I apologize in advance if this question has been asked and answered before. I went back a few pages but couldnt find it.
My daughter who is a senior is planning on attending a UC and has 6 AP tests (all 4s and 5s) completed- Bio, Chem, USH, EURO, Spanish and English Lang.
According to most UCs she will only get credits for 8 credits. She is currently taking 4 AP classes- calc BC, Macro, Gov and Eng Lit.
So my question is should I spend $440 for the tests when she cant get credit for them or any advantage in college ? She is planning to be on a pre-med track and so would it be better for her to take these as intro classes again and maintain a high GPA instead of testing out and having to take harder classes her freshman year while she is still adjusting to college life and risk a lower GPA ?
Also, I think she is burned out taking tests and isnt keen on taking them.
Thank you
She should take those where the subject credit (fulfilling requirements and advanced placement) will be useful for her. That may depend on her major as well as the specific campus.
However, if she intends to repeat the course in college for pre-med grade-boosting purposes (most commonly done by pre-meds for physics, biology, and/or general chemistry), it is best not to take the AP tests in order to avoid the possibility of having to mark that the course is a “repeat” on the medical school application. You may want to ask in the pre-med forum section any pre-med specific issues (there are some regarding AP credit).
@ucbalumnus thank you ! I will post the question on the pre Med forum
@DD2019 personally, I thought that is a good strategy. Both my sons did that to get A’s in college freshman calculus, but none of them were pre-med. I’ve seen my sons’ transcripts and there appears to be no indication that the courses were repeats. If I were to guess, I think your daughter’s strategy is fine, but better to raise the question with others in the Medical forum.
^^^ I have a kid at UCD and none of the classes that he took as AP show as repeats on his transcript. The Lang AP may get her out of her Entry Level Writing Requirement (ELWR). http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/graduation-requirements/writing/index.html
@DD2019 you have to distinguish between graduation credits and subject credits. As it’s stands right now, she would get around 25 semester or 40 quarter credits towards graduation (based on the 6 APs she has so far). Pretty much almost all APs with a 3+ she would get graduation credit for at any UC.
However, subject credits are dependent on the policy within the university school and with the major. For my kid, the 2 most useful ones were Calc BC and Eng Lit - by getting 5s, he was able to skip both mandatory composition classes and get credit for one full year of calculus. My kid had 4s and 5s on almost all the same other classes as what you described, and the other ones are not as useful, to him. For example, he’s a CS/DS major but even though he can skip out of his one year of Chem since he got a 5, it’s not useful because he doesn’t intend on taking any more Chem classes. Also, his Bio credit did him no good since the DS program does not accept AP credits as a substitute for the Bio 1 class.
So to me I still think they are worth taking. You always have the choice of retaking a class in college even if you have the AP credit. And if you don’t, those credits come in handy not only for graduation time when you don’t have to take as many electives, but also helps you with class standing, which gives you priority for registration. Priority for registration you will find is a pretty big deal.
@ProfessorPlum168 Thank you ! Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought that UCs had done away with priority registration and class standings based on APs ?
@DD2019. I know for sure UCD and UCLA no longer use AP credits for class standings/priority registration. Hopefully other posters can chime in for the other campuses.
@DD2019 I read that too, but my kid had a pretty early registration date for Spring registration. He technically has senior status now as a freshman, but a lot of his credits come from CC as well as AP, so it’s possible the status boost came from only the CC credits. Perhaps someone else can confirm.
@Gumbymom can you give any insights on my question ? ?
UCI seems to still use AP credits to determine standing for registration after the freshman fall quarter.
This link may help with AP credit and the Medical school requirements dated 2017. I know there are changes in progress regarding Medical application review revisions and @WayOutWestMom is the CC Medical School expert if you have any more questions.
UC AP credit information. Out of all the AP exams listed, AP Lit would make the most sense however, if she already has taken AP Language so will not get credit from the UC’s for AP Lit with a passing score.
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/exam-credit/ap-credits/index.html
Calc BC and AP Lit will be of good use, if you were to pick and choose which AP exams to take. For Berkeley, a 3+ for the AB portion gets you credit for the first Calc class, a 5 on the BC gets you credit for both Calc classes. (In the College of Engineering a 4+ on BC gets you credit for both). For Eng Lit, a 5 gets you out of both English Composition classes for L&S. (For Engineering, a 5 only gets you out of 1 of the 2 classes).
Govt wont really get you anything as far as subject credit goes, from what I can tell. All unassigned credits.
For Berkeley you need a 4+ in both AP MacroEcon and AP MicroEcon in order to get subject credit for the first Econ class. A 3 will get you an unassigned credit, i.e. no subject credit.
Note that for Berkeley L&S, AP credits cannot be used to fulfill any of the 7 breadth (GE) classes. In Engineering, APs can be used to fulfill 2 out of the 6 breadths required.
@ProfessorPlum168 Thank you