Emory has revamped its Test Credit Policy, decreasing the amount of credit hours incoming students can receive for AP and IB tests from 24 to 12, according to the new AP, IB and Other Pre-Matriculation Test Credit Policy. The change will begin affecting students who enroll at Emory or Oxford College Fall 2018. The Curriculum, Assessment and Educational Committee made that decisions last year..
Students with more than four test scores can receive a non-credit bearing course waiver for each additional score. The additional tests do not count for credit, but they will allow students to enroll in higher level classes.
Emory will no longer accept scores of 4 for AP Art History; AP Government and Politics: Comparative and United States (U.S.); AP European History; AP U.S. History; AP World History; and AP Psychology. Students must receive a score of 5 on the aforementioned AP tests to receive credit.
Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Joanne Brzinski said individual departments reviewed data to determine whether students should continue receiving credit for 4s on AP exams.
“Departments like psychology where they … did a review of the students who’d received 4s and 5s on their exams … decided that only students with 5s [would receive credit],” Brzinski said. “[Professors in the history department] had not been fans of the AP curriculum for a while, whereas other departments really made significant changes based on how students did after they went on with particular test scores.”
Emory will no longer give credit for IB Business Management; IB Computer Science; IB Music; IB Philosophy; IB Social and Cultural Anthropology; and IB Dance. Emory will now accept only a 6 or 7 on IB Chinese; IB Film; IB Psychology; and IB German.
Brzinski said Emory was “out of step with peer institutions,” such as Vanderbilt University (Tenn.), Duke University (N.C.) and Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.), which only accept higher test scores and transferred fewer credit hours in comparison to Emory’s.
Emory College and Oxford College faculty collaborated “to reduce [the] number of accepted hours” and “to allow departments to evaluate individual tests” because the “quality of the AP curriculum varied,” Brzinski said.
Emory College and Oxford College previously had different credit transfer policies. Emory accepted 24 credits and Oxford accepted 12. Oxford College students are now also able to receive credit for classes that are offered on the Atlanta campus but not at Oxford College.
“We had different admissions standards for AP credit [without] good reason for it,” Brzinski said. “Different choices were made by the faculty members because we have different committees.”
In addition, incoming students are only allowed to have 18 credits total from transient study and transferred test credit. The changes do not apply to current students, who are allowed up to 24 credits of combined transient and test credit.
Brzinski added that the changes will allow students to be “on an even plane.”
“Part of the reason for actually combining the credits that students bring in from high school and the ones that they take after they get here, is it seems to be a matter of fairness that some students have the ability to receive AP credit and some students don’t just because of the nature of the courses that are offered at their high school,” Brzinksi said.
Student Government Association (SGA) Sophomore Representative Johnna Gadomski (20C) told the Wheel that the old policy allowed her to explore more classes in her major because she received a lot of credit hours from her AP tests.
“The policy as it was before definitely benefited me as a student coming into Emory, and it has allowed me a lot more flexibility with the classes that I want to take,” Gadomski said.
Jasmine Bovia (21C) said that she came to Emory because the institution accepted “so many” of her AP credits.
“All of the AP classes that I took I felt like were paying off because in turn I get to graduate early because I have a semester out of the way,” Bovia said. “While they’re trying to be competitive they need to keep in mind it’s so important for students to be able to take the credits that they already have and be able to use that to move forward.”
