Congrats on all the early acceptances! I’m envious of those applying now as we are in CA and S20 only wants to apply to Cal State schools and their app doesn’t open until 10/1. But he is retaking the SAT this month, so I guess the timing will work well since we’ll have those results before 10/1. We can apply to all 4 of the CSU campuses he is interested in on a single application which will be a huge time saver. He may still apply to UN Reno but he is pretty sold on staying in CA at this point.
@voyagermom I only called FSU out specifically because “Science AP Does not count”, at least for nursing majors. It seems that very little of her credits would apply to that major.
Which schools is he interested in?
Yeah, the AP stuff definitely depends on major.
That does seem odd. No questions about GPA or test scores even? Will they need to receive a transcript and then just get the GPA info from there? My daughter did a “Fast Track” application for Robert Morris and while it was short (no essay needed for example) it did ask for GPA and test scores, and a transcript must be sent from the school before a decision is made as well.
@voyagermom - Nope. No GPA or ACT score questions, no reporting on classes. After he submitted a screen came up showing they had the ACT score (we sent earlier), but he would need to have an official transcript sent from the HS to complete the application.
I much prefer the self-reporting ones which all the others were, so you don’t have to spend the money on sending the scores and transcript (our HS charges $5 each) until you’ve really decide to go there.
@lkg4answers his first choice right now is Sonoma State and then he’ll also apply to San Jose State, San Francisco State and CSU East Bay. We live an hour to an hour and a half away from all of them and that’s the radius he feels comfortable with currently. He has a decent GPA (3.66 UW) but not such a great SAT at 1090 (although he is hoping to get that up a bit this month when he retests). These 4 Cal States should all be safeties with his GPA (he wants to major in Communications/Media).
@VickiSoCal thanks for encouragement. She is applying via the CommonApp where the essays are not as focused on the “Why I Want to Study XXX” but rather more akin to “Tell Us About a Challenge”. A supplemental essay or email to Admissions is in order?
@cshell2 he doesnt go to a traditional school, so he starts earlier and he"ll be graduating first week of May. But my younger son and the area schools dont start till end of Aug. Sorry to hear of your misfortunes 
, I can empathize,we have been there before. And congrats on the acceptance!?
@anrsmom congrats!
That’s annoying to have to pay for it. No fee for us from our school and no limit on how many they can apply to, which I have seen others on here mention. With the cost of applications from the college, plus the cost of sending test scores, I would not be thrilled with yet another fee of sending the transcript. I like that I’m seeing more colleges state that test scores can be held off on until an acceptance, so at least that fee can be saved in the application process.
I don’t know about the others but I think SFSU is supposed to be good in media, isn’t it? This year SFSU was not at capacity so students who were CSU Eligible and not accepted to a CSU were given the option to “redirect” their application to SFSU. https://www2.calstate.edu/apply/redirection
Is he planning on commuting or living on campus?
@lkg4answers he would probably only commute if he went to CSU East Bay. We can get to SFSU on the train but it would be a long commute. I like the Sonoma campus for him since it’s only about 9k students and housing is nicer and cheaper. He loved the less urban setting and likes their Communications and Media degree. San Jose or SFSU would likely be a second choice.
Remember that colleges require you to take the exam if they admitted you with an AP course on the senior transcript.
So, a question. If your student is planning on a gap year, is it better to apply and defer or just sit this year out and apply next year? I know not all schools allow deferrals and some only allow a semester. It is a whole other layer to think about now.
Regarding AP’s senior year, whether you are required to take the exams is school dependent. I would definitely contact the admissions reps to ask before you register and I’d find out what the cancellation policy was. My older kids went to a school where they weren’t needed so I was able to get a partial refund and not have them take the exams. The HS was annoyed because they wanted to up their scores, but it saved me hundreds of dollars. Our HS has since changed their refund policy and you have to register before Christmas and there is no refund.
I don’t think this is the case with D20’s high school. Their grade in the AP class is independent of taking the AP exam. The only case I know is D’s APES teacher would adjust student’s final grade up one letter grade for a score of 5 (e.g. “B” in semester class would be adjusted to “A”) since it “proved” they have mastered the material. With that said, I will double check with D to make sure if she skips any AP exam it won’t effect her acceptances. Also, I hear guidance all the time on CC that if you get scores of 3 or lower to not submit them to colleges. So how does the college even know which exams you took and which ones you didn’t? Would be curious on other’s experience with this?
DS just got an email from the Vice Principal about the transcript request he made online. Apparently they are free for seniors and the online form and fee are for past students looking for a transcript. So he refunded him the $5 and told him to just stop in the counseling office with any others he had. That was good to hear. I thought it was kind of lousy to charge.
We didn’t have this experience with our older kids.
We had one teacher in senior year who bullied my S (13) to take the AP exam even though he couldn’t use the credits in college (statistics). Actually, S wasn’t able to use many of his AP credits because his university wanted specific engineering classes (engineering calculus, engineering chemistry…).
@socaldad2002 @MuggleMom @ebh87 - I’m NOT talking about the high school insisting on your kids taking the exams or their refund policies being draconian (though this can be the case, and I wouldn’t call it “bullying” or score inflation; it’s important testing data for the district and can impact future funding so it’s a reasonable ask IMHO for the benefit of future years…and I believe some of the funds are spent pretty early on with registrations and hiring assistants).
I’m referring to whatever college your DD/DS has picked - my DS16 was told in no uncertain terms, by both Princeton and MIT, that if he was enrolled in an AP course on his senior transcript, and then did not take the exam, that it would be considered academic dishonesty post-acceptance and make him subject to a rescinded admission. I don’t know if they would have followed through, and we didn’t want to find out. He called to ask in about March-ish, to the admissions offices.
In the case of M vs P for my DS, the issue was that if he went to M, he could use the English test but if he went to P, he could not. In any case, neither would accept his Euro as it was his third history AP. So when he was choosing between M and P, he made the calls. (Various other colleges he applied to, would have taken both exams.)
When DS chose P, he was able to cancel the English exam, but not the Euro exam - P told him that since he wasn’t taking AP English, only the exam “on his own,” that cancelling that exam was kosher. He did take the Euro, got a 5, and lost the day of pay at his summer job.
@fretfulmother I’m really glad that it worked out for you son. I understood you originally and was just adding my experience. My kids’ college didn’t accept any AP scores (crazy curriculum!) so the adcom assured my kids that they didn’t care if they took the tests. Obviously, the schools your student was considering required them. My D20 has already been in contact with a few of the schools she is applying to and only 1 said they need to see all the AP scores. I really believe a quick email to the admissions department would clear up any confusion.