I have been hearing conflicting stories about the actual benefit of my high school student taking AP exams, and how it really works. Teachers and Guidance at my daughter’s high school say that the $90 exam fee is cheap for getting 3-4 college credits per exam. However, a friend of my wife who has 2 kids in college said it doesn’t actually reduce your college costs as the college grant you credit towards the particular class so the student doesn’t have to take it, but that it won’t reduce cost of tuition as they will still need to earn all the degree program credits at the college. For example, if my daughter gets acceptable AP exam scores and earns 15 AP credits, she still won’t be able to graduate a semester early and will have to take 15 credits worth of extra electives to get her degree. I was hoping that all of my daughter’s AP work would reduce the total cost of her degree. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Every single college is going to have a different policy so no one is going to be able to answer your question with a blanket answer.
With that said, I don’t know of any college that requires you to take ALL credits at their college. Perhaps all classes in a given major, but not all credits period. If you earned 15 credits, you should be able to graduate a semester early provided that you meet all other major and school requirements.
I had enough AP credits to start as a junior and could have graduated with a degree in 2.5 years. Instead, I went all 4 years and got a BA and a BS.
It depends on the college. You don’t know exactly what the future holds. Even if you think you won’t make use of those credits, it’s a pretty cheap insurance policy against coming up short a class or two and having to spend another semester in college.
They exist. Brown comes immediately to mind as a college that requires 8 semesters for a degree. But they are definitely in the minority.
Having said that, instead of graduating early, there are many cases when one might want to reduce courseload in certain semesters due to the rigor of the major. Alternatively, one might want to do a combined BA/MA in 4 years. As others have said, there really is no blanket answer to this question, Every school is different, as is every student.
So you can’t, for example, study abroad for a semester?
Yes you can. Sorry for being unclear; I only meant to say that AP credits will not allow you to graduate early.
Dartmouth no longer gives credit for AP ( it has been s couple of years since they have had this policy in place). Some schools may no give you credit but will slow you to use so for placement purposes
The service academies also require you to take all courses at the academy. Even if you take college courses elsewhere and transfer in, even at their own prep academies, when you start you are a freshman.
AP does have other benefits like placement at a higher level or using the APs for requirements so you can take more electives in other areas (for a minor?). My kids didn’t have an option not to take the AP exams (well, the option was for ME to pay the fee which isn’t an option in our house), so they took them.
@skieurope ah ok got it.
Even Brown has an appeal process to graduate early (but it seems very, very strict so it’s probably only very rarely sought/granted).
Totally depends on the college. Some colleges will award credits for AP scores…and some kids cannactuallyngraduate a year or semester early…which WILL save money.
One of my kids didn’t save any money…but his AP credits (he got history and English ones) enabled him to take a lighter course load for a couple of semesters…and satisfied his core course requirements for history, and English literature.
My other kid took three AP courses, and her school acceoted the credits…but they unfortunately didn’t apply to her major…or to any of their core course requirements. So all she had was a bunch of extra college credits.
So YMMV depending on the school.
Check the websites for the colleges for their specific AP policies.
My D will go to a engineering school that has specific rules for AP Calculus and AP Physics.
Here is what you have to do for AP Calculus BC exam.
"If you receive a 5 on the AP Calculus BC exam, you will be placed in Calculus for Scientists and Engineers III (Honors) and the supplemental Calculus II Short Form course. In order to receive 8 hours of credit for Calculus I and II, you must successfully complete both Calculus III (Honors) and the Calculus II Short Form. If you do not complete
both courses successfully, you will only receive 4 hours of credit for Calculus I and must enroll in Calculus II (Honors) and Calculus III (Honors). "
Here is what they have for transfer credits for math or science classes.
"As a good rule of thumb, if you are planning to take a math or science course at another college or university (particularly calculus, chemistry, physics or differential equations) make sure you save all of your course work from the class — this includes the syllabus, graded quizzes and/or exams, lab work, homework assignments and notebooks. We will request course work for a departmental review, prior to awarding credit. Course work from another college or university is not guaranteed. "
I wasn’t sure if we should have paid for the dual enrollment for her Calc III class but did for her Differential Equations class.
Colleges each have their own policies. Try searching for “[college name] AP credit”.
Generally, a student may get one or more of these things from AP scores:
A. Credit units that can count toward the number of credit units needed to graduate. This can allow graduating after taking fewer credit units of courses than otherwise needed (either to graduate early or avoid late graduation).
However, such extra credit units are not always advantageous. Some colleges (e.g. University of Michigan) charge higher tuition for students with upper division (junior or senior) standing, so extra credit units that result in getting upper division standing earlier may result in higher tuition expense. Some colleges (e.g. Texas public universities) have a rebate based on graduating with the minimal number of credit units attempted, where credit units from AP scores do count toward that and could disqualify a student from the rebate.
Higher class standing can also affect course registration priority. At colleges which give priority by class standing (seniors first, juniors next, etc.), extra credit units from AP credit can get the student a better choice of courses. But at colleges where higher class standing does not always give higher priority (e.g. where frosh and soph students have priority for introductory level courses so that they are not delayed in getting into their majors), the higher class standing may be disadvantageous in some cases.
B. Subject credit. A college may designate an AP score as fulfilling a given course for the purpose of fulfilling requirements for the degree or a major. In some cases, the subject credit may differ based on the student’s major. For example, some majors that require one semester of general chemistry may accept high enough AP chemistry scores in place of that requirement, but the chemistry or chemical engineering major may require a more rigorous version of general chemistry and not accept the AP chemistry score.
