<p>Hi All
Thought about putting this in the test area but I really wanted fellow parent experience and advice on how their child handled the AP credit/placement situation when they got to college.</p>
<p>Based on D's top schools, # of AP classes she'll take before she graduates and her past performance on tests (including some APs already) she will qualify for up to 28 credits before she enters the doors. My initial reaction was "great! You'll start off almost as a sophomore" and she'd be able to graduate in 3 years, giving her a head start in graduate school and saving a year of tuition. But...given that she plans on a semester of study abroad, and an internship that would probably mean her 1st year would be on campus, her 2nd year would half study abroad/half internship and then she'd have her senior year. </p>
<p>I can see a lot of benefits: double major, financial, time.
But I have concerns: rushing through, not getting the full college experience. </p>
<p>So here is my question: how do colleges handle this (and I realize every one probably does it differently, YMMV, check with admissions) If you have a full tuition scholarship and you enter with 28 AP credits, do they stop paying after you hit 120 credits? If a college does accept AP credit, can you pick and choose which classes they give you credit for and you can use the rest for placement?</p>
<p>S1 had two renewable merit scholarships that continued to pay each year even though he was well past 120 credits. I believe his scholarships said they were renewable for 8 semesters rather than a number of course credits. I know at least one class he took was a graduate level class, so no restrictions on course selection. He just graduated from our big state u. in May.</p>
<p>He had 20 hours worth of AP’s going in but found that all of them were not useful.
For instance, he had credit for AP Biology but Biology was not an acceptable science class for his major. Different sciences were required and the Bio. didn’t really fill an elective need either. AP Eng. Comp did not allow him to skip first sem. Eng. either since the Eng. dept. wanted to see a portfolio of written work from several high sch subjects, which of course S1 had not saved (never thought there would be a need).</p>
<p>Sons merit scholarship specifies 4 years or 8 semesters so # of earned credits don’t matter. </p>
<p>He was advised not to use AP credit for a few courses as they were important builder classes for his major. Other than that extra credits allowed him to double major in two different departments. Also gave him higher class ranking whch in many colleges allows you to choose classes first. He liked getting better seats at sporting events.He also loved not having to take intro classes in subjets he didn’t like as the AP counted for these.</p>
<p>Be careful if your student wants to go to med school as there are different rules depending on the med school on AP credit.</p>
<p>My son had 20 credits from AP classes when he started at his college as a chemical engineering major. Heeding advice given to him at orientation, he used 16 credits to waive out of two semesters of chemistry, one semester of calculus and one semester of psychology (an elective). Even though he had waived out of it, he chose to take Calculus II to be sure he had a solid math base for his engineering major and is glad that he did this as the class covered material that his AP class had not. So, the 16 AP credits he did use effectively made him a second semester freshman when he started college. He is a second semester junior when he returns this fall and at this point he is probably not going to graduate a semester ahead of his classmates- rather he is using the extra semester to allow him the ability to complete two minors and stay on a particular curriculum track with the other chemical engineering majors he started out with. During his senior year, he may also consider starting a 5th year master’s degree program his school offers or he could take a lighter load in his final year to give him more time for research. (Others might have used that extra semester for a co-op experience) The point is, AP credit, when thoughtfully applied, gives a student flexibility to do a number of things. (Or it can save his/her parents some tuition money!)</p>
<p>In further response to the OP, son’s school does not cut off financial aid when he achieves certain number of credits, it pays for 8 semesters, and if he pursues his master’s degree in his senior year and post grad year he gets financial aid for that 5th year too.</p>
<p>A final benefit to mention, at my son’s college, when students register for classes their registration time slot correlates to how many credits they have. The more credits they have the earlier they can log on to register for their next semester’s classes. AP credits count towards this. He has never been blocked out of a course he wanted because of this. This can be particularly beneficial when trying to get a spot in smaller classes or upper level course sections.</p>
