That’s so completely different from Washington. Very interesting.
Wow that’s nice they pay for them. Here at our school in IL we pay for them. This year however, if our kid decides not to take one beforehand they can change their mind and we get a refund. Usually no refunds or only get some money back.
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Our school is the same, you have to take the AP test to get the GPA weighting. But, we also don’t have to pay for the test so that’s fine.
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@AlmostThere2018 @burghdad Im so envious of you parents whose kids have final results and have made their decisions. I know it’s kinda not my life but I hate this limbo feeling and not knowing anything because the schools my S21 applied to
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Tell me about it! My daughters we knew in December of senior year, my oldest we knew in February, even though he ultimately blew college off altogether and this one won’t even know his decisions until April. He’s pretty chill but I am a planner and can’t believe we have to deal with this waiting and his sport season starts in April since it was delayed, and then AP exams in May!
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Same for us. They are required to take the AP exam. I’d say we don’t “have to pay” for the test, but I know it’s buried in our tuition. We’re definitely paying for it with no option for refund! Ha.
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LOL, I guess ours is buried in our property taxes!
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Same! S21 won’t even look at any of the admitted student info from the schools he’s been accepted at until he gets an answer from his top 2. Sometime this month!
We get to pay and have to take them all. Mostly, I’d just rather relieve him of the obligations. I don’t care so much about losing the fees.
@srparent15 LOL. It’s the planner part that kills me. S21 doesn’t even show that he cares at this point. We got news that swim is a purple tier sport so they get swim in March. He says he’s been so out of swim shape because we’ve been shut down. I’m just happy they can get out.
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@MommaLue – Alas, my S has not made a final decision, and he still has some more decisions coming in.
He has narrowed his list, but still a ways to go b4 it’s final. He’d like to visit a couple (road trip!) in April, if possible.
I do look forward to a decision. Of course, based on my experience with D18, as soon as it’s final where he’s headed, I’ll start to freak out with the idea of him gone! And this time it means an empty nest. Ack!
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@MommaLue Exactly! That’s the hard part for me too. Mine plays tennis and finally was able to get back and play about a week ago after everything being shut down for 2 months. Now he can hopefully get in shame and ready for April and the season will go until mid-June which is fine too. No more camp here and for us the later start to the season at least means warmer weather, but a jammed back end of senior year maybe.
Admittedly we did things somewhat backwards, but DS applied widely and now we are going through the process of specifically looking at which courses he would get credit for, hours required for double major or minor, credit by exam, etc. I am amazed that entities that charge what I feel is a lot of money are not better able to answer questions than we have seen so far.
DS has sent specific questions re the above to a few schools and one response was once enrolled, you will get all the answers. I had him respond that without the answers in advance he would not be able to enroll. It takes more time than it should I feel.
Think of it as a great opportunity to add minors or a second major without having to add extra time. It frees up space in the schedule that would have gone to GenEd. Also, are you sure students take 3 classes? Usually 4 is minimum (12 hours) to be considered a full time student, which is sometimes important for insurance, financial aid, etc. I advise students as part of my job, and 5 classes is fairly typical unless a student has brought in a lot of credits (or if they are behind and take 6, which I don’t recommend).
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Re APs, I was just talking to my S about this–he has all math and science APs and will be a physics or some other type of math/science major. Is there any point in taking the APs his senior year? We pay over $100 per test, and he has 4 this year. I believe our school offers refunds up to a certain date. Even if the college he eventually goes to gives credit for the APs it seems like he wouldn’t want to opt out of the classes if those are important to his major. I can’t believe that the AP classes are equivalent to what you learn in a college class.
Last year, one of S’s exams would not go through, so he had to retake. He did OK on his exams, though got a 3 on one that I think he would’ve gotten a 4 or 5 on had there been the multiple choice part. I’m a little concerned about the format of the exams and whether he will be prepared for them as it doesn’t look like his high school will be back in person this year.
One reason for him to take them is just to finish out the class/year as intended. They stop learning new material in March and start review for the AP exams. If he doesn’t take them, he might be even more checked out than he normally would. It will be interesting to see if he finishes high school strong–with online school, covid shutting everything down, having college acceptances, and senioritis–can he stay motivated to do well in classes? Without the AP exams, he may feel like there’s no goal left.
Feeling a little envious here too! S21 isn’t really looking at any of the info from the schools he’s been accepted to yet, or even really talking about them with us. I think he’s overwhelmed trying to picture himself there while he is still waiting to hear from a handful of schools, while also managing a full semester of tough classes and dealing with increasing pandemic fatigue. I’m hoping a road trip in April, along with some signs of spring will energize him and help him to figure out where he belongs. It just seems so far away!
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I believe this year (like last year) schools pay CB for the AP exams only once they are taken. Last year my son didn’t take one of the two he’d registered for. Unfortunately, we knew he wouldn’t be taking it in early March so we cancelled it with the school a few days before everything-COVID, so we paid that $40 cancellation fee on top of the exam fee for that test. But then CB announced shortly after that they were getting rid of that fee and allowing refunds due to COVID (same as they’ve announced this year). Even though we’d cancelled before that announcement, I went to the school when the new year began this fall - they checked the roster of all exams that had been submitted, confirmed that he indeed did not take it, and refunded us both the exam fee and the cancellation fee since they themselves were never charged for either by CB (CB only charged the school for exams taken).
At Bowdoin I believe it’s always four. You need special permission to take five and I think you probably need to have a special situation to only take three.
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Yours will before you know it…
Same with us…Empty nest…
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