<p>I paid a deposit for 5 AP exams (Calc, Physics, Psych, English, and Gov) before I knew where I was accepted. Now that I know that Yale only gives acceleration credits (for use if one takes a semester off) for APs and I am not planning on going abroad is there any point in taking the tests? I feel like my time and the 300 more dollars could be used otherwise. I am pretty sure I'm not going to take them but am waiting for any info I might gain at Bulldog Days and I'm not sure if it's an issue that on the application I suggested that I was planning to take the tests (which I was). Any suggestions?</p>
<p>P.S. I have straight A's in the classes (i.e. there is no indication that I think I would do badly)</p>
<p>Take 'em just to further improve your test taking skills, I say. Oh, and you never know if you might just go abroad later (interests change), so why not leave yourself that window open?</p>
<p>Contingency plans are good, but realized contingencies are better. In the grand scheme of things, what "better" things could you do with your time and the $300?</p>
<p>I can see your point with the contingencies idea, but I, personally, wouldn't take them to improve my test taking skills...those have been honed enough already.</p>
<p>Yale will give you acceleration credit as well as letting you place into more advanced classes with your APs. This might be helpful with Calculus and English. Also, if your major has a requirement that is a repeat of an AP, they often let you skip it. If you wanted to major in bio, for instance, you wouldn't need to take intro chemistry if you got a 5 on the AP.
Psych and Gov probably won't do you much good, however.</p>
<p>I'd still take Calc, English and Physics if I were you. You will have to take an English class, won't you? If you've had AP, you'll get into a better class from the start. I know my D started with a 200 English because of her AP test, where others took a 100 course as a freshman.
I don't know anything about the film major, but I do know that students often change their minds about majors once they start taking interesting classes. You may decide to double major in something, you never know. Why not, for insurance, at least take these three?</p>
<p>I'll strongly consider that...the lure to ditch all of them is strong...I might skip out on Physics however, my class is horrible yet difficult (a nice combo)</p>
<p>I'm not getting credit for History or Biology (didn't get a high-enough grade... stuff happened during AP week :(). And I won't get credit for Environmental Science and Psychology no matter what grade I get. There's always the 2 credits for Spanish though. :D</p>
<p>A friend of mine passed out of intro psych because she had taken the Psych AP test. She went straight into abnormal psychology. So it might be worth it those grounds.</p>
<p>The same question crossed my mind last year, especially when my daughter came down with the flu during AP week. In her case, the main reason she struggled through the exams was that her school would have demoted her AP courses to Honors on her final transcript if she hadn't. (Also, we'd already paid the full fees; we didn't know you could send just a deposit.) Otherwise...I'm not so sure what purpose they served. She did qualify for advanced English and math courses based on her AP scores, but SAT IIs might have worked just as well. It's worth checking the specifics at Bulldog Days, if you'd really rather skip the APs.</p>
<p>Of course, back in the day my husband, also a Yalie, made the mistake of telling his parents that he had enough AP credits to graduate a semester early--and they took him up on it :rolleyes:.</p>
<p>yale will give credit for many APs, and even those that it doesnt, u might be able to go straight to the professor and prove ur case to get higher placement. i wouldn't ditch the APs based on prospective major, bc most studnets' majors change when they get to college, and throughout college. also, u never kno when APs might be useful in the future - there could be programs u may want to apply to that use APs which u cant forsee now. my advice is to take them, esp. since uve worked so hard all year.</p>