Can someone explain the differences in policies? I know each school has similar but different standards but does 1 or more Ivy schools have better policies as far as giving actual credits for AP scores?
Generally, a college may offer any, all, or none of these things for AP scores:
- Credit units toward the number of credit units needed to graduate.
- Subject credit that can fulfill degree requirements for the major or general education (may depend on the major).
- Placement into more advanced courses than the beginning ones. (If you intend to take a more advanced course substituting AP score for the prerequisite, it would be a good idea to try the college's old final exam for the prerequisite to check your knowledge by the college's standards.)
Whether one college’s policy is better than another college’s policy depends on which of the above you value.
@ucbalumnus While I’m sure not every student would value each category the same way, I would venture to say that a vast majority would certainly value credit as most important. Placement would be least valuable imo. Having to pay for less credits seems most valuable thus leading to graduating faster leading to a possibility of one less year of room and board etc…From what I’ve been able to check it seems at least Dartmouth and Columbia do give ap credit. Seems like most top public universities also give ap credit which can lead to many students entering college essentially with almost 2 years of credits under their belt. This allows for less tuition and the option of taking a lighter course load as an option.
You can look up each the policy for each school you are interested in on the admissions pages of their websites. In general, APs won’t be counted toward courses required for a major, and there is usually a cap on how many credits towards graduation. As @ucbalumnus notes, one of the best things is that you can place into higher level courses, but it is worth being sure of your mastery relative to the requirements of the specific course & school (calc is one that seems to be really variable).
Credit units are mainly valuable if the student wants to graduate early, is at risk of graduating late, or wants to take light loads but graduate on time. These may be less common among Ivy League students than those at most colleges, except for athletes.
Many students who are not at risk of graduating late use their AP credit to effectively replace lower level requirements with additional free electives through subject credit and/or placement, even if they do not graduate early.
Agreed that everybody has their own metrics.
Some top colleges have an advanced standing option (with enough APs / A levels / IB /etc you can qualify to graduate in 3 years)- I know that Harvard & Princeton do; Brown definitely does not. I don’t know of any privates that will give credit for more than 1 year of undergrad.
Actually, it can be super helpful. Examples of benefits: many intro level classes are quite large (even in very fancy schools), and in the sciences they can not only be ‘cut’ classes (designed to cut down the number of prospective pre-meds), but are likely to have the worst lab times (7-10pm anyone? yep, it happens). In humanities a lot of time in 101 classes is effectively remedial- even at really strong colleges, b/c so many kids arrive not able to write a paper to the desired standard. Be able to skip straight into a second level course can be a very nice thing.
@collegemom3717 Very helpful thank you. I do still believe that given the option of the 3 that placement is the “least” helpful but I do see its benefit.
Why would advanced placement be least helpful?
A student who learned calculus well in high school would not find it very useful to start in regular calculus in college and be bored with the same material, instead of starting in a more advanced course where s/he will learn something new.
A student who learned a foreign language for several years in high school would probably best be served by taking a suitable level course in the same language in college, rather than starting in the beginner course.
Also, of the three things that a college may give for AP credit, they are not mutually exclusive. A college may give zero, one, two, or three of them for any given AP test and score.
Note that colleges do often have their own advisory or mandatory placement exams. For example, Harvard has a math placement exam testing precalculus, calculus 1, and calculus 2 topics to generate a recommendation for what math course the student should take.
https://placement-info.fas.harvard.edu/exams
@ucbalumnus Well for me personally it’s because that would “generally” mean that I’m not getting college credit for the AP courses and thus even though I’m getting preferred placement is most likely means I’m having to pay full credits(mostly Ivy) as opposed to the possibility of close to 2 years of credits. Given the option of having both…sure…but given the option of me getting college credit OR placement, I’ll take credit. Yomv of course.
To be clear I’m speaking as a parent and on behalf of my S’s opinion. I am not a student.
@ucbalumnus Even though it’s somewhat early in the game I’ll give you an example of what I and he are looking at going forward. He will potentially have somewhere around 50-60 credits at say UF because of AP. If he chooses say Princeton he will have 0 credit with the chance of advance standing(likely not) and/or placement. So almost 2 years less of tuition, room and board, fees, food etc…with AP credit.
Ivies and the like are looking for students who are intellectually engaged, and motivated to learning as much as possible. They have very generous FA. They are not looking for students who want to spend the least possible amount of time there and get out fast with a credential.
Thus placement is usually more valuable to their students than credit. For some kids, exemption from something like the foreign language requirement is desirable because it enables them to take more courses in other areas of interest.
BTW, Dartmouth does NOT give credit toward graduation for AP exams. Coursework at another college before enrolling MAY be granted transfer credit.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~reg/enrollment/types_credits.html
I realize that being able to spend a full four years in college is a luxury in many cases. That’s where the great FA comes in…although it doesn’t fully solve the problem all the time.