Hi Everyone!
Just had a quick question and hoped someone could answer it here! Last year during my junior year of high school I wanted to take AP Bio but it was full at my school. I decided I would sign up for an online course at BYU IS online. Fast forward to March/April and with APs coming up I was not even somewhat near finishing the course but had signed up and paid for the AP test. I quickly decided to buy a test prep book and just studied out of that. Fast forward to July and I still am not even close to finishing my course- it’s pretty bad and a TON of work I’m only half way done with first semester. I ended up getting a 4 on the AP. My question is- for college APs is it better to just suck it up and finish the course or say that I self studied for the AP. If I were to say I self studied where would I put that on the Common App/UC App/etc. Thanks!
You have begun the class. If you cannot formally withdraw without an F that must be reported on your transcript, you need to finish at least the first semester of the course.
Is your school recording the AP Bio on your transcript as independent study? If so, it’s unlikely graded and not included in your GPA. At least that’s how my D’s Independent study Latin course is handled at her school.
The question is whether or not you’ll need to send a copy of the BYU transcript to colleges when you apply. Hopefully someone else here will have an answer to that. If not, I don’t see any reason why you can’t simply say you self-studied for the AP Bio which happens to be the truth.
Just to clarify- my school doesn’t factor outside courses into their own transcript/my GPA. So if I were to just not finish it I would just not send in the BYU transcript with no consequence other than the money lost.
You need to determine whether ot not the BYU class falls into a category of coursework that must be reported on college applications. If it were a college course, you would need to report it no matter what the grade - pass, fail, withdraw, whatever. All of those must be reported.
If the course must be reported, your best option is to formally withdraw. No one will care about a W on an extra class when you ended up self-studying for and doing well on the AP exam. If it must be reported, and it is too late to withdraw from the first semester, then you need to focus long enough to earn a decent grade for the first semester. If it does not need to be reported ever, then withdraw now, and get on with your life.