<p>So, I've been having issues with one of my potential grad schools. First they said they needed documentation for all of the classes I tested out of in freshman year--a little weird, because my (accredited) institution's official transcript should be proof enough that I did the work to earn my degree, but I went along with it and sent my AP scores and details of the exemption policies. Now the real explanation comes out: </p>
<p>"If you only had 3 or 6 AP credits, we would let it slide. But there are 48 listed on your transcript. This is quite a lot. That is why we are asking for some sort of mark evaluation for those credit hours."</p>
<p>e.g. They won't consider these valid credits unless I jump through a lot of fiery hoops. Has anyone else encountered graduate schools that question the validity of their undergraduate degree? I'm not receiving an Independent Major (one of those "you can design your own coursework and receive a degree we don't usually offer" deals) or attending some small out-of-the-way school either; it's a BS from the biggest department at an enormous flagship.</p>
<p>tkm256, are you graduating 3 years early? Some graduate school programs prefer prospective students to have 4 years of coursework to see if the student is capable of graduate level work. Sad but true.</p>
<p>I think that Tenisghs post is probably spot on. They are hoping for candidates with more life experience and maturity than is typical of 19? 20? year olds. That does suck about the AP credits not being counted but you have three or four semesters worth of AP credits. Did these include gen chem and biology and physics and other pre req courses?</p>
<p>I am graduating early, mostly for monetary reasons (when the stocks went down, my parents' retirement went with it). I didn't test out of any prereq.s for my major excepting the first two semesters of bio. My parents encouraged me to avoid the science APs in case I discovered I wanted to pursue medical/dental/pharmacy/optometry school, where they might have a list of prerequisite courses they want applicants to take and not just test out of (or a minimum #hours in the sciences or something). The credits were mostly for general ed.: I was waived from calc., English comp, two years of history (one each Euro and US), two years of foreign language, and probably some other things I don't remember.</p>
<p>Ah well. If nobody wants to admit me because I'm too young, I can always work for a year and try again later :)</p>
<p>tkm256, what field are you pursuing? We need more information to see if you should stick around an extra year of school. I know you may not like the idea of loans, but if the schools really want to see an extra year of schoolwork, just suck it up and do it if you really want your first-choice grad programs. If you are interested in a PhD, these programs receive many applications and can admit whomever they want. The economy is already shaky and you may not get a job in your field to offset the 4th year of missed coursework.</p>
<p>To be honest, that's crap. I've seen a lot of applicants with lots of AP credit (isn't the whole point of those 100-level classes to have students catch up on work that is really AP level?), and they've never had a problem. AP classes/exams at a lot of schools are much tougher than the same classes at community colleges - if they accept community college credits, as I'm assuming they would, why would AP be a problem, considering you even sent the scores in?</p>
<p>If the school in question you're referring to is McGill, that place has horrible bureaucracy. I'm from Montreal and the horror stories surrounding McGill's bureaucracy are legendary. People go as far as switching schools just because they can't hack the red tape. True story.</p>
<p>That said, it's a fairly good school and the academic experience, from what I know, isn't bad depending on what department you're in. But the fact remains that admission to that school is a minefield, not because it's terribly selective but just because they make ZERO effort to accommodate students. This isn't a diss, either, because its by far the major gripe from McGill students (rational ones, at least) about their school.</p>
<p>My advice would be to really pursue this hard, get on the phone with as many real people as possible and get some concrete answers. If you don't, you'll get the run around. I called there once to find out if a football game was going on (it was raining) and I had to go through SIX people (no joke) and wait thirty five minutes for an answer. It's unbelievable.</p>
<p>For crying out loud, there are lots of flagships that offer generous credit for AP courses. We know folks who have gone in as second semester sophs between AP scores and the other courses one can take placement tests to exempt. Some choose to graduate after three years; others take four and double major or do a BS/MS. </p>
<p>At our flagship, S1 would have been a soph just on APs and would have tested out of several courses in both his majors. Your situation is not unusual for an outstanding student. Time to get on the phone and ask why this is such an issue.</p>
<p>As I said, it's not that AP credits are that wild and unique, it's just that the particular school I believe the OP is referring to has some of the worst administration and bureaucracy in North America.</p>
<p>Since this is just ONE of the potential graduate schools, why on earth don't you simply eliminate it from your list? Do you honestly want to be dealing with this kind of ridiculous red-tape for the next umpteen years while you complete your post-graduate degrees?</p>
<p>Cut these guys loose and get on with your life.</p>
<p>There's no point in eliminating McGill from my list now. I already paid the $100 application fee, the $15 to send GRE scores (it was school #5), and the $20-something for the AP scores. At this point it's not interfering with my life anymore. My mind is just boggled that they would ask this of me--my institution has a lot of red tape (/5/ signatures to drop a class after the first week of the semester, all in different buildings across campus)--but even my departmental counselors were surprised by these requests.</p>
<p>It's not my first choice anyhow, more like my sixth. If I received an offer of admittance from NC Chapel Hill, U. Washington, Rutgers, U. Alberta, or IU, McGill would instantly drop out of the running. I'm going for library science, btw.</p>