AP "unused exam" fee dispute with high school

[Anonymous]

^^^a series of posts from "the parents' coalition"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP here again with a real update!


I just received an email stating I would be credited with the partial refund I had requested.

So glad I did not just stupidly pay their extra $40 per exam they were insisting I owed, and that some posters on here thought I should pay.

I strongly suspect they pull this on every unsuspecting parent to fund their end-of-year party. They sent out a separate email this morning requesting donations for it! Nope, not after this...

Full disclosure: this is the lovely and competent administration at Walter Johnson high school. Maybe they think parents are so rich they can just pay $40 extra per exam to make the problem go away.


HA!!!

Good you and shame on all the rich DCUM posters who just think you should shell out anything the school demands even when they demand it incorrectly! Some people on this site have no idea any the value of money.

[Anonymous]

All the stuff I paid for as the parent of a senior this year at WJ:

Senior dues (cap, gown, tassels, do we have to contribute to the diploma and graduation space rental?) - $71
Yearbook - $70
5 AP exams - $505
Prom tickets for 2, senior plus guest - $106

The College Board allows payment of a reduced fee for AP exams if the family is financially-challenged, and I really hope that WJ helps out FARMS students with their prom tickets and senior dues.

The yearbook fee was on a vendor site, I'm not sure the school receives anything. I refused to pay for anything but the free photo package, but families could also buy expensive senior portraits. The rest is on SchoolCashOnline.com, and I know the school gets a little something from those sales. An MCPS employee wrote upthread that fees are used to compensate proctors, etc, and that's fair. But parties, gifts, celebrations? Not really.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The college board is such a racket

Yep. Had this happen to my kid in FCPS, ie school he decided to go to wouldn't give credit for any score on the exams but didn't know this until after he'd accepted which was after the AP exam sign up. I was so pissed. To make matters worse the school was requiring him to take the exams ie he couldn't just no show for the exams. He wasn't about to study for them and didn't want a "bad" score out there. I just called him in sick that day. So OP no solution, just know I feel ya'.

You made a parenting mistake. Those exams are worthwhile as preparation for college exams. Teach your child to follow through and complete their classes to the best of their ability. If your child would have received a "bad" score on an exam that he prepared for all year, then all the more reason to have him exert extra effort to learn the content (which is the whole point of the class.)

Not PP you replied to, but get back to us when you have a burnt-out senior on the verge of a breakdown who has already taken 12 AP courses and who knows that any extra exams he takes won't make any sort of difference, since the college does not give extra credit for those scores.

As a parent, you have to recognize what the best decision is here, and it's not "following through". No. These kids have worked like crazy for 4 years of high school to get where they are. They have already followed through. They have already demonstrated work ethic.

Shame on you for thinking they're flakes. They're probably harder working than you ever were.

Hmmm... mom of four who each went to school with more than a year's worth of AP credit. I've also been an AP teacher for 13 years. If your child gets to the end of the year and needs to do a lot of study to avoid a poor score on an AP exam, no, they haven't demonstrated work ethic during the year, and they definitely haven't "worked like crazy." But if that thought makes you feel better, knock yourself out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
All the stuff I paid for as the parent of a senior this year at WJ:

Senior dues (cap, gown, tassels, do we have to contribute to the diploma and graduation space rental?) - $71
Yearbook - $70
5 AP exams - $505
Prom tickets for 2, senior plus guest - $106

The College Board allows payment of a reduced fee for AP exams if the family is financially-challenged, and I really hope that WJ helps out FARMS students with their prom tickets and senior dues.

The yearbook fee was on a vendor site, I'm not sure the school receives anything. I refused to pay for anything but the free photo package, but families could also buy expensive senior portraits. The rest is on SchoolCashOnline.com, and I know the school gets a little something from those sales. An MCPS employee wrote upthread that fees are used to compensate proctors, etc, and that's fair. But parties, gifts, celebrations? Not really.

Vendors give the principal a cut. It's in the contract.

A little something from 165,000 students adds up to millions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
All the stuff I paid for as the parent of a senior this year at WJ:

Senior dues (cap, gown, tassels, do we have to contribute to the diploma and graduation space rental?) - $71
Yearbook - $70
5 AP exams - $505
Prom tickets for 2, senior plus guest - $106

The College Board allows payment of a reduced fee for AP exams if the family is financially-challenged, and I really hope that WJ helps out FARMS students with their prom tickets and senior dues.

