My son, an incoming LSA freshman, is at orientation now. His advisor is telling him he can’t register for a particular class because his AP scores (needed to qualify him for this course) are not showing up on the registration software. My son called the admissions office who said all of his scores are definitely there online and the advisor should be able to activate them in the registration software. Advisor says he doesn’t know how to do that. Admissions office is now closed for the day. Son is understandably frustrated.
Has anyone experienced something like this? Can anyone provide any advice and/or explanation/instructions for the advisor to get those scores to show up? Thanks in advance.
Have the advisor contact their superior that does know how to do it. Don’t settle for no.
Do you or your son have access to naviancee or can you log into an account to get his scores from the college board
https://study.com/academy/popular/how-to-check-ap-exam-scores.html.
If not choose some classes and he might need to get waivers etc later to get the classes he wants.
Also maybe the counselor will let him register next week when he can secure his scores. It’s really early in the orientation processes and his classes will all be available.
Easier said than done. His appointment to register for classes is at 8:45am tomorrow morning and no one is available now. This all happened right before 5pm today. He has his scores printed out from the college board but that doesn’t help - they have to be validated on the class registration software in order to allow him to sign up for this class.
I am hoping someone has had this exact situation and can provide the detailed instructions to tell his advisor tomorrow morning what to do to activate the scores in the registration software. My son has already done all of the obvious steps.
Sorry one last thing. If it doesn’t work out make sure he gets on the class wait list for the classes he needs like now. He will most likely be the first person on it and that pretty much guarantees him the class
He has to register tomorrow morning - we are from New York and are in Ann Arbor for orientation now. He knows he can add/drop classes all summer once it’s fixed but he really wants to get the schedule in place tomorrow with his advisor. I’m looking for very specific information on the technical issue of getting the AP scores to show up in the software while we are still here in Ann Arbor.
That’s really horrible. But again, I would be surprised if someone other then his advisors wouldn’t know what to do @yikesyikesyikes… Any suggestions?
@sushiritto - Any suggestions?
Maybe he can ask his advisor in the morning to try asking another advisor who might know how to do it. Or maybe this evening he can ask other students who are there for the same orientation session if any of their advisors had to do this and he could put his advisor in touch with that advisor in the morning.
Good luck to your son!
Thanks. He’s going to try calling admissions again at 8am when they open and try to put them directly in touch with his advisor. If that doesn’t work, he’ll have to work on it remotely after we get home.
@Knowsstuff
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I recommend that the OP’s son communicate via email to both admissions and his advisor so a paper trail for accountability is kept for this matter going forward.
This should not be happening. Have him do this ASAP. If it does not work out by Monday, let me know - there are more aggressive steps that can be taken, if necessary.
Furthermore, OP’s son can send screenshots of score reports from his CollegeBoard account. His academic advisor should not have any problem performing an override for him to get into the classes he needs based on these scores. This request should be over email as well.
Missed this.
Printing out (or screen shots) of the AP score reports or logging into the CB system to view AP scores online is all that I would have to offer. Thankfully, “we” didn’t have this problem last summer.
As mentioned above, while the OP wants the schedule to be locked in now, my kid made changes in subsequent weeks, post-orientation, to tweak the Fall semester schedule.
Lastly, I got the impression last summer that the UMich placement tests had more validity to the advisor than AP scores.
Thanks, all. After a few conversations with admissions, my son got the AP credit committee to activate his credit on the system so that it was visible to the advisor. This theoretically would have let him register for the class he wanted … except that they gave him credit for the wrong course because the rules are changing for the fall but the software wasn’t updated yet. So he still couldn’t register for the specific course he wanted. But he registered for a second best schedule. In the meantime, the admissions department is trying to fix the technical problem so that he’ll be able to switch into the class he wants and as a fallback, they’ve told him that he can ask the EECS department for an override to let him register. So he thinks that within a week or two he’ll be able to swap out classes and get his preferred schedule.
So not entirely resolved but it’ll work out. And he got a good introduction to dealing with bureaucracy, a skill which will no doubt serve him well in life. <rueful smile>
Again, thanks to everyone for the advice and support. 
Thanks @yikesyikesyikes
I am under the assumption that the Op advisor is new. Usually there is a “we will help you in anyway” type of attitude. My son had an issue getting some classes at orientation that he needed in sequence two years ago. He brought both his unoriginal transcripts and AP scores with him to orientation. Just in case.
The bad /good thing was that he was the first on the class wait list for 2 classes and had to do overrides, talk with his advisor multiple times, talk to professors etc etc. What seemed like a big anxiety problem was a great learning moment. Gave him the confidence to handle problems as they came up. Instead of calling us in a small moment of panic he learned to handle things himself. We would just maybe give him a link and say “call here”.
Now he handles all the issues that arise and never tells us anything… ?.. Lol…
I am sure it will all work out for your son. Michigan usually sorts bends over backwards to make things happen.
Thanks, @Knowsstuff We were surprised at how messy the process was/is and also suspect that the advisor may be inexperienced. But, yes, he is learning how to navigate the bureaucracy and I’m sure it will all end up fine in the end.
Just curious. Can you elaborate on which/what rules are changing? I’m sure any info will help future freshman that come here to CC.
Thankfully, we haven’t had to deal with any bureaucracy at UMich. Our experience has been all smooth sailing in terms of the administration.
Honestly, same here. Things seem to be going to well… Lol…
Everytime I reached out to an admin, head of department etc to ask questions or concerns they replied back quickly and or solved the problem.
He will get the classes he needs. They told me a few years ago that they never lost a kid due to not getting classes and everyone graduates if they want to.
Hope he’s having a fun orientation day today.
I don’t have all the details myself about the rules change but what I understand from my son is that the specific course number that they give credit for if you received a 5 on the AP Comp Sci A test has changed. He wanted to take EECS 280 for which he needed EECS 183 as a prerequisite. He expected that they’d give him credit for 183 but instead they gave him credit for 2xx (some 200 level class - not sure which one) and that didn’t work as a prerequisite for 280. Under the new rules in the fall (as to what credit he’s suppose to receive), he would automatically have the prerequisite. Sorry for the vagueness - my son is the one who talked to the advisor, etc. and I am not 100% sure of the exact issue except that everyone seems to agree that he should be able to enroll in 280 but the software isn’t letting him.
Two things stick out to me from orientation last year.
- 75-85% of LSA students will change their major at least once.
- Use your resources, like the professors, GSI's, free tutoring and writing labs, advisors, etc. throughout the entire semester, not just right before a test or big paper is due.
I have never had to contact anyone at UMich. All I do is pay the bills, when due. 