<p>I went to Cornell's studentcenter and checked out my transfer credits. I have taken about 15 APs since freshman year of HS and my scores were 4s/5s, so they just about all gave me credit.</p>
<p>I counted up the credits and they amassed to 47. What does this really mean? Can I actually place out of about 2.5 semesters? Will these help me graduate early/get an earlier masters (if I choose that path)? Or is 47 credits just a fabrication and it's wishful thinking to even assume I'd get all of them, haha?</p>
<p>Bottom line: what can I actually do with these credits in the long run?</p>
<p>The APs I got credit for, if that matters, are:
Calc BC (both scores), Micro, Macro, Engl. Lang, Phys B, Phys C Mech, Phys C E&M, US Gov, US History, Stat, and Spanish Language (or so it says).</p>
<p>You can use the transfer credits to fulfill graduation requirements, fulfill prerequisite requirements to take higher level courses, use them to graduate early, or go abroad for a semester or two, not having to worry about needing to take as many courses to graduate.</p>
<p>It depends what college you are in. For example, if you are in CAS, you can only use 20 of those AP credits, though at the very least you can place into higher level classes.</p>
<p>Yeah I’m in CAS, I guess my question would be how can I make the best use of all of these credits. I really can only use 20? 
Does placing out count towards these 20 credits? Can I say, use US Gov for a distribution requirement or something? It would be great if I could get all of those distribution/breadth requirements out of the way!</p>
<p>No, you can’t use those classes to fulfill any of your distribution requirements. To fulfill those requirements, the course has to be designated in the course catalog with the appropriate label. That <em>should</em> be part of the advantages of a liberal arts education that CAS provides.</p>
<p>As far as placing into higher level classes, it doesn’t really matter how you use your APs. The college will basically say you’ve earned 20 academic credits towards graduation. It won’t say really that it was from XYZ APs and not ABC APs. If you had say 15 AP credits and used a class to place into a higher level course, you’d still have all 15 of those credits applying to graduating.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that you’ve now maxed out on your non-CAS credits. So if you take an AEM course it won’t count for graduation. Only classes that at the very least cross-list in CAS will count towards your graduation. That said, many classes from other colleges are cross-listed in CAS.</p>