<p>Dear Netters:</p>
<p>Looking for an accredited online course for AP human geography, that'll give school credit for California public school.</p>
<p>Is there an alternative approach?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance</p>
<p>I'm told AP Human Geography is pretty easy to self-study. It is considered one of the more lightweight AP courses, I think.</p>
<p>My son is in 8th grade, so I don't know this stuff works. But I understand, that if U self-study your AP grades will not be taken into a/c towards your school GPA. Is that true?</p>
<p>A school's rules for GPA calculation are a separate issue. It may be that a course that is accredited, and accepted for credit toward graduation at a particular school, might still not be counted in a student's GPA. </p>
<p>I try to separate the issue of my child LEARNING something, which is always the most important issue, and the issue of my child getting a credential, or a grade point, or whatever. </p>
<p>What kind of colleges does your son aspire to attend? That would make a difference in your planning, I think.</p>
<p>An issue to consider is that AP-Human geography is not considered for credit by a wide variety of colleges. </p>
<p>But I also agree with Tokenadult. The important thing is for the student to learn. My S has been auditing a number of college courses that do not count toward his hs' GPA. The AP scores he received in 8th grade did not exempt him from having to fulfill the high school graduation requirements, nor did they figure in his high school GPA (he audited one AP course at the high school). Still, the fact that he did take these APs and college courses were helpful when he applied to colleges this past fall.</p>
<p>Ofcourse, it is too early for my son to decide which college he wants to go. But in general I think at least as of now, he is more of a liberal arts kind of guy. And if he does self-study, it will nice if he can some credit for the trouble, aside from the value of learning geography in conjunction with world history</p>
<p>There are a couple different issues here, and marite touches on them. If your son self-studies or externally studies AP Human Geography, he would not get high school credit for the work unless you arranged that with his high school (and there is no guarantee they would give him such credit). Then he would likely take the AP exam in May with everyone else. His score would be held at the College Board and he would be free to self-report it, along with his others, to colleges when he applies, to demonstrate the challenge of curriculum that he undertook in high school. Once he is accepted and decides to attend a college, the AP scores can be sent to the school formally. You would need to check the policies of each school your son considers attending (often on their websites) to learn whether they provide credit or accelleration in courses based on excellent AP scores on the test (usually only a 4 or 5, and sometimes only a 5, is considered good enough for colleges to accept). There is no guarantee that any particular college will accept any particular AP test, regardless of the excellence of the score, for credit at their school. For instance, I have not seen any college that mentioned AP Human Geography as a course they would "count" towards an incoming student's credits. Mostly you'll see AP Calculus, the sciences (Chem, Bio, Physics), and occasionally Comp Sci, allowed to count for something. A 5 in English Comp. will sometimes let the student place out of a freshman writing course, and an excellent score in a foreign language AP often provides some college credit. (And of course others are accepted by specific schools, that's just a general observation.)</p>
<p>Most of the other APs should be taken for the (expected) rigor of the course and what the student yearns to learn, not for college credit, because it's unlikely most colleges would offer credit for them.</p>
<p>We've used CTD (<a href="http://www.ctd.northwestern.edu%5B/url%5D">http://www.ctd.northwestern.edu</a>) for online courses and have been very happy with them. They are accredited so your school should be willing take the credits.</p>