I assume most applicants have taken several, if not many, AP tests during HS. DD is currently taking 5 AP classes and has to decide which tests she wants to take. I prefer not to pay for tests that don’t lead to credit at Smith. She plans to major in Government/International Relations/Asian Studies and will take the US Gov’t and Comparative Gov’t AP Tests.
The other tests she is eligible to take are:
AP Studio Art
Japanese
English Literature & Composition (has taken English Language & Composition)
European History (has taken US History)
The question is, are those listed above worth taking, or should she pass on them as Smith won’t apply credit? Would appreciate hearing from current or past students.
Is your daughter considering accelerating/graduating early? Otherwise I don’t think she needs to take any of the other four tests that you mentioned, as none of them would let her skip any intro classes. On the AP-course equivalency PDF, I’m not sure why they listed AP Lit/Lang as a substitute for English 118…ENG118 is the First Year seminar and I’m pretty sure a student has to take one even if the student passed an AP English test (I got a 4 on AP English Lit and still had to take the FYS). If she wants to continue taking Japanese at Smith, she’ll need to take a language placement exam during orientation (https://www.smith.edu/about-smith/registrar/placement-exams) no matter her AP score on an AP Japanese test.
The only other reason your daughter might want to take the AP tests is if she wants to build up some sort of reserve of credits to draw from if she has a health emergency or something. For example, if she were to be injured and have trouble doing work for a while, she could drop a class and “replace” it with AP credit so she could still graduate on time.
@skycry…thank you so much. Exactly what I was looking for. Especially wrt the English Lit AP test. She took the English Language & Comp AP test as a junior and received a 5; regardless, it seems she still has to take ENG118 as a freshman.
@Nanosour I may be wrong about this but I don’t think all FYS are Eng 118. You have to take a writing intensive course but do not have to take Eng 118.
@Nanosour oh yes, sorry, @BearHouse is right. My mistake. You do have to take a writing intensive class, but you don’t have to take a FYS. Many other English courses, like ENG199 (the gateway course for the English major) also count as a writing intensive. But many students end up taking a FYS as their writing intensive. And I just checked the course catalog and @BearHouse is right that there are FYS that are not ENG118 classes.