AP "unused exam" fee dispute with high school

[Anonymous]

My senior is about to graduate and I'm having trouble with this AP exam payment issue:
February - I paid for all AP exams.
April - my teen decides not to take a few, after checking with his chosen college that they do not give credit for those. He tells the school.
May - the school calls me before the exams, and I confirm which exams he's taking.

Now the school is asking for "unused exam" fees, which apparently the College Board is charging them. They said that since I did not cancel these exams, I have to pay not only the $100 per exam that I've already paid, but a $40 fee on top of that for not canceling each exam. They are insinuating my son can't walk at graduation if these fees are not paid.

The College Board website is unclear, because it says there is such a fee assessed, but in replacement of the full exam fee. So a partial refund, so to speak. I didn't request such a refund, since I was not aware that was possible, and the decision to skip some exams happened at the last minute at the end of April, when my son chose his future college and called them to ask about AP credit. His high school never said we had to initiate a separate cancelation procedure, so we just thought telling the school was sufficient - so they wouldn't keep a seat for him, or worry he was late.

Can someone give me some advice? It's been a trying school year, and I'm seeing red.

[Anonymous]

If the school is forced to pay for things for your kid, he can't walk at graduation. It's a financial obligation. Why don't you call the College Board? The school can't cancel the fees.

[Anonymous]

The college board is such a racket

[Anonymous]

So just have him show up...put his name onthe exam and leave. No extra fee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the school is forced to pay for things for your kid, he can't walk at graduation. It's a financial obligation. Why don't you call the College Board? The school can't cancel the fees.

OP here.

The school has more money than it should have gotten from me, since I did not request a refund. They have $60 extra dollars for each exam he did not take. The College Board wants $40, and I paid the school $100 per exam. At least, that's how I read the College Board website, which says that they assess a $40 fee for each unused exam, but they take the initial $100 fee off the bill. Elsewhere, the College Board also says that if I cancel (which I didn't know I could do), the school keeps a $40 fee. So it all hangs together.

But the person from his school that I am emailing with insists that I need to pay an extra $40 per exam regardless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So just have him show up...put his name onthe exam and leave. No extra fee.

Exams are over. The school is tacking on fees post-facto two weeks before graduation.

[Anonymous]

You signed up originally and made payment to college board?

[Anonymous]

I will double check with my daughter when she gets home, but I am 99% sure we paid for an AP last year that she ended up not taking. We were never assessed a fee.

[Anonymous]

OP the original cost will have gone to the college board, the school does not profit from those fees. They will be expected to pay these $40 per no show and it's on you.

Just pay up and be done with it. The college board and the MCPS are not going to side with you on this. You should have been more on top of it.

[Anonymous]

Last year my DC signed up to take AP World Modern, self-taught, and arranged to take it at school. She ended up changing her mind and cancelled. Her HS coordinator advised her she had just met the deadline for a refund. Consider it the fee for a no call-no show. Pay it and be done.

[Anonymous]

You're misreading.

https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/exam-administration-ordering-scores/ordering-fees/ordering-exam-materials/help/late-order-exam-fees

The $40 fee is charged if any of those three bullets happens. It isn't saying that if one of the first two bullets happens, then the original fee is returned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP the original cost will have gone to the college board, the school does not profit from those fees. They will be expected to pay these $40 per no show and it's on you.

Just pay up and be done with it. The college board and the MCPS are not going to side with you on this. You should have been more on top of it.

This. You can try to fight it but you have slim to no chance of not paying. Just pay and get it over with.

[Anonymous]

Why did you ever think the school would take care of the cancellation? The student has to cancel on her own and hope that it’s prior to the “no refund” date. Once it’s past that date, you owe the no show fee. It’s not your school. It’s you, who expected someone else to take care of the cancellation for you.

Time to pay up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're misreading.

https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/exam-administration-ordering-scores/ordering-fees/ordering-exam-materials/help/late-order-exam-fees

The $40 fee is charged if any of those three bullets happens. It isn't saying that if one of the first two bullets happens, then the original fee is returned.

That doesn’t make sense to me (NP here). It reads to me that the original fee is returned. OP, call the board tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

OP here. What do you understand from the College Board's own words? The bolded is key.



Unused/canceled exam fee

$40 per exam for:

Exams canceled in AP Registration and Ordering after November 15 and by March 15 (11:59 p.m. ET)
Exams that aren't taken and are indicated as unused in AP Registration and Ordering before the school's invoice is generated. (Invoices are generated after late testing ends.)
The original exam fee is removed from the invoice.