AP Course designation

[Aloha2U]

What would be the advantage of having a course syllabus approved by the college board? From what I've seen, the colleges wherein my young man will most likely attend require unweighted grades when submitting his transcript, so what would he benefit by having the course designated as AP vs Honors, especially if he passes the AP Exam with a good score? Do the colleges assign more merit for the AP course designation, and... if so, how would that effect scholarships, placement, and credit? It's my understanding that the aforementioned colleges only assign credit for the completed AP Exams, depending on the score earned, regardless of a completed AP Course. Can anyone help me clarify and understand this?

[kokotg]

Here's my experience: my son has done 4 AP courses at home so far, and earlier this year I had a moment where I thought I'd really messed up by not getting syllabi approved when I found out that UGA--one of the schools he'll definitely apply to--only weights AP grades. Not honors, not dual enrollment. But I e-mailed admissions to ask if they'd still weight the grades if he took (and passed) the AP exams but his transcript read something like, "US History with AP exam." And they told me they would. So I stopped worrying (I'm also making sure to save the e-mail in case anyone tries to tell us something different in the future). UGA was really the only one I was worried about it because it's such a huge school and, in the Early Action round, doesn't do holistic admissions. Anywhere else he applies will be much smaller and, I'm assuming/hoping, more likely to take the time to figure out what's going on with his relatively wacky homeschool transcript.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

One reason to submit a syllabus is to get access to sample tests shared through the course audit site.

It might give you a little leverage with high schools when looking for a testing site. 

It can be justification for your weighting of grades on the transcript you create. Colleges will do what they will with grades and weighting. My concern was that I doubted any would weight higher than what I submitted.  

The schools my kids were most interested in changed a lot through high school. 

[Aloha2U]

How do colleges most commonly weight AP courses?

[Aloha2U]

Well, after calling our top 3 most desirable colleges, it turns out that two of them—State and Private Universities—base everyone's GPA on an unweighted 4.0 scale. The other one, a Private University, bases GPAs on a weighted 4.5 scale (which includes Honors and AP Courses, but not Dual Credit), so I go could either way. Our local CC does not care if weighted or unweighted transcripts are submitted.

The state university bases admissions entirely upon SAT/ACT scores and AP scores sent from the college board, especially from homeschoolers who specifically have to go through a special admission committee before applications are even considered. I was met with much contempt—equal to the experience with the local high school when I inquired about dual credit, which was no surprise—when I called, and the individual I spoke with would not condescend to answer my specific questions. Not home educator friendly. Thankfully, the dual credit courses of interest that this university offers, as well as the undergraduate courses, can be taken online. That being said, I can see where submitting a course syllabus for college board approval may be a good idea in this case, particularly when shooting for merit scholarships. 

Both of the aforementioned private universities do their own assessments, regardless of weighted or unweighted transcripts.

I’ll just document as much as possible, as best as possible, with unweighted grades and let the colleges do their own weighting, which may give rise to a more desirable first impression and interpretation of worthiness upon reading the transcript. 

 

[8filltheheart]

Our experience is that universities do not care one way or the other if it the course is labeled AP or course X compatible with AP exam.