Does anyone know if AP Physics 1 or 2 will translate to college credit? I see that they list Physics B, but I am not sure if that’s the same thing. Thanks!
|Physics B |3 or 4|PHYS 1xxxx|
|5|PHYS 22000 and 22100|This says that:
3 or 4 on physics 1 or 2 = PHYS 1XXXX (presumably non-specific credit)
5 on physics 1 = PHYS 22000
5 on physics 2 = PHYS 22100
Thanks for the link - the page I was on did not show that information 
Purdue is pretty generous with AP credit. Just be careful using it for courses in your major and discuss first with your advisor.
Interesting! Is it because it is better to take certain classes at the “college” level? Or will it not count in his major and count as an elective?
My daughter is a junior chem e at Purdue. She used her AP credits to cover all her gen eds. For her major, she only used her AP calc score to place out of Calc I. She took the Purdue chemistry sequence (which was recommended by her advisor) and was in honors eng design so no option to use her AP physics C credits.
What she said is that the pace and depth was so much greater than HS, that they covered an entire year of HS AP material in a month. She has no regrets in listening to her advisor’s advice.
That said, even if you don’t use your AP credits for placement, they still are considered for your standing so my D started at Purdue 3 credits shy of being considered a junior. That helps with registration and housing.
Interesting about registration and housing. So much to learn! So your D pretty much knocked out her Freshman and Sophomore years before she set foot on campus? Did that have any effect on her bonding with other freshman since she was so far ahead of the game?
A student who is unsure about taking advanced placement can try the old final exams of the courses that can be skipped to check knowledge against the college’s standards.
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She knocked out her general education credits and technically had that standing. BUT, she still was in freshman classes with her peers - engineering design, chemistry, calc II, honors seminar, oral communications. I’m assuming engineering students are all given the same advice about what to use credit for and what to retake. Some students did skip ahead more depending on what they took in HS.
The reality is thought that there are so many required courses for the major, in a specific course sequence, that you’ll always be with peers for the majority of your coursework.
Also note, that AP/DE credits don’t help you graduate any earlier at Purdue (at least for engineering). Too many required courses with pre-reqs make that impossible. What it does do is open a schedule for certifications, minors, research, lighter loads during difficult semesters, etc…
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Surprised about some things implied here:
- That she can retain the AP credit after retaking the college course.
- That registration priority is naively based on credits rather than more finely categorized (e.g. frosh getting priority for frosh level courses, etc.).
- That housing prioritizes upper class students at a big public where it is more typical for frosh to live on campus.
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Yep, the credits stay on her transcript, but obviously not the grades. That said, I don’t really know how that really matters because she still needs to meet the course requirements with Purdue courses to graduate. IMO, it’s semantics.
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Registration priority is based on a lot of things, much more nuanced than just priority. And my understanding is that there was a change this semester. (D is on coop so we haven’t seen the system in place first hand.)
First year freshman orientation is done differently. Students meet with their advisors, discuss required courses and electives, choose some back up electives, and then a few weeks later, a computer system puts you into your courses. It’s our third year at Purdue and I’ve never heard of any students not getting into a required course. Never. 8 semesters and out is the university’s goal for every student.
After first semester freshman year, there are different registration slots that open by standing so seniors go first, then juniors, sophs, freshmen. IMO, that only impacts older students getting priority for electives. All required courses are going to hold slots for students in their class level.
The one thing that happens at Purdue is that class times are where students don’t have that much control. Departments will get everyone the schedule they need, but maybe not the schedule they want ; ). It may include an 8:30 am lecture, a 6:30 pm lab, or a Saturday class. That’s where students gripe a lot but it all works out that they get into their courses.
One of the early things that impressed us with Purdue was that the department admin told us if there are problems scheduling, students can go directly to her and she will override the system and get them into the class they need. My understanding is that’s the norm for required classes.
- Incoming freshmen make up the biggest group of on campus students. Dorms are specifically set aside for freshmen. That said, there are plenty of dorms that cater to upperclassmen and because of the coop program, many students opt to stay on campus longer than at other big schools because you can come and go without needing to deal with subletting.
Purdue has added a bunch of new dorms over the last decade, two since my D has been on campus, and are trying to encourage more students to stay on campus. There are lots of academic supports on campus and studies show that students living on campus are more apt to use those supports and stay on track for graduation. All the freshman dorms have tutoring help rooms in the buildings.
(Probably more detail than you needed @ucbalumnus but I included it for others reading this.)
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Ok, that makes sense for 2 and 3, which is what I would expect any college in a similar situation to do.
I agree the credit thing is weird. D has technically been a “senior” since the end of 1st semester sophomore year. It almost seems like a reward for taking AP/DE credits in HS ; ). FWIW, it is broken out into a different category on her transcript.
I literally just got off the phone with Purdue pertaining to some of this. My daughter (if she decides to go to Purdue) will be an incoming first year with 60 hours of college credit. Not AP, actual college courses taken on college campuses- and she will enter the first registration and residency assignments like any other first year. Her registration standing and housing priority will change for the following years assignments, but first years are all treated the same regardless of credit earned (according to the person I just got off the phone with).
And she will graduate early, likely in 2 years, because her DE credits were taken on a college campus and comparable to Purdue courses. The key is to make sure the DE course is on the University’s transferable credit listing.
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I would agree that students, especially engineering students, think hard before accepting AP placement in Calculus, Physics, and Chemistry and jumping to a second semester course.
Much as CB likes to say “these are college level courses”, they’re not. At least not at stronger universities (MIT says only 10% of students with 5’s on the Chem AP actually pass their placement exam). GenEd credits are great, but my D stuck with Chem/Calc/Physics 1 and they were certainly not easy. And yes, she’s been a “Senior” for a while. But so were many of the other engineering students in her Freshman, Soph, Jr, courses. They all follow the same general course sequence. You can free up time for electives, but it’s very hard to accelerate through the actual engineering curriculum.
To the original question - Physics B hasn’t been offered since 2014 - I wonder how much longer they’ll keep that credit info. And AP Physics 1 and 2 (Algebra-based) won’t replace any Engineering Physics courses, which are Calc-based from day 1.
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Trying the college’s old final exams for the courses that it allows skipping would allow the student to make a more informed decision about whether to take advanced placement.