What exactly is meant by “official transcripts”?
A. If a site requests an official transcript, that means that the transcript must come from the registrar’s office of the academic institution in which you took the coursework or earned the degree being documented in the form that the registrar’s office considers official, e.g. in a sealed envelope; with the seal of the university embossed on the paper, etc. It is not necessary that the Registrar’s office send the official transcript (unless this is the only process the office has for providing official transcripts) as long as it is clear to the site receiving the transcript that it could not have been tampered with. So, some applicants will have all of their transcripts sent directly to the programs to which they are applying while others may be able to collect their official transcripts from their registrar’s office and include an official transcript in their application materials.
