I am aware that I am young, but when looking at a college website, they said that they don’t accept AP placement exams for college credit. However, it says “students who acquire the equivalent of eight half-courses (that is, eight semester-long courses) of AP or IB-level credit are eligible for the Advanced Standing Program”. Can someone explain what they mean by eight semester-long courses in relation to AP credits?
Some AP classes are similar to one semester college courses; others are more like full year courses. The college seems to be saying that completing 8 semester equivalent classes qualifies a student for advance standing, and that some (such as Calculus BC) would count as two.
So a couple of things:
The quote the OP cites is from Harvard, which last year changed how they assign credit to courses. Previously, a one semester course was called a half-course. Now it’s 4 credits (with limited exceptions.) So the new rule is that one needs 32 credits to gain Advanced Standing, Here is the current AP credit list:
https://oue.fas.harvard.edu/apexams
So with the exception of some exams that are generally regarded as semeter equivalents, (e.g. micro, macro), Harvard give 8 credits for a 5 on the exam, if they accept that subject. So AP US Gov, for instance, earns no credit all.
With 32 credits, a Harvard student can choose to activate Advanced Standing (and most of those eligible choose not to do so), which means that they can graduate in 3 years, assuming all their requirements are met.
If a student does not activate Advanced Standing, they get no credit from any AP exam, although depending on the department, you may be placed out of an intro class. Plus AP scores can be used to be exempted from the foreign language requirement.
Now here’s the kicker: You don’t say how young you are, but Harvard is eliminating Advanced Standing based on AP/IB beginning with the class entering 2020.