AP English Credit Preventing Acceptance?

[newbiepnp, MSN, RN, NP, CNS]

I know now that taking the AP exam in high school for college credit in English Comp/Lit was one of the worst decisions I could have done now that I want to attend graduate or nursing school. It looks like most schools do not accept this as English credit, or average it in as a "C". I was a theatre arts major in my previous life, not acting, and took classes such as Script Analysis and Comic Theory during my studies. Now I am finding out that it does not count and my missing English class may keep me out of school.

I tried to sign up for an English 1 class at my community college, but was told that it was not appropriate for my level of education.

Has anyone else ran into this problem? I am so angry about this whole thing, that I feel like tracking down my high school advisor from more than 20 years ago and telling to pass the word to her students to NOT report their AP credits.

[elkpark]

I hear ya!! I had not the same problem, but a similar one. When I started college the first time, many years ago, the college I attended gave all Freshmen a placement test, and, if you scored high enough, you weren't required to take Freshman English (English Comp). Well, what can I say, I scored high enough. Eight years later, I'm applying to nursing school, and they want me to have a year of Freshman English. NOOOOO Freshman English on my transcript. Big problem! I explained the part about the placement test and being exempt from F.E., but, of course, it doesn't say that anywhere on my transcript -- there's just NO FRESHMAN ENGLISH ON THERE. I pointed out helpfully that I took a higher level lit course -- 20th Cent. British and American Drama. Couldn't we count that instead? I wouldn't have been able to take it without either taking or placing out of Freshman English, SOOOOOO ... The school advisor says, oh no, we think that was an acting class. I say, no, it was a reading-the-plays-and-talking-about-them-and-writing-papers-about-them class. Look, the course number has an ENG prefix, not a THE prefix. Nope, not good enough. I have to contact the college and ask them to write a letter to the school verifying that this was, in fact, a literature course and not an acting course. The school finally, grudgingly, agrees to substitute my semester upper level lit course for one quarter of Freshman English ("Our Friend, the Topic Sentence"), and still requires me to take the additional two quarters of Freshman English. Fortunately, we had v. cool instructors for both courses and it ended up being fun and worthwhile.

Since when do CCs pass judgment on who is or isn't fit to take a course? I thought they would let anyone take anything. Did you explain your predicament? Will your nursing program accept an on-line course from somewhere? I'll bet there are tons of colleges/universities offering English comp on-line.

Best wishes!! I feel your pain! (Just keep telling yourself that, in the long run, over the course of your nursing career, this will work out to be just a v. minor blip on the radar screen ...)

[newbiepnp, MSN, RN, NP, CNS]

Thank you so much for sharing your story. I'm still waiting to hear back from MSMC to find out what my next step is. I called the community college's counseling office who is IN CONTROL of letting me into English 1 and they want me to come down to their office, no over the phone appointments, and explain the situation to them.

[caliotter3]

If I were you I would look into taking the English course elsewhere, like one of the online courses. Many prenursing students take their prerequisites online from Ocean County College in New Jersey and have no trouble with the credits, to include online science courses with labs. This might be an avenue for your to resolve this issue.