Okay so I have a question about AP credit at college. So I obviously know that AP credit gives you college credit, but some colleges only accept a certain amount of credits. For example, when I went to Duke they said they only accepted two or three AP credits (I don’t remember the number). Is there a website or a CC thread that has a list of colleges and how many AP credits they will accept? If not, do you think that each school list it on their website? I’m just curious about many credits colleges accept from AP.
Each school should have a list of the AP credits that they accept, so check each schools website for the information. Many schools will accept AP credit, but many times some of these credits cannot be used for major course requirements but my be given as elective credits. All this information should be spelled out on their websites.
It is a travesty really. APs are no where near the rigor or level of a true college class. At some universities the AP material is covered in a matter of a few weeks so skipping that foundation class often means you have huge gaps. People will disagree of course and say Calc is Calc. Sorry but I disagree. Further, especially in areas like history, econ, humanities…the level of discussion can’t be at a college level because the audience is filled with high school students. They are a sad outcome of the College Board having too much influence on public education in the US. Great school systems (Thanks for being in the lead Scarsdale) are doing away with the canned education provided by the College Board in favor of encouraging teachers to teach. How refreshing is that!
Most colleges (including the HYPSM universities and WASP LACs) disagree with you, in that single variable calculus is a relatively standardized course, and the colleges generally allow students with sufficiently high AP calculus scores to take advanced placement in calculus 2 or 3 (depending on which test and score) rather than wasting their time and tuition in calculus 1. Only a tiny number of colleges (Caltech and Harvey Mudd) do not allow that, but their “calculus” courses are more like real analysis, and entering frosh at those schools are expected to have had a regular calculus course already.
Indeed, some of the highly selective colleges are less accepting of college courses taken while in high school than of AP scores, for whatever reason.
The strongest high school students (particularly at academically elite high schools) could very well be at a higher level in a given subject than most college frosh (even at highly selective colleges). While most AP courses are nothing special, that does not make your statement true.
AP had its origins in a collaboration between (academically elite high schools and academically elite colleges to allow the most advanced students to be able to learn college frosh level material in high school and continue on to more advanced material in college instead of having to repeat it. Now that AP courses are commonly offered (though not always of good quality, since some schools’ A students in AP courses most commonly score 1 on the tests), perhaps some of the high schools that want to promote themselves as “elite” need to find some other way of distinguishing themselves.