<p>In looking over the AP credit policy I noticed that Environmental Science is not listed. I assume this means Vandy will not award any credit hours for the test. My S is currently taking the class but wont bother sitting for the AP exam if he won't get credit for it! Does anyone have any insight on this? </p>
<p>Also, the max is 18 credit hours total for APs, is that correct? If so, that means he doesn't even have to sit for some of his other AP exams this year as they would put him over the limit anyway. Gee, would have been nice to know where he was going to college before I paid for those exams!!!</p>
<p>Ah, such is the price we pay for uncertainty (I too was unsure of where I was going and so by graduation I’ll have near 60 credit hours, because some of the other schools I applied to accepted so many, but as you said, Vandy only accepts 18, so most of them will unfortunately go to waste. Ah, so many hundreds of wasted dollars! Down the drain).</p>
<p>I’ve canceled a few of my APs for this year already when I decided upon Vanderbilt. Your son might want to do the same (though perhaps the options will be nice when choosing classes?).</p>
<p>I would still take the exams you paid for because:
-you never know if you are going to transfer
-you can pick which ap credits you want to use to make up the 18 (if that is the limit?) so you can use the more tedious credits like Eng lang, eng lit, calculus, physics, etc instead of enviro sci, psych…</p>
<p>If he got into vandy, Im sure he wont have to study too much to get a 4 or a 5 so he might as well take them</p>
<p>I’m sure most people who got into Vandy will have way more AP credit hours than 18.</p>
<p>Like Modern Chem said, it’d be better for your son to take the AP exams because he’ll do fine on them anyway and then he can choose which credits to use.</p>
<p>In my own opinion, I would use credits for classes that many people take in college, like Psychology and English. That way you don’t have to be stuck in a class with tons of students (though, since this is Vandy, I doubt there will be a bazillion kids per class). Also, again this is my opinion, I wouldn’t use AP credit in the topic(s) that your son will be majoring in. I’m going to be majoring in Chemistry. I got a 5. But there is no way I’m going to use that credit because I want to have a very good background in Chemistry before I take higher level classes (and it’s also been a year since I took AP Chemistry as well).</p>
<p>Modern Chem does make the point that you can get out of tedious classes by AP credit. I agree with this, but only if these classes don’t have to do with your specific major, for my aforementioned reason. Of course, I’m sure people will disagree with me, and I’m fine with that. It’s just all about how your son thinks and wants to plan his college journey.</p>
<p>But now that I took the few minutes of research, I see that getting a 5 gives you entry to 218a and b (Organic Chemistry)! I would love to take this class freshman year, since I took Organic Chemistry last year and completely fell in love with it.</p>
<p>That would be a tough decision. Skipping classes to take more interesting ones while losing the chance to solidify a great foundation may be risky.</p>
<p>Anyway, back to the topic. </p>
<p>dwhite, I think Environmental Science and Human Geography are the only APs that Vandy does not accept credit for. Though, not taking credit for Environmental Science is a little strange. Maybe Vanderbilt doesn’t have any Environmental Science classes to use the credit for, though I doubt it. I would contact somebody about that. Maybe it’s a mistake? I’m curious to know.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. I did look at the course listings and they offer Environ Science classes so I also thought it was strange. My son will have to decide what to do about the tests - should be interesting as he has major senioritis!</p>
<p>Im sure just about every kid going to Vandy will have more creidts than they need - I’m sure this is a common issue.</p>