<p>I was wondering whether AP Credit can be used for the Gen Ed Credits or not. I know that Pomona has that 30 course rule and you sitll have to take 30 classes at the college but, can I apply APs to Gen Eds so I can use more classes for a double major? What do you guys and gals think?</p>
<p>Here you go:</p>
<p>"Students accepted as first-years must complete all general education requirements at the Claremont Colleges. A student may, however, obtain approval to take a foreign language course away from the College, or take an approved test (usually a SAT-II written subject test) to demonstrate intermediate-level proficiency."</p>
<p>You can use your language AP Credit to fulfill the language requirement if you get a 4 or 5. The rest you have to do there. I don't know if you are aware, but they just cut the general requirements down in half last spring, so you'll just have 5 main general requirements to fulfill (as well as the first-year seminar and PE course). Some of the 5 areas will most likely be filled by classes you'll already take, so double majoring (at least now) will be much easier. What are you thinking about double majoring in?</p>
<p>you can also fulfill the language requirement by getting a 650 on the sat II. you can use two ap's to count towards the 32 course load, but most of the time they don't count for fulfilling a requirement. for example, if you took ap english, you will still get 1 credit for graduation, but you would still have to take a class in the "creative expression" area (english, media studies, art history, etc). there are some exceptions though, like in psychology you can skip intro psych at pomona if you got a 4 or 5 on the ap test. also, they just added a new requirement for a ddp class (dynamics and differences of power?), but the proposal won't be finalized until march. overall the requirements are really easy to fulfill--pretty much anything you take out of sheer interest will count towards something, and that's definitely one of the reasons i came to pomona!</p>
<p>gnat or rhsfresh - when does Pomona expect you to declare a major?
How is the academic advising, and did you have any difficulty narrowing down your interests in order to complete your major in time?</p>
<p>you're supposed to declare before course enrollment for spring semester of your sophomore year, but you can always change. finishing your major requirements depends on the number of courses required (e.g. nine in politics but 16 in philosophy, politics, and economics). the few general ed requirements make it really easy to take classes in a lot of different areas to find out what you like (depending in your major a lot of the general ed requirements can count for your major anyways). completing your major also depends on what study abroad program you do (if you do one), since some programs have classes that will count towards your major. i'm considering double majoring despite not having taken any psychology classes first semester, so it really just depends. as far as academic advising, it DEFINITELY varies from person to person. before you come to pomona you write a letter describing what you're interested in, and they match you up with an advisor. if you say that you're 100% postive in your major choice, chances are you'll get a faculty member in that area. if you don't specify anything that you're interested in you may get a faculty member in a department that you never would have considered beforehand, but you can always change advisors. personally i would say that while your advisor is a good source of info for his/her department, it's also crucial to talk to a wide variety of people (other professors, students who have already taken classes you're interested in, etc.) you also get a 2 week period to add/drop classes, which is always helpful. overall i would say that students who don't know exactly what they want when they first arrive don't go through too much stress when picking out a major, since the gen. ed requirements give you ample time to do so.</p>
<p>sorry guys! i just realized that they haven't made the ddp requirement official yet. it's been proposed for several years, so it's just a possibility right now, and they're reviewing it in march. so right now there;s just the 5 area requirements, freshman seminar, gym, and foreign language. take care!</p>
<p>Yep, you declare by the end of your sophomore year (although you could technically get away doing it at the beginning of your junior year, but that's kind of a loophole). Yeah, I was very vague in my letter and I got a Spanish advisor (I hadn't taken a single Spanish class in my life). I waited until very late to decide to major in neuroscience (it was between that and Psychology), but fortunately, a lot of the classes I took for pre-med overlapped with the major, so I've had a lot of space to take courses outside neuroscience. Like rhsfreshyflyguy said, most people don't know what they want to do when they arrive and a lot of people don't declare until the last minute - but it all ends up working out fine!</p>
<p>Alright guys thanks for the quick response. i am thinking of majoring in Neuroscience and Computer Science. Darn this sucks though, I thought I could use my AP credits to fulfil gen ed reqs.After this year I will have taken 13 of them. This sucks, what a waste.</p>
<p>I wouldn't think of it as a waste. I'm sure your taking multiple AP's contributed to your acceptance to Pomona, and you have probably gained lots of knowledge from taking the classes. Additionally, you can start at higher level courses in some cases (computer science and psychology probably for you), which will make your way to majoring in two subjects easier.</p>
<p>yea, a few of my friends had so many ap credits that they could have been 2nd semester sophomores at other school, but obviously they still chose pomona. my school only offered 3 ap classes, so it didn't really affect me. in your case i don't think fulfilling the requirements would be too painful bc computer science classes satisfy the math requirement and for neuroscience you would fulfill the science requirement and you could take any one of several psych classes to fulfill a neuroscience major requirement (and the psych class would count towards another general ed). so technically besides the freshman seminar, a gym class, the language requirement, and (possibly) ddp, you would only HAVE to take 2 classes outside of your majors (a creative expression class and a history/values/ethics/cross-disciplinary studies class). wow i just realized how confusing that sounds! but bottom line, don't worry. i can't say i would feel the same if i was in your position, but i would look at the gen ed requirements as an opportunity to explore interests outside of your major and not neccesarily something that's being forced upon you by the school. i know at some of my friends' schools the requirements are very specific (i.e. everybody has to take an american history class), but at pomona every class fulfills SOME requirement. for example, for your history/values requirement you could take a class in american studies, asian studies, asian american studies, black studies, chicano/a studies, history, latin american studies, philosophy, religious studies, or women's studies. anyways, surely in your 4 years you'll want to take a class not related to neuroscience or computer science!</p>
<p>I agree. I am fine with taking the Gen. Eds.....However, maybe I shouldn't waste money on my 7 tests this year. What do you all think?</p>
<p>hmm....tricky question -- i don't wanna give you inaccurate information, so i'll do my best to keep it safe. you can test out of language requirement by getting a 650 on the sat II or a 4 or 5 on the ap test, and from where you posted your "stats" it looks like you already got a 4 on the french exam. you already have 2 credits from last year, and that's the most you can use for graduation. you take a placement test for math when you get on campus, so i don't really think it's necessary to take the bc test this year. you can opt out of intro psych with a 4 or 5 on the psych test 9and that would help with your neuroscience major), but it appears that you're not taking ap psych. you also take a placement test telling you whether you take 1 or 2 semesters of chem, but i'm probably not a good source to ask whether you should take the ap chem test -- hopefully gnatcire can help you out on that one? you could also skip the intro class for comp. sci. by taking the ap test, but you're not taking ap comp. sci. anyways. it's really up to you to decide whether to take the extra tests, but i'll try not to sway you one way or the other. one thing that i just thought of is that i think there's some kind of award (ap scholar?) for ppl who take a lot of ap classes and get good scores, so you might be interested in that. in my case i took 3 ap exams but only 2 counted, so i pretty much wasted $80. it's up to you though--even though i'm writing this sort of late so i'll probably realize that i gave you false information in the morning- sorry in advance!</p>
<p>The AP Scholar award helps for admission during senior year. However, It dosen't qualify you for any monetary incentives.</p>
<p>I don't think you'll have to take the AP to take only one semester of chemistry, but of course you won't get the AP credit after its completion. The AP credit won't matter for getting the neuroscience major, but I'm not sure how grad schools will look at just having a semester in college without any AP credit. It probably won't matter, but I'd check.</p>