconditionally admitted, Desch said.
"I think we need to close the loop," he said.
The Undergraduate Admissions Office may meet with the advising committee to make sure it is understood that students may be cleared to register for classes after they have been unconditionally admitted, Desch said.
Reach the reporter at amanda.keim@asu.edu.
