I know this question will most likely be answered at Bama Bound, but I thought I would ask it anyway. My ds will be a CS major. In the department of engineering the students must complete an approved natural science sequence. My ds will have AP credit for PH 101 and 102, as well as PH 105 and PH 106. (He will also have credit for CH 101 and BSC 114, 115, 116, & 117). These courses are all on the approved natural science list. Will he still need to take a natural science sequence, or is he done?
He will be taking the AP Eng Lit exam next month. If he scores a 4 (and he has an excellent chance), the UA website says he would receive credit for EN 101 and 102. Will that satisfy his English requirement?
Another question…please bear with me. This is from the curriculum requirements for the engineering department: “Either six hours of foreign language (FL) or computer (C) are required in addition to the humanities requirement. FL courses can count as HU credit if six hours of C courses are earned.” Since upper level CS courses count as a “C” course, ds will have more than 6 credits. Can he then use his 9 credits from Latin to satisfy the 9 hours of humanities requirement AND the 6 credit in-depth study. DS is in the honors program, and I know some of the humanities courses will interest him, but I wanted to make sure he was getting all the graduation requirements met.
And one more question. Ds took AP Calc AB last year and is taking BC this year. He feels very confident in the AB material (he received a 5 on the exam and the BC class reviewed AB material). Should he start with Calc 126, or take 125? I know there are a couple different thoughts on this, but any thoughts would be appreciated.
If you took the time to read this, thank you! I know our questions will be answered at orientation, but I thought it would be good to have an idea for a fall schedule before he got there.
AP credits for the science courses you list will satisfy his natural science requirement.
EN 101 and 102 satisfy the freshman composition requirement, but I think a literature class is still required (it was for my student, but she’s not in engineering).
The Latin credits can be used for the Humanities credits, but I don’t think they can be double counted. I’m not entirely familiar with the Engineering requirements (daughter is a business/math major) - is the 6 credit in-depth requirement the history or literature series, or something else?
As for Calculus, if he’s very confident in the Calc 1 material, I wouldn’t retake it. My daughter thought Calc 2 was the hardest class in the series, so I’d take that credit too if I could, and move on to Calc 3, which I’ve heard from many students is easier than Calc 2. Most kids I know took the credits and are happy they did. Again, though, I’d do that only if he is confident in the material. There are many who differ on this and would go for an easier A in a course that is reviewing what has already been learned, both to help the GPA and to be certain the material is mastered.
If you google search “Credit by Examination” for UA, the AP, CLEP, IB etc. credit chart should pop up on courseleaf which has the current version of the university handbook. Maybe something on the chart or in the handbook will define the requirements for your son’s engineering major.
As a correction to my post above, a literature course is not specifically required for Engineering majors, although it could satisfy part of the 9 hours of Humanities, Literature and Fine Arts requirement.
There isn’t a literature requirement for those in the college of engineering.
Did your son take any of the AP history classes? If so and he scored at least a three, then that fulfills the sequence requirement. If he didn’t take an AP version, Then he may want to take the CLEP test
@BlessedMom3 On the calculus stuff…avoid taking calculus II again for the brain damage unless your son is not confident in their BC skills at all and wants more foundation. If your son can score a 5 on BC, then they’re fine. Don’t put more work than needed and they’ll be fine going on to Calculus III.
FWIW I finished all 4 semesters of calculus in high school. The people who were successful with Calc III/DFQ at my school had solid A’s in both classes of BC Calc and got a 5 on the AP BC Calc test. Just food for thought.
I agree with @atomicPACMAN07 regarding taking credit for Calc as far as possible. Diff Q is more closely related to Calc I and Calc III is different but fairly easy. Calc II is the hardest by far and not really used again in the engineering curriculum. At least not in my day back in the stone ages, early 80’s.
Calc II is a weed out course at most engineering schools. You really need to know Calc I well for the Physics classes and to do well in DFQ. Calc III is important for Dynamics if you are an ME/Aero major. DFQ is important for Chem E.
Not sure what in Calc is important for Comp E because there was no such major when I was in engineering school. Maybe someone else can answer that.
If a student takes an AP test in may and does not score high enough can they then register to take the CLEP test before August and potentially receive credit? How does CLEP work at Alabama and what is the timeline for this (do these need to be completed before Bama Bound)? Any one have experience with the Spanish CLEP test? Can it be taken from home or just at Bama Bound? Thank you!
Yes, skip into MATH227, which is the Calc III class at UA.
[Wonderful to have so many other science APs!!! (Physics AND Chem AND BSC!) Are you sure he wants to do CS?! ]
The online Math Assessment that every incoming student takes, defaults to MATH125, I believe, so don’t panic about that. BamaBound will sort out any overrides needed to register for higher Maths classes, even tho AP scores may not be available yet.
Re depth study…I was surprised that my son’s CLEP for Spanish (14 credit hours) counted there. He since did Chinese (8 credit hours) on top of that, at UA, but DW is still counting the CLEP Spanish as satisfying his depth req, not the other FL series. Unless things have changed, your son’s Latin should count as depth study. But, CS may have diff reqs for eng’g than Aero…
This all being said, PLEASE encourage your student to take other electives and explore other areas in the humanities. Economics is a great subject (and useful), Psychology, Sociology (there are some great Honors College courses in these areas!), etc. See here, and use tabs on the right-hand side of the page: http://honors.ua.edu/academics/honors-courses/
Re Spanish CLEP: all CLEP tests are taken at a testing center - they are not administered at home or at BamaBound (altho UA does have a testing center, I believe).
My S had only 3 years of HS Spanish, but wanted to take the test to see how he would do and maybe pick up some credits. He said it was one of the hardest tests he ever had to take (entirely aural), yet he scored high enough to receive all 14 CLEP credit hours for it. (yay!) PM me if you want specifics on Spanish CLEP experience.
Doesn’t matter what your major is within engineering - the core curriculum requirements are the same. So the 9 credits of Latin should count for both humanities and the required “in-depth” study.
My thinking is that an engineering major should take all of the AP/CLEP credits they can get for HU/L/HI/SB electives and the Freshman English. The only reason to do that is so maybe a student can take some interesting engineering/science electives or some “fun” classes to lighten the load versus the heavy technical classes.
Taking the Calc series in college again is not all bad because it would be review, allow for a good GPA to start (strong believer in starting well in engineering), and allows a freshman to get acclimated to a new environment with a lot of freedom.
Potential employers do not give awards because a student takes tons of AP credits and tries to double/triple major. At least in my industry and others I have worked in, that is the case. However, a low GPA is more challenging to overcome.
My advice to any student is take classes you feel very confident you can handle and make sure your course load is balanced. I also recommend that all engineering majors take Macro and Micro Econ as their series to meet the SB depth requirement. Macro and Micro are a good offset to Freshman Calc/Physics/Chem.
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