What really determines whether a transcript is official or unofficial? (I am wondering mainly in the context of US high schools and colleges.)
- Is it entirely about the process by which it is delivered, i.e. directly from an institution to a the receiver such that there can be no tampering?
- If an issuing institution (such as a high school) does not print the transcript on special security paper, but sends directly to the receiver in the mail on regular paper, would this still be considered official?
- Are there cases where an official institution would consider a transcript to be official but an receiving institution would not consider it to be official?