peer advisor

So, July is here.  While most of you are probably busy planning how to maximize time spent away from work eating Italian ice by a pool or something.  Or maybe planning how to maximize time spent at work if you work at a pool or in an Italian ice truck (if those exist), there is one other important event that many college-bound students have to deal with in July:  opening the nondescript white envelope with your AP scores in it.

With this in mind, the natural question that comes to mind is, “Now that I have my hard-earned exam results from these fake college classes, what will this mean for me at my real college?” At Wesleyan (and most other places), the answer to this question is largely dependent on which exam you’ve taken, what further courses you plan to take, and other factors.

I should point out right now that I didn’t go to an IB high school so I’m not as familiar with that system – so I apologize for focusing a little more on AP but much of it works the same way and if you have questions feel free to email me and I can help you figure it out.  Additionally, if you took some other type of exam in high school, like the British A-levels or something, you’ll have to talk to the chair of the department you’re seeking credit in, because there aren’t any set policies outside of AP and IB.

The first thing to know is that Wesleyan allows students to count 2.00 credits toward their total for graduation that come from outside sources (basically, any course work done anywhere else). Some colleges do let students count as many prior credits as they have toward their diploma, but Wesleyan is not one of them.This doesn’t mean that you can’t get credit for all of your APs/IBs listed on your transcript; it just means that your total credits at graduation will not include any more than 2 from that category. Here’s an example to illustrate the point better: Let’s say that someone takes AP Spanish, AP Statistics, and AP Biology in high school. They then go through the process (I’ll get to that in a minute) and receive 3 credits for these courses.On their transcript, in a category reserved for credit earned before matriculation, all three courses will be listed, with “1.00” credit for each, and the total thus being 3.00.When they graduate, the total credits listed at the bottom of the transcript will include all Wesleyan course credits (let’s say 32.00), plus 2.00 for the AP courses, coming to 34.00. The 3.00 credits are still listed above – but the sum toward graduation is not listed as 35.00, but rather 34.00.I may have just completely belabored this point but I’m not sure if I really got what it meant when I was an incoming student.  If my explanation just further disoriented you, obviously you can let me know and I’ll try again.

But how do you actually get those credits to appear on your transcript in the first place?  Is it just automatic after the College Board sends the good news to Middletown? Again, it depends. Sometimes, a department will have a policy such that once the Registrar receives your score, they will apply the credit for you automatically. AP Biology is a good example of this – if you receive a 4 or 5 on that exam and that score is sent to Wesleyan, you should automatically see 1.00 credit for “BIOL AP” come up in your Academic History in the ePortfolio.  For most others, check out the links on the registrar’s page to find out what is needed to get the credit – sometimes, simply submitting a form, and sometimes, completing a course(s) in the department and then submitting that form.  This page will also tell you what score you need to receive credit. For example, if you take the AP French exam, your score will be used to place you in a French department course of your level. Once you’ve completed this course, you can then submit the form, which will ask for: your name, WesID, AP exam that you want credit for, the score you got on it, the follow-up course that you took, the semester that you took it, and your grade in that course. These forms are now done through online submission (see link above).

There isn’t really any rush to do this – you can submit these forms at any time before graduation and the resulting credit will appear on your transcript.  As such, there isn’t any rush to take the courses you’ll need to get the credit.  In fact, some of those courses will not be intended for freshmen so space will be very limited for you in first year anyway.

Feel free to send an email my way (asmith06@wesleyan.edu) if you start trying to figure this out and run into something weird.

Good luck as the envelopes start to arrive!