The yearbook fee was on a vendor site, I'm not sure the school receives anything. I refused to pay for anything but the free photo package, but families could also buy expensive senior portraits. The rest is on SchoolCashOnline.com, and I know the school gets a little something from those sales. An MCPS employee wrote upthread that fees are used to compensate proctors, etc, and that's fair. But parties, gifts, celebrations? Not really.

Prom is optional, and you paying for your child's and your child's guest's prom ticket is really optional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The college board is such a racket

Yep. Had this happen to my kid in FCPS, ie school he decided to go to wouldn't give credit for any score on the exams but didn't know this until after he'd accepted which was after the AP exam sign up. I was so pissed. To make matters worse the school was requiring him to take the exams ie he couldn't just no show for the exams. He wasn't about to study for them and didn't want a "bad" score out there. I just called him in sick that day. So OP no solution, just know I feel ya'.

You made a parenting mistake. Those exams are worthwhile as preparation for college exams. Teach your child to follow through and complete their classes to the best of their ability. If your child would have received a "bad" score on an exam that he prepared for all year, then all the more reason to have him exert extra effort to learn the content (which is the whole point of the class.)

Not PP you replied to, but get back to us when you have a burnt-out senior on the verge of a breakdown who has already taken 12 AP courses and who knows that any extra exams he takes won't make any sort of difference, since the college does not give extra credit for those scores.

As a parent, you have to recognize what the best decision is here, and it's not "following through". No. These kids have worked like crazy for 4 years of high school to get where they are. They have already followed through. They have already demonstrated work ethic.

Shame on you for thinking they're flakes. They're probably harder working than you ever were.

Hmmm... mom of four who each went to school with more than a year's worth of AP credit. I've also been an AP teacher for 13 years. If your child gets to the end of the year and needs to do a lot of study to avoid a poor score on an AP exam, no, they haven't demonstrated work ethic during the year, and they definitely haven't "worked like crazy." But if that thought makes you feel better, knock yourself out.

Shame on you if you're really a teacher. You should know that anxiety is at an all-time high among teenagers. If you think burn-out isn't real, then you really shouldn't be teaching adolescents. If you carry over this attitude in the classroom, and believe that any student should be able to easily achieve in multiple AP courses and if they don't, it means they haven't worked hard, then you're WRONG. Simply and factually wrong. And you are despicable for having those opinions. I really hope you're a liar and just want to rile up people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP here again with a real update!


I just received an email stating I would be credited with the partial refund I had requested.

So glad I did not just stupidly pay their extra $40 per exam they were insisting I owed, and that some posters on here thought I should pay.

I strongly suspect they pull this on every unsuspecting parent to fund their end-of-year party. They sent out a separate email this morning requesting donations for it! Nope, not after this...

Full disclosure: this is the lovely and competent administration at Walter Johnson high school. Maybe they think parents are so rich they can just pay $40 extra per exam to make the problem go away.


HA!!!

That’s a great update! I hope they apologized for the whoopsie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here again with a real update!


I just received an email stating I would be credited with the partial refund I had requested.

So glad I did not just stupidly pay their extra $40 per exam they were insisting I owed, and that some posters on here thought I should pay.

I strongly suspect they pull this on every unsuspecting parent to fund their end-of-year party. They sent out a separate email this morning requesting donations for it! Nope, not after this...

Full disclosure: this is the lovely and competent administration at Walter Johnson high school. Maybe they think parents are so rich they can just pay $40 extra per exam to make the problem go away.


HA!!!

That’s a great update! I hope they apologized for the whoopsie.

The administrators at WJ truly are lovely. I think they announced that extra fee for cancelling back in the fall on the original AP emails, so it was a longstanding misunderstanding.

[Anonymous]

Such a total waste of time. Do you not have a job OP? You probably wasted more money on this issue than if you'd paid and got on with your life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here again with a real update!


I just received an email stating I would be credited with the partial refund I had requested.

So glad I did not just stupidly pay their extra $40 per exam they were insisting I owed, and that some posters on here thought I should pay.

I strongly suspect they pull this on every unsuspecting parent to fund their end-of-year party. They sent out a separate email this morning requesting donations for it! Nope, not after this...

Full disclosure: this is the lovely and competent administration at Walter Johnson high school. Maybe they think parents are so rich they can just pay $40 extra per exam to make the problem go away.


HA!!!

That’s a great update! I hope they apologized for the whoopsie.

The administrators at WJ truly are lovely. I think they announced that extra fee for cancelling back in the fall on the original AP emails, so it was a longstanding misunderstanding.

There is no misunderstanding when an illegal fee is demanded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here again with a real update!


I just received an email stating I would be credited with the partial refund I had requested.

