<p>Hi,
I was recently accepted early decision into Rice and am planning on majoring in bioengineering next year. As the time to sign up for AP tests is drawing nearer I am having trouble deciding which tests I should or should not take. I am currently in Calculus BC AP, Biology AP, Chemistry AP, English Literature AP, Government AP, and Economics AP. Last year I received credit for the US History AP test. However, I only scored a 3 on the English Composition exam. I was wondering if I should retake English Composition and also take English Literature this year but wanted to make sure I will get credit for both of the tests (assuming I will make a 4 or above). I know you have to take classes from the other departments at Rice so I was wondering if that would give me the needed credit. I was also wondering if you recommend your bioengineering majors to ap out of calculus, biology and chemistry (once again assuming I receive a 4 or above on the exam) even though those three courses seem vital to the foundation of the major. I just want to make sure that I am not taking any unneeded exams in May. Any input on my situation would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>As far as English goes, at least, Rice does not give distribution credit for the English APs, so I certainly wouldn't retake English Comp and you can probably forget about Lit as well, unless you want a bunch of random extra credit.</p>
<p>Tyler, here's a link that should help.
AP</a> & IB Credit | Office of the Registar | Rice University</p>
<p>Definitely try to AP out of calc; I, personally, would try to test out of bio and chem, so that you can decide later whether you want to use the credit or not. I know plenty of people use their Chem credit, I don't know about biology though. I feel that it's a 'better safe than sorry' situation.</p>
<p>I don't know Rice's policies regarding AP exams, but at many schools if you report high AP scores, you may be prohibited from taking certain courses, including some non-introductory courses. My son, after taking two years of high school Spanish, got a 5 on the AP Spanish exam and was kicked out of an upper level Spanish course at an elite university the same day that the drop/add period ended; he was left taking a light course load that term.</p>
<p>I've never heard of anything like that happening at Rice, icy. That policy actually really confuses me, but maybe there's some valid concern there.</p>
<p>As a bioengineering major, you'll probably be taking 15+ hours first semester. As for Biology, the professor who teaches the intro bio course is one of the best on campus (Prof. Gustin, who is also the Wiess master). I'll probably take that course next year. The Chem prof is on sabbatical for 2008, but if you take second semester, he'll probably be teaching it, and he has a very good reputation as well (Prof. Hutchinson, who is also the Brown master). Intro math classes are hit-and-miss with regards to professor. I had a really good teacher for Calc II, but I had some friends who didn't have as good of professors. </p>
<p>Take Calc BC. Provide you got at least a 4 on each of the tests, Chem, Bio, Calc BC, and US History each count as 6 credits each. The other four are only 3 credits each. So total, that would be 36 hours. There are two reasons to take AP tests for Rice. </p>
<p>1) To count towards distribution. You won't need D3 as a Bio-E major (which Bio, Chem, and Calculus all fulfill), so the one that will really count is US History (D2)
2) To give you hours on your transcript. The more hours you have, the better chance you have of being able to register sooner for classes the following semester. It's not actually that big a deal, but it can help when you're trying to register. Of course, if you retake a course that you had AP credit for, you won't get any new hours for it.</p>
<p>If I had to make a suggestion, I'd say take the ones you feel most comfortable with, but don't kill yourself over it. Definitely take Calculus BC. I came in with AP Bio credit (6 hours), but I think I'm going to go ahead and take it again next year. If you take the intro courses here at Rice (physics, bio, and chem), you'll have a stronger basis going into your upper level courses. I think a lot of people take those intro courses as opposed to AP-ing out of them, but I'm not sure. breadandbutter's right: if money's not an issue for AP tests, go ahead and take them. If not, don't worry about it: there are some really good profs in those courses. </p>
<p>I hope that answers your question. PM me if you have more questions (I can't promise I'll check this page again for a while).</p>
<p>Wait, you are already taking the classes, right? So this is only deciding whether you should cram right before the AP? You should definitely take all those tests. Where else can you get 3 credits in 24 hours? </p>
<p>If some of these are independent, that's up to you.</p>