California Endorsement: AP Credit and No Answer

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A few weeks ago I submitted my CA RN endorsement application to their BON. Luckily for many that are submitting around this time, application times are very short and my initial processing took a single week.


However, it came back that I have a deficiency in Psychology. My question with this is layers. I took AP Psychology and the AP credit would show on the college transcripts I sent as basically one of the first credits I ever received. So this either means that they do not accept AP credits in Psychology, there was a mistake, or I need to send the AP scores directly from the College Board itself since they are the ones that issue the tests.


I've messaged and tried to call the CA BON many times; double-checking my email being sent to the right place and sending multiple emails after a few days just in case the first one got lost. Still no reply. I've probably sent 7 messages over the past year (for other reasons) with only a single reply being sent literally 5 minutes after I sent said email. So I'm looking somewhere that I have received the most help so far while I wait for maybe potentially possibly a reply or sign of life from the BON.


I'm hoping someone has had a similar issue that was answered because at this point my head hurts from trying to contact them. Do I need to send my archived AP scores to the BON directly from the College Board? Or is this for some reason a credit that they do not accept due to some weird nature of AP credits? I know that if it's an error on their side only they can fix it, but I find the idea of them not accepting AP credits through the College Board odd since they accept Straighterline's "credits" and taking their Microbiology class was more than sketchy. I also know that you cannot transfer AP credits from one college to another, rather you must resend the scores to your new college. This makes me hopeful that I just have to get my archived scores out and send them.

 

P.s. The only reason I simply don't send the transcripts anyways since its USUALLY an easy process is because my scores are now archived, meaning I will need to physically mail a transcript request with money and wait up to 2-3 weeks for it to be processed and sent to the BON.

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I've finally supposedly found the answer after spamming CA BON with phone calls and I will leave the answer I was given below. I imagine as more AP nurse students start to move to CA they will search for this information if they took AP Psychology or other prereqs for endorsement.

AP scores are accepted and will need to be sent through the College Board; if they are over 4 years old since your soonest AP exam they will need to have a physical application mailed to them which will then be mailed to the CA BON. If you're like me you may not even be able to log in to your old College Board account since they sometimes switch systems or simply archive older accounts but a simple phone call fixes this and it's much more straightforward than CA BON's system of communication. 

If I don't follow up in the future this means that the above information was correct and there were little to no issues in sending the information.

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Amber17 said:

I've finally supposedly found the answer after spamming CA BON with phone calls and I will leave the answer I was given below. I imagine as more AP nurse students start to move to CA they will search for this information if they took AP Psychology or other prereqs for endorsement.

AP scores are accepted and will need to be sent through the College Board; if they are over 4 years old since your soonest AP exam they will need to have a physical application mailed to them which will then be mailed to the CA BON. If you're like me you may not even be able to log in to your old College Board account since they sometimes switch systems or simply archive older accounts but a simple phone call fixes this and it's much more straightforward than CA BON's system of communication. 

If I don't follow up in the future this means that the above information was correct and there were little to no issues in sending the information.

amber, I am in the exact same boat. I have spoken to serval people at the board and sent emails. No one can answer this question! I was excited to see your post but need confirmation. Please tell me if they accepted your AP scores? Did you send a transcript from college or from the board? If they don't accept these scores I will have to take the class again!

thanks

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Jennifer Kirkman said:

amber, I am in the exact same boat. I have spoken to serval people at the board and sent emails. No one can answer this question! I was excited to see your post but need confirmation. Please tell me if they accepted your AP scores? Did you send a transcript from college or from the board? If they don't accept these scores I will have to take the class again!

thanks

My AP scores did show on my college transcripts, which I already had sent. Despite that I'm still missing my Psych credit with regards to the BON. I'm assuming that since different colleges accept different AP scores (1-5) and so on, that they need AP scores directly from the College Board. Unfortunately after 3-ish weeks I'm STILL waiting for the college board to send my scores to the BON. When I called the lady simply said that I need to send the scores from the College board and they should be accepted, but if that's true or not I don't really have an answer just yet. 
If you took your last AP exam within 4 years you should easily be able to send the scores online to the CA BON. If not, you must do as I did and physically mail or fax an archived score request form (SO archaic) and many people wait around a month for them to send out the scores. 
Since I'm not 100% if AP scores will be accepted (simply because I haven't seen it myself), it's worth noting that they DO accept StraighterLine's classes for Microbio and Psych. If you get it done in a month it costs around $150 and you can start as soon as you want. I was hoping to save time AND money by just spending $25 to send my archived scores, but now it looks like I'll just be saving money assuming everything goes as expected.