So glad I did not just stupidly pay their extra $40 per exam they were insisting I owed, and that some posters on here thought I should pay.

I strongly suspect they pull this on every unsuspecting parent to fund their end-of-year party. They sent out a separate email this morning requesting donations for it! Nope, not after this...

Full disclosure: this is the lovely and competent administration at Walter Johnson high school. Maybe they think parents are so rich they can just pay $40 extra per exam to make the problem go away.


HA!!!

Walter Johnson is "charging" students $71 to attend their public school graduation. When will parents ask where that fee comes from? It's not authorized by the Maryland legislature or the Board of Education. It is a wholly made up fee by the WJHS principal. $71 is way more than the cost of a cap and gown.

Another example of how the WJHS principal is skimming cash off of parents by extorting money for things that are actually available to all for free under Maryland's public school laws.

There's no charge to attend your own graduation in Maryland public schools.

Well, yeah! She really needs that vacay in Bali after these last couple years!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here again with a real update!


I just received an email stating I would be credited with the partial refund I had requested.

So glad I did not just stupidly pay their extra $40 per exam they were insisting I owed, and that some posters on here thought I should pay.

I strongly suspect they pull this on every unsuspecting parent to fund their end-of-year party. They sent out a separate email this morning requesting donations for it! Nope, not after this...

Full disclosure: this is the lovely and competent administration at Walter Johnson high school. Maybe they think parents are so rich they can just pay $40 extra per exam to make the problem go away.


HA!!!

Walter Johnson is "charging" students $71 to attend their public school graduation. When will parents ask where that fee comes from? It's not authorized by the Maryland legislature or the Board of Education. It is a wholly made up fee by the WJHS principal. $71 is way more than the cost of a cap and gown.

Another example of how the WJHS principal is skimming cash off of parents by extorting money for things that are actually available to all for free under Maryland's public school laws.

There's no charge to attend your own graduation in Maryland public schools.

Well, yeah! She really needs that vacay in Bali after these last couple years!

Obv you missed the MCPS dept of transportation guys walking off with a cool million.
They deserved that cash, yeah.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here again with a real update!


I just received an email stating I would be credited with the partial refund I had requested.

So glad I did not just stupidly pay their extra $40 per exam they were insisting I owed, and that some posters on here thought I should pay.

I strongly suspect they pull this on every unsuspecting parent to fund their end-of-year party. They sent out a separate email this morning requesting donations for it! Nope, not after this...

Full disclosure: this is the lovely and competent administration at Walter Johnson high school. Maybe they think parents are so rich they can just pay $40 extra per exam to make the problem go away.


HA!!!

Walter Johnson is "charging" students $71 to attend their public school graduation. When will parents ask where that fee comes from? It's not authorized by the Maryland legislature or the Board of Education. It is a wholly made up fee by the WJHS principal. $71 is way more than the cost of a cap and gown.

Another example of how the WJHS principal is skimming cash off of parents by extorting money for things that are actually available to all for free under Maryland's public school laws.

There's no charge to attend your own graduation in Maryland public schools.

Well, yeah! She really needs that vacay in Bali after these last couple years!

Obv you missed the MCPS dept of transportation guys walking off with a cool million.
They deserved that cash, yeah.

And the WJ principal gets her cut of the transportation budget, too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here again with a real update!


I just received an email stating I would be credited with the partial refund I had requested.

So glad I did not just stupidly pay their extra $40 per exam they were insisting I owed, and that some posters on here thought I should pay.

I strongly suspect they pull this on every unsuspecting parent to fund their end-of-year party. They sent out a separate email this morning requesting donations for it! Nope, not after this...

Full disclosure: this is the lovely and competent administration at Walter Johnson high school. Maybe they think parents are so rich they can just pay $40 extra per exam to make the problem go away.


HA!!!

Walter Johnson is "charging" students $71 to attend their public school graduation. When will parents ask where that fee comes from? It's not authorized by the Maryland legislature or the Board of Education. It is a wholly made up fee by the WJHS principal. $71 is way more than the cost of a cap and gown.

Another example of how the WJHS principal is skimming cash off of parents by extorting money for things that are actually available to all for free under Maryland's public school laws.

There's no charge to attend your own graduation in Maryland public schools.

Well, yeah! She really needs that vacay in Bali after these last couple years!

Obv you missed the MCPS dept of transportation guys walking off with a cool million.
They deserved that cash, yeah.

And the WJ principal gets her cut of the transportation budget, too!

Trump loves embezzlement. Surprising how many of his fans are on this forum.