<p>In talking to admissions folks and registrars at several colleges, the concensus seems to be that A) it is up each school and then up to the registrar if/what to accept from AP credits B) the acceptable scores also differ; some(but fewer and fewer) will accept a score of “3”, while others want a “4” or “5” C) no, you can’t pick and choose what classes the credits will cover. Things also depend upon the student’s major.What is would work for a vocal performance major would not be the same for a biochem major…And we thought that the hard part had passed once they were accepted!</p>
<p>Son has full tuition scholarship which covers 8 semesters of classes, with a max of 18 units/ Semester. He started as a “Sophomore” with 32 AP credits, which allowed him to register earlier for classes than most other Freshman, and had some of his core requirements waived because of his AP scores. He was also placed in more advanced math and physics classes as a result of both his AP scores, and the placement test he was required to take. Top colleges [H, Chicago for instance] can impose pretty big restrictions on how AP credit can or can’t be used to waive classes.</p>
<p>Thanks guys! Y’all are awesome and I knew I’d get reliable info and great strategic advice. </p>
<p>I just jumped over to take a look at the wording of the scholarships for the schools that she’s looking at and they do say “4 years.” So thanks for the heads up on that. And that’s a nice benefit that you get to register ahead of your fellow students; I knew that from back in my day, but had forgotten. </p>
<p>The grad classes in the 4th year would be a great option & she’s already talked about a double major so I’ll be showing her this thread.</p>
<p>Credit for AP courses varies WIDELY. Even at two mid-tier Texas state schools, Son would have had 15 hours at one and 6 at another. Some schools require a 5 for credit and a like school will require a 3.</p>
<p>DD has noted that already and has that listed on her sheet for each of the colleges that she’ll be applying to. 1 or 2 of the schools will give credits for scores of 3-5 while others are 4 or 5 with some classes limited to a 5. Other schools are “placement only.” I don’t think any of the schools dismiss them; I think the most rigid one at least uses them for placement.</p>
<p>I would suggest that if you are a science major do NOT try to get AP credit for science courses–those intro level courses are where you learn how things in your dept. work, who you talk to in order to ‘get things done’, etc. Try to get AP credit in non-science areas, to fulfill English/history requirements, for example.</p>
<p>Now if you are not a science major, then maybe try to get science AP credit to fulfill a science requirement. You’d want to take the intro english/history courses for the same reason the science major would take the intro chem or bio.</p>
<p>^I think you need to judge for yourself. My son is minoring in physics and has gotten A’s in the advanced physics courses he jumped right into at Carnegie Mellon. He would have been bored taking a beginning physics course.</p>
<p>Sometimes it’s just luck of the draw. S1 had credit for Calc.1 due to his AP Calc.AB score. I prodded him to take Calc1 during freshman first semester anyway as a sort of review. He got a foreign teacher with a very thick/hard to undestand accent. HIs teaching method was totally diff. than what S had learned in AP so was confusing. S failed the first two tests. Advisor told him to drop the class since he already had a credit for it. S did and registered for Calc. 2 in the Spring sem. He got a good teacher and attended the office hours every week. He came out with a B in calc2 after not having any calc. for a year and half and pretty much failing calc. 1 before dropping it. The teacher made all the difference. Unfortunately they don’t always have control over which teacher they get.</p>
<p>Ughh PackMom, I just had that discussion with my son (regardless of placement I want him to take CalcI in college). She must have really been an awful teacher.</p>
<p>My CalcI teacher had a very thick Chinese accent and he was saying “Pees Theory” for a couple of hours before I realized he meant “Pythagorean Theorem”. It was actually a good exercise for ME to practice deciphering accents as there were many foreign teachers often with harsh accents who came later. </p>
<p>Son has just graduated from state flagship with a degree in CS after three years (no summers). (Summa cum laude, and he has a good job.) He had enough credits from AP and a couple of college math classes to enter as a second semester sophomore. He didn’t feel he missed anything by skipping intro classes in his major, and no regrets so far about finishing early.</p>