Understanding the Advising Report
The advising report is similar to a transcript but actually includes more information than what our transcript includes. It
is primarily used by academic advisors and college offices for reviewing a snapshot of the student’s academic record and
may be used to make academic status decisions, admission to major decisions, and other advising-related activities.
This document is intended to supplement the Advising Report and Degree Audit advisor training offered by the Central
Advising unit in the Office of Student Academic Success – Transition and Academic Growth. The advising report in
particular is constrained by space limitations, and so it uses a lot of abbreviations and acronyms to convey information.
This document explains what information is included in the advising report.
A separate document titled “Interpreting the Advising Report” is also available to help advisors make sense of what they
are seeing and how it might inform their advising. It too will be offered as a supplement to the full advisor training.
What the advising report includes:
• Basic information (preferred name, DOB, student ID, OSU email)
• Date the report was run
• Assigned advisors
• Prior educational institutions and credential earned (HS info may not be listed for transfer students)
• Any Ohio State degrees earned (including the AA or AAS degrees)
• An academic summary
• Test scores (ACT, SAT, AP, Math placement, ESL, etc)
• Term by term details of courses and grades
Prior institutions:
• Lists prior institutions attended, including any degrees awarded. On rare occasions, the degree information is
missing even when a student has an awarded degree elsewhere.
• When should you look further to see if there is a completed degree? If a student had more than 160 transfer
credits on quarters or more than 110 transfer credits on semesters AND had enrollment at one or more 4 year
institutions, that could be a sign of a previously completed bachelor degree.
• High school is listed if student started at OSU as a freshman or applied to OSU as a transfer student while a
freshmen elsewhere. Students who apply to OSU when they are already a sophomore or higher at another
institution do not usually have high school information listed. The exception is if they had also originally applied
to OSU as a freshman.
Summary of Academic History section
What can we learn from this section (more info on the “Interpreting the Advising Report” document)?
• GPA trends over time. Different patterns tell us different information about the student.
• Did the student make a campus change (or more than one)? Are they currently a regional campus student who
has never been on the Columbus campus?
• Did the student change majors frequently? Did they change colleges more than once?
• Did the student make Dean’s List?
• Did the student ever do a Fresh Start?
• History of academic probation or dismissal status, including current status.
• Were they first here on quarters or semesters?
• Were they ever enrolled in Ohio State’s Academy Program (UACD) or the Metro School for high school students?
Academic Summary Key
• Term: May be quarters or semesters, depending on when the student was enrolled at OSU. AU11 = Autumn
Quarter 2011, AU12 = Autumn Semester 2012, etc. The 1123 term is the line that shows the recalculation of
earned hours from the quarter values to semester values.
• CMP: the student’s campus of enrollment for that term. COL = Columbus, ATI = Agriculture Technical Institute
(Wooster), LMA = Lima, MNS = Mansfield, MRN = Marion, NWK = Newark
• PROG: the student’s official Program/College of enrollment for that term. The College of Arts and Sciences
previously had 5 separate units: UART, UBIO, UHUM, UMPS, and USBS. All Arts and Sciences students now are
listed simply as UASC.
• RK: student’s rank for that term. 1 = freshman, 2 =sophomore, 3 = junior, 4 = senior.
• Plan: the student’s declared major(s), minor(s), pre-professional interests (pre-law, etc) for that term.
• GPA/EH (earned hours): the first two columns are the values for the specific term. The 2
nd
two columns are the
cumulative values as of that term.
• Actions: these include Deans List, Academic Warning, Academic Probation, Special Action Probation (SPPP),
Academic Dismissal, Reinstatement, Program Dismissal, Fresh Start
Test results section:
• ACT scores list Composite score first then subject scores.
• SAT scores show section scores. SAT scores for exams taken after March 2016 include sub-section scores
(different subsections have different ranges but none go higher than 40), Evidence-Based Reading and Writing
and Math section scores (200-800), and a total score (400-1600). There are many small scores reported on the
current version, which can be confusing to view. The #s to pay attention to are the ones with 3-4 digits.
• ACT/SAT not required for students applying as transfer students when sophomore level or above.
• AP scores list specific exam and score.
• Math Placement scores indicate B or D test and a letter (L, M, N, R, S, or T) that corresponds to a specific course
placement.
• Language placement scores must be interpreted in the context of the number of years of prior instruction. That
info must be checked in SIS.
• English placement gives a numeric score that corresponds to a specific course placement.
• TOEFL, MELAB, and IELTS scores for international students are listed. Based on these scores, students can be
exempted from taking the ESL placement exam. However, most will need to take it.
• ESL scores will either show a Q which means the student qualified out of taking ESL and can go directly to English
1110.xx or will indicate the specific course placement.
• ACTFL exams are administered in the Testing Center for a variety of languages not taught at OSU. These are
used for validation purposes by colleges that require foreign language proficiency.
What can we learn from the Test Results section?
• ACT and SAT scores are used in the Admissions process for freshmen. National average composite score for ACT
in 2018 was 20.8 (subject score averages ranged from 20.2-21.3). National average for SAT in 2018 was 536 in
Evidence-Based Reading and Writing and 531 in Mathematics for a total of 1068.