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Amber, what is straighterlines? I Am a student at university of arizona. Nursing here doesn't require that psych class and I only have 15 units of natural science. I could just take a psych course this coming semester  but what a waste of time!

why in earth didn't they take the credits when it was in your transcripts from college? What was there reason?

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Straighterline is just a cheap online way to get certain general credits. From what I understand CA BON accepts all the missing prerequisite credits for RN endorsement applications. I was skeptical and sketched out of it at first but I used it to do my Microbiology and lab credits since my nursing program didn't require that. I was going to do a community college course for it BUT the out of state tuition is ridiculous AND they required me to have a biology course first; 2 semesters and thousands of dollars versus 6 weeks and $450; it was an easy choice. I had no issue sending these straighterline credits.

As for why they didn't accept the AP credit simply from my college transcripts I am unsure. HOWEVER; I do know that the College Board in charge of AP scores says that you can't even transfer them from college to college. Every time you need to resend the scores from the college board itself. Perhaps it's a regulatory thing and that's just how they make sure the credits are properly managed and legit. I had no other issues with any other credits aside from AP Psychology.

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Update as of today.

I had to resend a request to have my AP scores sent to the CA BON. This is because that the person who entered my card information at the College Board did it incorrectly or their system wasn't handling the process accurately. I know this because I have the original fax copy with the card information that reflects the correct card information without error. I received a letter in the mail notifying me of this issue and I submitted another archived AP request form with the same card information. This time it went through and I received my scores just over a week later.

I waited just over 4 weeks to have my scores reviewed by the CA BON since I realize that mailed information may take longer. Unfortunately, they cannot change archived score names, so my original BON application being my new name and my archived scores being my maiden name made this an issue despite my alternate name being present on my BON application. 

Today I called the BON and was put on hold for a long time but the person assisting me managed to locate the score sheet. They attached it to my file and reflagged it to be reviewed and informed me they typically do not accept transcripts or anything from High School but they will rerun it to be reviewed. This makes me nervous, but in all honestly the person assisting me doesn't seem familiar with AP scores or the College Board so I'm still hopeful that it will count towards my psychology credit. The person I called previously (at the very start of the thread) seemed more knowledgeable about  the subject, which also makes me hopeful. I will respond once more once I get a final word in on my application in a few weeks, but since it's the  holiday season still it may take a bit longer.

In summary if your AP scores are in a different name and are archived it will likely be a slight hassle to get them out the door to the BON. Also, it is currently uncertain as to whether or not AP credits are taken for the CA BON, specifically my AP Psychology credit which is the only missing item from my endorsement application.

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).

Try calling the California Department of Consumer Affairs. They oversee the CBON and can usually get your call through to a live person there. 

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I have managed to talk with about 4 live people at BON and all told me no AP scores are accepted. I hope it works out for you though!

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Jennifer Kirkman said:

I have managed to talk with about 4 live people at BON and all told me no AP scores are accepted. I hope it works out for you though!

How unfortunate! It sucks that I was told one thing by someone at the BON and spent so long trying to follow that one answer only to find out at the very end that it was incorrect. Thank you.

I certainly hope that it goes through by some miracle but it seems right at this moment that I will be making plans to take yet another class. Good luck with your classes as well.

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I don't know if it may help but you may be able to get your school to write a letter to the BON subbing a class you already took. Counselors at my school told me the write letters all the time with substitutions and it's easy.

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Good news as of Jan 17

Today I just received a call from the BON that my application was processed successfully and I am now a registered nurse in the state of California.

If you've read up until this point, this is not because my AP Psychology credit was accepted. As mentioned previously by Jennifer and now verified by myself (other than the single incident at the start of the threat), AP credits will not count towards anything as far as the BON's prereqs.

What DID count was my Human Development course, which was present in the same transcript that was sent to the BON initially and seemed to be overlooked any time that my application was re-reviewed. This was a concurrent enrollment course that I actually took my junior year of high school, a year prior to my AP classes. From what I've seen there are many options that can be wiggled into the psychology prerequisite.

At this point I've already speed ran through half of Straighterline's psychology course in an attempt to finish it in 3 weeks but now I can rest a little easier knowing everything is pretty much settled.

I only add this last passage to add a finale to my experience, as I myself spent hours on this website looking for help and answers that there not readily available to me through the CA BON without waiting on hold for 4-5 hours. Good luck for those of you who are still in the good fight.

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