What is a Mid-Year Report and How Important is It for College?

A mid-year report is completed by a high school counselor to update colleges about the academic progress of an applicant, particularly during the first half or trimester of the 12th grade. It’s an important component of the college application process as it demonstrates an applicant’s progress in terms of grades and academic commitment.

Not all postsecondary institutions require freshmen applicants to submit mid-year reports. Most of those that do ask for them include selective ones such as Harvard University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Mount Holyoke College.

Want to learn more about a mid-year report and the role it plays in college admissions? Read on.

In this post, we will discuss what a mid-year report is and whether or not it’s something that you should personally take care of like the Common App or Coalition App essay.

What is Included in the Report?

A mid-year report is a form that talks about the academic progress of a high school student. Some colleges want the mid-year report to serve as an updated transcript of the student, while others may want additional details. Either way, a mid-year report focuses on giving admissions officers an update on the applicant.

Basically, a mid-year report is a list of your courses and grades for the first semester of your senior year of high school.

Different institutions usually want different things to be included in a college applicant’s mid-year report, which they specify on their websites as well as on the Coalition App and Common App or whatever platform they use.

The following are some of the most important details a mid-year report has:

• Courses
• Grades
• GPA
• Class rank

As mentioned earlier, the pieces of information to be included in the mid-year report can vary from college to college.

For instance, it’s not uncommon for some schools to also ask about changes in a high schooler’s class schedule. Others may also want to include things such as disciplinary record or criminal status.

With the said details, college admissions officers can get a much better idea of whether or not an applicant is likely to drop classes or even drop out of school altogether, or hurt others on the campus and get into trouble with the law.

Want to have a much better idea of what sort of stuff colleges want to see in the mid-year report?

Here’s the mid-year report form that Harvard University wants to be filled out and submitted.

Mid-Year Report Deadlines

In most instances, colleges do not set specific deadlines for the submission of mid-year reports. However, they do want them to be submitted as soon as possible after the fall semester has come to an end. So, in other words, institutions that require mid-year reports prefer to have them mid- to late January to early February.

The submission of your mid-year report should be done without further delay after your transcript has been updated.

Some colleges and universities have a hard deadline as far as the submission of mid-year reports is concerned. For instance, the deadline for submission is February 15 for both Stanford University and MIT.

Meanwhile, others just want your mid-year report submitted by your high school as soon as it possibly can — Harvard surely wants it that way, while the University of Chicago wants it submitted by February 1 or as soon as possible thereafter. Middlebury College, on the other hand, says that the ideal time for the submission of the mid-year report is February 1.

And speaking of which, Middlebury is one of those postsecondary institutions that will not make any final admissions decisions without an applicant’s mid-year report in the hands of admissions officers.

It’s worth noting that the Common App and Coalition App do not send a reminder to submit the mid-year report.

Because of this, you should be aware of the mid-year report deadlines set by each of the colleges that you will apply or have applied to as well as see to it that your high school is aware of them.

Who Completes and Submits It

High school counselors are the ones tasked with completing as well as submitting mid-year reports that some colleges and universities require. In most instances, they are also the ones who submit updated transcripts and, in some situations, separate high school counselor reports, too, depending on a college’s requirements.

Every college application season, high school counselors are some of the busiest people on campus.

It’s no secret that their roles are pivotal when it comes to the selection of colleges as well as the setting of academic and career goals of high school teens preparing for their postsecondary education careers.

Also, everyone knows that high school counselors are those who write and submit counselor recommendations. As a matter of fact, colleges and universities that ask applicants to provide just one recommendation letter usually want it to come from their high school counselors — it’s rare for that one recommendation requirement to have to come from an academic teacher.

While it’s true that the submission of your mid-year report is the responsibility of your high school counselor, always keep in mind that he or she is also human and can suffer from stress and burnout and forget things.

As such, you may politely remind your high school counselor about your mid-year report via email or a phone call or even a quick trip to his or her office. But make sure first that the college indeed requires it!

How Do You Know If a College Requires a Mid-Year Report?

There are 2 ways to determine whether or not a college requires the submission of a mid-year report. First, an institution that needs a mid-year report is likely to include it in the list of requirements for first-year applicants on its website. Second, it’s indicated in the college application platform, proprietary or centralized.

Just because your classmates are required to submit mid-year reports by the colleges and universities they are applying to or have applied to doesn’t mean right away that you should follow suit.

Not all institutions of higher education include a mid-year report in the list of admission requirements.

Using the Common App to apply to colleges?

Head to the School Forms Required section — it’s where you will find everything that you will have to submit together with your application. And if a mid-year report is there, your high school counselor should take care of it. The Coalition App also provides a list of the requirements for each partner institution.

In most instances, all you have to do is access the website of the college of your choosing and check the documents you will have to submit as an incoming first-time, first-year student.

Other than knowing if you will have to submit your mid-year report, it’s also a must to determine how to submit it.

Institutions that use the Common App or Coalition App, for instance, usually require mid-year reports to be submitted via the centralized college application platform of their preference. Some colleges, however, may require a separate form to be filled out by your high school counselor and mailed to them in a certain way, traditionally or digitally.

Coordinating with your high school counselor regarding this matter can help fend off unnecessary issues.

Colleges That Require Mid Year Reports

Colleges that require the mid-year report include private institutions, especially selective ones such as the Ivy Leagues like Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania. Many small private liberal arts institutions also require mid-year reports, too. The majority of colleges in the US do not require a mid-year report.

Applying to a private school where only a small fraction of applicants get in each time?

Then chances are that your application should include a mid-year report from your high school counselor. But it pays to double-check as not all private institutions, including some competitive ones, will require you to do so.

Given that they are some of the most elite and selective postsecondary institutions on the planet, it isn’t surprising that all 8 Ivy League schools require applicants to submit mid-year reports.

Here are some popular colleges and universities that require a mid-year report:

• American University
• Babson College
• Boston University
• Bowdoin College
• Brown University
• Bryn Mawr College
• California Institute of Technology
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Claremont McKenna College
• Columbia University
• Cornell University
• Dartmouth College
• George Washington University
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• Grinnell College
• Harvard University
• Johns Hopkins University
• Lafayette College
• Middlebury College
• Mount Holyoke College
• New York University
• Northwestern University
• Pitzer College
• Princeton University
• Reed College
• Rice University
• Skidmore College
• Smith College
• Tufts University
• University of Chicago
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• University of Notre Dame
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Virginia
• Yale University
• Vanderbilt University
• Vassar College
• Washington and Lee University
• Wellesley College
• William & Mary