Couple questions about AP credit...

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Virginia
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<p>Hello, all. I'm a new member of the College Confidential boards, but I've read some of the posts in the various forums since I began applying for college this past fall. Now that I'm a member of the UVA Class of 2013, I'm beginning to look at courses to take for the coming fall semester. I have a couple questions regarding Advanced Placement credit that I hope someone would be able to answer.</p>

<p>First off, has AP credit been processed by the appropriate office at UVA? I read somewhere that I could check my Transfer Credit Report on the UVA SIS Student Center, but when I did, there was no mention of any AP credit. Under "Test Credits", the only items were my SAT I and SAT II Subject Test scores.</p>

<p>At the time that I took my AP exams, I did not indicate which college I would like the scores sent to (at that time, I was not sure if I would be going to UVA). I did fax the College Information Card on the back of the AP book they give to all test-takers to the appropriate fax number on June 15, 2009. Thinking that perhaps the College Board had not seen my request, I called in and talked to a customer service representative today. He was very helpful and told me that the College Board did have a record on file of sending scores over to UVA. He indicated that I might want to talk to a Ms. Gloria Gates over at UVA and discuss the matter with her. He also mentioned that the College Board would have no problem resending the scores if it was necessary.</p>

<p>Ms. Gates was not nearly as helpful or amiable as the College Board's customer service representative had been. She asked if I had checked the VISTAA report to see if my AP credits were there, to which I replied that I "thought I had" (I was not sure what the VISTAA report was, but suspected it was the Transfer Credit Report I'd looked at). She responded with, "Well, that tells me you didn't really." She asked for my UVA ID, which I was not sure of (I haven't attended orientation) yet, but I gave her a number I thought to be my ID. She cut me off halfway through and tried it, and said it didn't work. When I tried to give it to her again, this time making sure to say the whole thing before she cut me off, she asked me, "Why didn't you give me that number the first time?" I also heard her mutter, "What the Hell?" when the computer was not accepting the number. The conversation ended with her saying, "Well, I don't really know. Just bring your AP exam scores with you when you register for courses." I asked if UVA would really allow that (I thought UVA HAD to have the scores arrive directly from the College Board to ensure validity), and she said, "Yeah, why not?" Essentially, my impression of Ms. Gates was very poor and that reflected poorly on what I see as the willingness of UVA to help students who are confused with the whole process.</p>

<p>Am I really able to just bring my scores to UVA when I register for courses (I'm attending the session this Thursday and Friday, July 16-17)? I haven't even received this year's score report in the mail; will they be willing to accept what I tell them my scores are (I called in back on July 1st, so I know my 2009 scores). Or, alternatively, should I contact the College Board and ask them to resend my scores? It seems my scores were lost in transition and/or at UVA.</p>

<p>Finally, do I have any real ground to talk to someone at UVA about Ms. Gates' behavior? Or am I being a little bit too sensitive about the matter? I feel that, as someone who is in direct contact with students who generally call regarding issues they might have, Ms. Gates should have conducted herself in a manner that was a little bit friendlier and/or helpful. I feel like I essentially got nowhere by talking to her.</p>

<p>Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions!</p>

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<p>Hi Random. My D is in SEAS but I believe students in CAL have a separate “form” that details AP scores but it should show up somewhere on SIS. D just registered for classes last week and there was no record on SIS of her scores- she just had the scores she’d obtained by phone. They let her register with no problems using self-reporting. </p>

<p>I’m sorry you had a poor experience with Ms. Gates. I’m not making excuses for her but I would bear in mind that this is probably a difficult time with many, many students calling for information and a new system for UVA. I know you are going to have a great time at Orientation, however.</p>

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<p>You should resend your scores. It sounds like College Board sent your SATs not APs. They’re entirely separate scores.</p>

<p>You can sign up for anything you want (I took a graduate course my first year). The only thing the official scores do is give you actual credit on your transcript. You’ll want that credit, but it doesn’t impede your sign up process, unless SIS is being particularly annoying.</p>

<p>The woman you talked to is in charge of all transfer credit, not just AP credits. I’m sure you don’t think being busy is an excuse for how you think she treated you, but she’s not a customer service rep and that’s not her job, her job is processing ridiculous numbers of transcripts over the summer and during the rest of the year for thousands of students, not walking a student step by step through a task. She didn’t seem particularly rude to me in your description, maybe just a bit colder than you’re used to. Welcome to bureaucracy.</p>

<p>If you think there should be someone hired just for this purpose (walking first years through things), then explain to the state of Virginia why they should give UVA more money. We don’t even have enough teaching assistants for introductory classes, or professors for that matter, which I think it is a more important position (imho).</p>

<p>I had some issues with my VISTAA report this past semester so I talked to my advisor, who said to talk to my dean. Then my dean said I should talk to my advisor when I emailed her. I talked to my 2nd advisor who said to go to Garrett hall. Garrett hall said the person I needed to talk to (maybe) was only there for one hour on certain days of the week. At that point I gave up and figured it would resolve itself eventually. Like I said, welcome to bureaucracy.</p>

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<p>Hey Random,
Sorry you had a poor interaction with Ms. Gates. She actually is quite nice and juggles a whole lot of student information quite well. She’s usually a sweetheart; she must have been really having a bad day.
I’ll be a third year student this year, so it’s all a little fuzzy. I had the same concern though that you do right now, and I’m pretty sure that I FAX’d my AP scores in to Ms. Gates’s office, instead of waiting for various cryptic institutions to communicate with each other and that worked out well. It does take a while for everyone’s AP’s to be registered, but I seem to recall mine showing up actually on my TRANSCRIPT (not VISTA, 'cause I, like you, also didn’t know what that was) about a week before classes starting. Ms. Gates does know what she is doing though, so I say FAX and bring your scores with you to orientation.
You MUST have your final transcript in to UVA before you can register for classes, make sure that is done, even if you FAX it to the admissions office. As long as that is taken care of, you should be OK.<br>
Most times, you can use your SS# as an alternate option to your student ID #, but not always, and I know they are trying to move away from SS# use>>however, still, most times it still works.</p>