From what I have seen, community college classes are more likely to be accepted. Though core classes tend to need to be taken at the college where you get your degree. Have to check with the particular college and the anticipated major.
@mommdc After the fact I logged in and reread the instructions. It seems like I just trusted the Retrieval tool too much. I pretty much untouched any fields that were marked as âTransferred from the IRSâ. The last sentence from the instruction says I should just zero it out. I will correct it when it allows me. I donât plan to call the schools since we wonât be qualified for anything anyways regardless of this mistake. As advised by many on this board, I just want to get a fafsa into their systems in case, for future years, our situation changes :).
@socalmom007 and @saillakeerie Take a look at the schoolâs AP/IB policy and the degree program for your childâs major. Most majors will require electives, and AP credits that donât count towards the major may be used there. I disagree that core classes have to be taken at the college attending. For schools that award AP/IB credit generously, that doesnât seem to be true. A spreadsheet would be helpful here. I created one for each of the colleges that D applied to and included AP/IB requirements for credit and bolded the ones that D already has and included the ones that she will take. Then I added the gen ed requirements and added next to each whether D will already have credit and noted how and the whether sheâll need to take a class. If a major or minor required class will also satisfy a gen ed requirement, I noted that as well in the gen ed section and the major/minor section. I also added DE classes to the mix and already confirmed that sheâll get credit (1 is a requirement for her major). D wonât use all her AP/IB/DE/CC credit, but sheâll use most of them.
@itsgettingreal17 Iâll add that to my spreadsheet, it really is a factor the weigh in, itâs almost a year of coursework that can be counted or not! At the community college she took music appreciation, cinema, Spanish 3, government, economics, and philosophy- so nothing related to her major.
Speaking of spreadsheets, does anyone elseâs friends and family think theyâre nuts? We have a spreadsheet with the schools, admissions decision, their faculty to student ratios, their Forbes ranking, any merit aide, and the net cost of each. People think weâre crazy, to me it just makes good sense to compare apples to apples.
@socalmom007 Youâre not crazy. I have a spreadsheet too. Started mine 4 years ago to begin listing all awards and ECs. Or maybe you are just in the company of many crazy people here. 8-}
@paveyourpath that could be! A lot of parents are totally checked out of the process, this is a big life decision and at just 17 my daughter is a child, she needs our guidance. Plus, since weâre paying for it we obviously have to be involved in comparing financial offers and the value of that education.
Iâm happily crazy. I have many spreadsheets. I donât know how weâd keep things straight otherwise. Both D and I consult them regularly.
@itsgettingreal17 I agree that credit given for AP/IB/other colleges will vary by college and degree (I said as much). With respect to core classes, I think there may be two issues. One is differences between colleges. Second is what we are calling âcore.â Colleges I have reviewed will not allow outside credit for chemistry for chemistry major or ChemE major. Or credit for organic chemistry taken at non-dual credit community college (final was ACS test). You typically can get credit for math/physics as chemistry/ChemE major. My view of âcoreâ class may be narrower than yours.
We never had spreadsheets for either college search. One was 8 schools and other was 3. Differences among the schools in terms of outside credit being available isnât enough to sway one way or the other. Though we drilled down on the one my son picked and will do so for my daughterâs pick. Small number (particularly the smaller search) really didnât seem to warrant spreadsheets for the search.
Weâre juggling a lot more schools than that, I can see your point.
We will pay for 4 years and will help with study abroad expenses, though she will be tasked to collect as much scholarship/fellowship/internship funding as possible.
As an IR major with high levels of Arabic and Chinese who would like to be career government/NGO, sheâs going to study abroad for a minimum of two semesters and all summers. Itâs part of the degree plan spreadsheet 
@socalmom007 - I am also a spreadsheet user and mine has lots of tabs. It helps me and DD not only to keep track of things but also very helpful in not having to look up the same information again and again.
Just like there are different colleges for different kids, different methods for selecting them depending on the kid/family makes sense. If your method works for you and your kid that should be all that matters.
@itsgettingreal17 I donât know how people keep it all straight without the spreadsheets either but Iâve realized some donât intend to keep it straight at all.
I had dinner with a friend last week and she listed the schools her daughter applied to. I kept waiting to hear of a safety. At least one. Never happened. Half the list ivies and the other half very highly selective. The students stats are 90th percentile and she has one very strong EC, but just the one EC. Stranger things have happened and I wish her the best but at this point I am just hoping she gets in somewhere. Mom seemed puzzled when someone mentioned the annual cost of the colleges on the lists. They are full pay with two other children at home. They will be full pay for each child, each and every year. I now realize that there are many families that donât realize how difficult the process is and, quite surprisingly, how much it will cost.
@saillakeerie I completely agree with you. There are going to be different methods of keeping it all straight.
@whataboutcollege, from what I have read in the financial aid forum here, the problem was that you are supposed to use the IRS retrieval tool to import tax return info, but then it brings over IRA distribution as well. But when you follow the instructions and zero it out because itâs a rollover, it invalidates the âtransferred from the IRSâ info, which is not what it is supposed to do.
I donât know if this newest FAFSA fixed that issue.
So some colleges might follow up and might want you to provide a tax transcript and/or rollover information.
I hate using spreadsheets for anything, so we are not utilizing any spreadsheets for the college search. Itâs all compartmentalized in my brain.
I admire you folks that are using them to compare so much data though, our search just didnât need to go that far in depth. We are not seeking aid, probably not getting too many merit offers, etc., so itâs just which school feels the best in the end.
I think the college search process itself Is pretty basic, it just seems to last forever.
^@whataboutcollege, here is a thread discussing the issue, but I have not seen anyone report if the 2017/18 FAFSA fixed the issue
@saillakeerie Dâs primary major will be accounting. Some core accounting classes for her are the 2 intro economics, intro stats, and calculus. So obviously it differs for different majors and different schools. No issues with others not using spreadsheets. Everyone has to do what works for them. For us, it just isnât doable without them as D applied to 17 schools and wants to combine multiple majors and minors/certificates and will do a significant number of study abroad programs. Not understanding how the pieces fit together at each school to accomplish her goals is a non-starter for us. I still recommend spreadsheets to everyone. It makes things easier.
My D attends an instate public school and she was able to use her AP credits and credit from a dual enrollment class (at another public U in our state) as a pre-pharmacy major. She used AP calc, econ, lit and history credit for some prerequisites and electives, freeing up her schedule to take a foreign language and ASL, which she was interested in.
Yes, every school has different AP/IB credit policies which should be on their websites.
Depends on major as well on which credits can be used.
Iâve helped two of my daughterâs friends formulate college lists, parents werenât involved at all. One, parents will pay whatever, wherever, but offered no guidance, the other parents at least told her they were ok with in state or WUE (western stateâs exchange rate), but that was the extent of the input. My daughterâs boyfriends parents have been very ambiguous. Theyâve given him no budget, but indicated theyâd pay if the school was highly prestigious. We found him several financial safeties because he just doesnât know how much theyâre willing to pay if itâs not Ivy or UCLA/UCB.