• Columbus campus freshmen admitted in Autumn 2019 had a middle 50% ACT range of 28-32 and a middle 50%
SAT range of 1300-1420 (Evidence-Based Reading and Writing and Math only as the essay is optional). This is
significantly higher than the national average. Regional campuses are open enrollment. ACT and SAT scores are
lower in that student population, and it is not uncommon to see scores below the national average.
• AP scores of 3 (in 2009 and later), 4, and 5 will earn credit. Students who earn credit with an AP score of 3 may
not be as well prepared for subsequent courses in the sequence, particularly in math and science.
• Lower math placement scores are a particular concern for students in many majors.
• Lower English placement scores (or lower ACT/SAT scores for English and reading) are a particular concern for
students in the Humanities and Social/Behavioral Science majors.
• Lower TOEFL/MELAB/IELTS scores or low ESL scores are a concern for international students, particularly since
they must be enrolled full-time and are the very last students to come through orientation as new students. Not
all course are appropriate for these students, but few options remain.
• Test scores are not a perfect predictor of student performance!
Academic history section (the part that looks like a transcript):
NOTE: this section contains all attempts at courses that resulted in a final grade (even NG which stands for no grade
reported). Courses that are not repeatable will calculate all hours here, it is the degree audit that makes the correct
calculation.
Key to Reading the Columns:
• INSTR UNIT= Instructional Unit: the department or other unit offering the course.
• COURSE NUMBER: self-explanatory. GEN indicates that this is a general transfer credit. Other transfer credit
designations for courses without direct OSU equivalents are SPL (special credit), and TECH (for technical credit).
• COURSE TITLE: self-explanatory
• CR HR: credit hour value for the course. For Spring 2012 and all prior terms, this value is a quarter value. For all
terms Summer 2012 and later, this value is a semester value. The Advising Report shows the ORIGINAL value of
the course, not the semester converted value.
• GRADE FINAL/PREV: while we see only one column with grades in this example, there is a 2
nd
column. If a
student had a grade change or if Freshman Forgiveness Rule was applied to a course, we would see the original
grade in the 2
nd
column, the 1
st
column is always the final grade. The # sign indicates that the course was
forgiven under the Freshman Forgiveness Rule. Test credit is posted with EM as the grade, transfer credit is
posted with a K.
Key to Reading the Two Bottom Rows for a term:
Important note: The entire first row refers to the specific term just above it. The entire second row is the cumulative
values across all terms to that point. The two rows are identical only during the student’s first term at OSU.
• QTR:HR or SEM:HR = the number of hours that term figured into the term GPA calculation. QTR stands for
Quarter (Spring 2012 and earlier) and SEM stands for Semester (Summer 2012 and later). It includes all letter-
graded courses A-E. It does not include the credits with the following grade marks: K, EM, W, S, U, PA, NP, R.
• CUM:HR = the total number of hours figured into the cumulative GPA. It includes the courses from the current
term plus all prior terms at OSU. ***This is the number of hours to use as “credits attempted” when doing GPA
calculations/projections with GPA calculators.
• PT= the sum of the point value of all the courses included in the GPA. Point value for a course is calculated by
multiplying the point value of the grade by the total number of credits for the course. (5 x 1.7) + (5 x 3.7) + (5 x
2.3) = 38.500
• PH= Point Hour Ratio = GPA. This is figured by dividing the PT value for all courses by the # of hours included.
38.500/15 = 2.566.
• EH= total earned hours. This includes K (transfer) credits, EM, S, PA and successfully completed courses that
earned letter grades. This value is often different than the QTR:HR, SEM:HR, or CUM:HR values. This is the
value that establishes a student’s rank (freshman, sophomore, etc).
• DP= deficiency points. This value will be 0 unless the student’s GPA for the term or cumulative GPA is below 2.0.
Since GPA is a ratio, how bad a specific number is relative to the 2.0 depends on the number of hours figured
into the GPA calculation. A 1.75 GPA is further away from a 2.0 for a student with 100 hours figured into the
GPA than a 1.75 would be for a student with just 15 hours figured into the GPA. There is an advisor training
module on GPA that covers this topic in more depth.
SEMESTERS STATS RECALC
• This is the “dummy term” added to convert the quarter values for CUM:HR and EH into semester values. In the
Summary of Academic History box, this is the term listed as 1123. You will see this only on Advising Reports for
students who started at OSU in Spring 2012 and earlier in any program.
• The PH/GPA stayed constant.
• If the student had cumulative deficiency points (DP) at the end of Spring 2012, those were similarly converted.
EN grades
If a student earns a failing grade due to non-attendance, instructors must report the date of last attendance in class.
The advising report shows this information directly beneath the EN grade in question. This information is necessary not
only for any retroactive petitions but also for financial aid eligibility recalculations.
EN grades have been used at least since 2003. Prior to that time, if students had failed due to non-attendance, the
grade showed on older versions of advising reports as E**. The current version of advising reports do not show the
**for those older grades, they appear to be standard E’s.
