why do AP scores matter for grad school?

June 21, 2006 5:55 PM

is there any way to complete my application to drexel without sending them my AP us history score from 1998? of course there's

i applied to drexel's library school for distance learning for fall 2006. after some minor headaches (like my letters of rec being lost in the mail), i thought my application was complete and being reviewed for admission. today i called about an issue with my transcripts (the admissions people seemed confused by the community college district idea), they informed me that i had to send my AP scores still. at first i thought they meant my GRE scores, which the should be there soon since i took the test a week and a half ago. no- they want my AP scores. the original application never asked for them, nor had they contacted me about it. i took the AP us history test in 1998 and that was it. they saw it on my berkeley transcript, so i guess i have to prove it, though not my IB scores. is this common, or is drexel being weird?

i tried to talk to a few people in "customer service" today to find out if there's a way around it, but i guess there isn't. i don't know if i should try to navigate the phone maze to talk to an academic advisor for admissions or not. i know i talked to one about applying sans GRE, and she said if my college GPA was high enough (which it was), then i would be ok. i guess the same can't be true for high school.

sorry to rant a bit. i just really want to be done with this application and find out if i'm accepted. so in closing, is drexel being insane, or is this common practice in grad school admissions. i've never heard of it before today, and i've heard lots of my friends vent about the application process.

posted by kendrak to Education (8 answers total)

I never had to submit AP grades for grad school applications, although my undergrad transcripts clearly had credit listed for them.
posted by kcm at 6:08 PM on June 21, 2006

This seems like a strange practice to me in asking for the AP scores in this manner, but the bottom line is that you really don't have a choice; if you want to go through their admissions process, you need to play by their rules. It'll be easier just to send the scores as they request rather than trying to find ways around it.
posted by galimatias at 6:47 PM on June 21, 2006

This isn't a story involving grad school, but I just transfered from one undergrad school to another, and my new school required all my AP scores to prove that I actually deserved credits for the classes. The way the explained it was that the AP credits are technically transfer credits from high school to your first school, and any school you apply to afterwards needs proof of those AP "transfer credits".
posted by blueskiesinside at 6:58 PM on June 21, 2006

My guess is it will not affect your admission one way or another. They are just strict with forms. When I started taking graduate classes I knew the professor I wanted to be my advisor and the admissions office already accepted me in person, but they still had me go through the whole process including letters of recommendation, transcript, etc. They just couldn't approve an application without an application and you apparantly need to have an application approved to be admitted. I thought it was dumb and pointless and I got officially accepted within minutes of submitting the forms so I know they never even looked at them.

I have never been happy with college administration.
posted by Hypharse at 7:13 PM on June 21, 2006

Is your score particularly bad? If it's so bad that you want to hide it from the school, then it might be worth it to call around and try to avoid sending it in. Otherwise, I'd just send them. It costs a few bucks, but besides that, I can't see a disadvantage. Even if you did poorly on it, I can't imagine they would hold a high school AP score against you if you have a solid GPA and good GRE scores that are far more recent.
posted by zachlipton at 8:42 PM on June 21, 2006

Response by poster: i actually don't remember what i got, it was so long ago, but it must not have been bad if i got into berkeley for undergrad. (that seems to be my memory for most of high school.)

i don't mind shelling out another $25, i just don't want to wait another month for the college board to send my scores to drexel. i'd like to find out if i got in sooner, rather than later, which is why i applied almost a month ago.

i guess i'll send off my check tomorrow.
posted by kendrak at 10:05 PM on June 21, 2006

Just guessing here, but if you used that AP test to substitute for college credit then Drexel may consider it in the same category of credit from another school. They need copies of transcripts from all schools attended, even if you didn't get a degree from them, right? So, voila, they need the AP test scores too. A little silly in my opinion, but if this is the logic behind the policy (and not just a confused admissions officer), then it does have a certain logic. Anyway, no harm, and in the grand scheme of graduate school probably a trivial expense and hassle. Consider this a warmup.
posted by dness2 at 8:21 AM on June 22, 2006

Your high school should be able to fax the scores to Drexel's admissions... Back when I was doing this, they did 1 free fax of records per year.
posted by hatsix at 1:13 PM on June 22, 2006