The college of engineering advises students to accept AP credits after entry into their degree granting major and in consultation with their advisers. In the majority of cases, engineering students will eventually accept the following AP credits:
English Language & Composition for ENGL 104
English Literature & Composition for ENGL 104
U.S. Govt. and Politics for POLS 206
U.S. History for HIST 105, 106
Art History for ARTS 149 & 150 (Visual& Performing Arts and International & Cultural Diversity elective requirements)
Comparative Government for POLS 329 (Social & Behavioral Science and International & Cultural Diversity elective requirements)
Human Geography for GEOG 201 (Social & Behavioral Science and International & Cultural Diversity elective requirements).
College of engineering advisers will review your math placement exam score, SAT/ACT math score, and AP credits prior to your NSC and provide a recommended math course once you arrive for your NSC. In preparation, students with AP math credit can also review old math examsposted by the Department of Mathematics at Texas A&M. New students will also receive a recommendation on accepting physics and chemistry credits at their NSC depending on their preferred major at that time.
You’ll notice no math or sciences are listed as typically accepted even though A&M grants credit. I will let those with more experience answer why that is with more detail.
My son was an engineering freshman last year. He did take his AP Calculus and Chemistry credits and did fine. Here are the 48 credits he accepted: CHEM 101, CHEM 102 CHEM 111, CHEM 112, ENGL 104, ENGL 203, ENGL 241, GERM 101, GERM 102, HIST 102, HIST 105, HIST 106 MATH 151, MATH 152, POLS 206, PSYC 107. He could have taken a few more, but as discussed in another thread, you have to be careful and not hit the maximum graduation credit limit.
He scored 5s in the Chemistry and Calculus AP exams, and had some post AP math classes in high school, so he felt comfortable going right into Vector Calc. and then Differential Equations.
For students in majors requiring several math, physics or chem classes, they are often advised against taking their AP credits because of the risk of being placed in second or third semester course for which they are not prepared. If a student has enough AP credits in a subject to be done with that subject, however, then I think the student will be advised to take the credits. For example, certain engineering majors need only 1 semester (4 credits) of chemistry, so accepting AP credits is recommended. The student needs no more chemistry, so taking the AP credits is fine. Of course, a ChemE major will be advised against taking the AP Chem credit.
I know several engineering students who had enough AP Calculus credits to start in Calc 3 (MATH 251). A&M advised them against taking their AP credits, but then allowed them to start in Calc 2 (MATH 152) instead.
From our experience, since engineering students are no longer accepted into a specific engineering branch, but only into general engineering, the NSC advising is essentially worthless. No longer one-on-one or even several students in a room with an actual advisor from their preferred engineering field, the students are assigned a general engineering advisor, given no time to meet with the advisor one-on-one, and advised as a homogenous blob. The kids we know were completely at a loss as to what to register for, unless they were able to get info from upperclassmen, siblings, me, Facebook, etc. We were terribly disappointed with the lack of advising at the NSC. Even now, my freshman cannot get an appointment with an advisor. Not good.
Wow @Barfly That seems pretty scary that A&M doesn’t give time to new students when choosing their classes. I plan on accepting all of those credits listed above in the A&M FAQ, and also accepted CHEM and probably at least some physics and calculus. Ill just have to break my balls to make sure I don’t fail out.
Yep, @crazierussia, I agree that it is pretty scare. Yep, @gettingschooled, I agree it doesn’t bode well for 25 by 25.
My lucky son has Aggie siblings in the same major. He and I were advising other kids as best we could. But there was no help from A&M. Not good. Not happy. Not impressed. Nope.
They tell students not to accept any AP credits without talking to their counselor, but my son can’t get an appointment to talk to the counselor, so he is going to go ahead and accept Gov’t, Hist, Engl, Chem, Psych and Spanish. Those are harmless in his major.
Two engineering daughters who took all their AP credits ( history, govt, english, etc) with the exception of math and the first Physics. They would recommend taking the AP credit for the second physics class, Physics 208 (in order not to take that particular weed out class second semester) but chose to keep the math classes and 218 Physics class. Not only were the math classes a good basis for the upcoming math classes but, for them, it boosted the GPA, especially helpful when you are competing for limited spots in specific majors second semester. When the average GPA for getting into some of the specific majors was a 3.7 or so at the end of the first semester of your freshman year, it is important to schedule your freshman classes carefully.
Not only was this information pointed out, numerous times, by the NSC advisors, but my daughters also met with their advisors a couple of times during their freshman year (and numerous times in the years beyond) and they generally found them extremely helpful but a couple of times it wasn’t helpful at all. So persevere, do your research, get your questions answered and understand the advisors are not going to tell the students what to do or hold anyone’s hand.