Back to school - credit for AP scores?

[diannasawyer]

Hi everyone!

Like many people on here, I'm a career changer hopefully heading to nursing school in 2018. I'm thrilled to be starting my prerequisites in January, and will be applying to UMass Boston at the end of 2017.

I'm wondering if anyone has experience submitting transcripts with credit you got for taking the AP exam. I went to a college prep school and received undergrad credit (from UNC Chapel Hill) for a handful of classes. They appear on my undergraduate transcript, clearly show that I received 3 credits each, but instead of a grade it says "BE" (by exam).

I checked the College Board website and UMass's website, and it does say that they accept AP scores for college credit.

So I'm hoping that if I request the official copy of my scores (old at this point - I graduated from high school in 2001!), and send them along to supplement my undergaduate transcript, that will be sufficient.

I'm concerned only because I really want to receive credit for Psychology - a social science elective is required, and I received credit for basic Psychology through the AP exam. I'd much rather deal with a little extra paperwork than have to pay for and schedule another prerequisite class for this year, since I already need to take 5 (I was an English major with no science background).

Anyone have any experience here? Did your nursing program accept the credits you received this way? Again, this is different than a placement exam - I actually took a college level class, scored high enough on the exam to receive credit, and my college gave me 3 credits.

Oh, also - UMass will not do transcript reviews before you apply, so it's a gamble! Which is why I'm doing as much research as I can :)

Thanks to everyone - and hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. This site has been such an encouragement to me as I pursue this new path!

[FutureNurseInfo]

Hi,

To be short, even though you got a credit for your classes, like A&P, did you also get an actual grade, like A, B, or C? I am not 100% sure, but the schools I have researched and will be applying to only accept courses with letter grades. A few years ago I took an intro to bio but was afraid of getting a C so I filed for a Pass/Fail grade instead. I was granted a Pass, but when I spoke to schools I will be applying they said they would not accept that course because it had no letter grade. Not that I had to retake it; I was only hoping for a transfer credit.

So, yeah, make sure that the schools you will be applying to will accept your courses as is.

[AliNajaCat]

UMass should be able to tell you if they will accept fifteen-year-old credits for anything. I"m guessing not, though.

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

If Psychology is your big concern, take the CLEP test.

[diannasawyer]

Thanks so much! I heard back from UMass that they will accept it as long as the score is high enough. Hooray! Just got my first A+P textbook in the mail. It's go time :)

[diannasawyer]

Thanks - I heard back from UMass that they will accept it as long as the score is high enough. They also only have date requirements on the science classes, which I'm taking now.