C. Advanced placement. A college may allow students with sufficiently high AP scores to start in a higher level course. For example, a college may allow a student with a high enough AP calculus AB score to start in calculus 2 instead of calculus 1. It is often a good idea for students considering taking advanced placement to try the college’s old final exams for the course to be skipped (in this example, the college’s old calculus 1 final exams) to check their knowledge relative to the college’s expectations.
Students should be aware that college courses often cover the same material at a faster pace than high school AP courses. Many high school AP courses cover in a year what a college course covers in a semester (e.g. calculus AB, statistics, psychology, environmental science, human geography). So be careful of assuming that the rigor level in a high school AP course is similar to that of a college course covering the same material.
Students considering medical school should be aware that medical schools often do not accept AP scores for pre-medical course requirements. A pre-medical student who skips introductory courses using AP scores may need to substitute an equivalent number of more advanced courses in the pre-medical subject areas of the skipped courses.
Most colleges allow students to take for credit the college course that duplicates their AP subject credit, although a few do not (e.g. UCSD, UCSB, UCI). When a student is allowed to take for credit the duplicating college course, the college may have a policy to remove the AP credit.
One niece graduated in four years with a double-major in two different divisions at Syracuse University and fit in a full year abroad because of the IB credits she arrived with that took care of all kinds of pre-reqs and gen eds. Happykid’s AP exams didn’t do her any good, but she got 12 semester hours of foreign language credit with a CLEP exam.
Your mileage, may vary.
For schools that accept AP credits there are benefits.
Having the extra credits can boost standing after first semester- getting earlier registration time slots and perhaps being able to take classes where a higher standing is required.
They can also help a student opt out of some breadth requirements or advance further in one’s field. My son could have graduated in 3 years with a math major but that would have been a “bare bones” one without meeting the Honors degree requirements or being well prepared for graduate school. His fourth year he included a few grad level math courses. Despite AP credits in some courses he still started with the first college honors courses- much more material than in the AP versions. Having AP credits may not shorten the college semesters but allows for extra courses not otherwise taken. College is about getting an education, not just credits.
Taking AP exams even if the student ultimately attends a college where the credits do not count can be useful to the student. S/he will find out how much was learned. A student can get an A in the AP class but only a 3 on the exam. Without the standard test one can’t always tell if the class was well taught for the AP subject matter.
It is not necessary to take all AP exams for courses taken as well. Some students will have many courses and the extra credits won’t be useful. Overall I think they are useful and a good idea.
Thanks everyone. I’ll contact Admissions to see what their process is. The college website regarding AP credit wasn’t really clear on the topic.
The fact is that many graduate earlier and others who cannot because of the specifics of their program, have a chance to have a combo of majors / minors and they take advantage of it. Couple of people around my D. graduated a semester earlier, another graduated with the Masters and double major in 4 years (from JHU!!) and my own D. who was in a program that did not allow to graduate earlier than 4 years, graduated with the Music minor and was 2 classes short to graduate with a second minor. Most of the mentioned above were on full tuition / free ride Merit scholarships or close to full tuition. They attended either public or private colleges. I would suggest to go for the $90 exam, it is worth it and more so in the subjects that kid is not that interested. It will free time at college for classes that are more aligned with the future career and / or personal interests. Taking college classes while in HS is also worthwhile. Keep in mind though, that some classes may need to start from the intro at college despite of 5 on the AP exam. It depends on the program. For example, at D’s college on the pre-med track, it was highly recommended not to skip the intro Bio class, despite of the AP Bio credit. The reason for that was that the class went over AP material in 2 weeks and then they moved on to the new material that provided a foundation for subsequent Bio classes.
I think it’s best to maximize your AP credit and only take classes you’ll get credit for at college. I entered with 44 useable credits from AP classes alone, which has made it possible to graduate early and take less credits per semester allowing me to do a lot more outside of school leading to a much more enjoyable experience than my peers who have to overload their schedules to graduate on time. However, I would suggest not taking classes that you can’t get credit for as they’ll probably just add a lot more useless work to your schedule.
My D will likely have junior standing when she starts college. She does not, however, intend to graduate early. Right now she is thinking of a double major, minor, and study abroad, and maybe a masters. Her AP credits will allow this combination. So in my opinion, definitely worth taking the tests. Back in the stone ages, I used my AP credits to graduate a year early.
While this wasn’t your question, one of the other benefits is that if you do well (which you would also have to do to get credit), you can put it on your application to demonstrate that you actually mastered the material.
There are high schools that label classes as AP (occasionally when an AP exam doesn’t even really exist - like AP Botany!) and/or which are very generous in their grading (parental pressure?) without requiring mastery of the material. If a student doesn’t take the exam or doesn’t report the score, the AdComs may assume that you didn’t do well. Showing a 5 on the exam also demonstrates that your A was well-deserved. Or that the teacher who gave you a B was a tough grader.
Of course, if you’re a senior right now, this rationale is all moot!
Interesting idea…but how exactly would you DO that while in HS? Policies on AP credit vary wildly by college…and some courses aren’t acceoted because of certain majors (e.g. My son and daughter both took AP Music theory…but my son was a music major so it did him no good at all. My DD would have been able to use it…but she took enough music courses in college that the SP course didn’t matter).
To “maximize” your AP courses, you would need to have a probable major and a college chosen. Most HS students don’t have that.