AcademicAffairs@NOVA

New advanced placement (AP) credit equivalencies are coming to NOVA soon! Beginning with the 2025-26 Catalog, NOVA and the VCCS will begin applying the updated, system-wide AP credit equivalencies. These will take effect in time for fall 2025 registration. Here is a crosswalk that compares previous AP score equivalencies with new ones.

📅 Key date: New equivalencies apply to AP scores received on or after April 1, 2025.

🔍 What’s not changing: AP credits awarded before April 1, 2025, will not be retroactively adjusted, as the VCCS lacks the resources to manually update past credits, and former equivalencies may have already impacted students’ academic planning and financial aid.

💡 One open question: Discussions are ongoing about allowing students to opt out of applying certain AP scores. For example, a student hoping to transfer into a university pre-med program may not want their score of a 3 for AP Biology applied, but may instead want their score of 5 for AP History used toward program requirements. The VCCS is investigating the options for a system-wide approach to this.

🚀 Why it matters: This change ensures consistency and faster credit processing, but some details are still being finalized. Stay tuned for updates!

—Eun-Woo Chang, Ph.D., vice president of academic affairs and chief academic officer