<p>Also, I'm less inclined to study for a bajillion AP tests now, and I'm actually considering not taking them at all. One reason is the studying thing- the other is taht I feel in no way or shape AP classes in HS can be equivalent to classes at Columbia. Would there be any disadvantage in not taking or put it another way, what advantages ARE THERE to take these AP tests? I'm thinking about doing the CC/Fu Combined Program or AILE (law) program later down the line- so with this in mind, any advice?</p>
<p>1) take the tests and do well on them. if you take the class then dont take the tests, it just looks like you're lazy and colleges dont want that.</p>
<p>2) c3045 is intensive freshman organic chem. the normal route of chemistry is 2 semesters of general chem and then orgo in the soph year. what this is saying is that you will get the 6 credits for gen.chem if you pass orgo with a c or better. i.e. its like getting 2 classes for nothing. i dont think gen.chem counts towards minors or concentrations but its def. a requirement for a lot of classes</p>
<p>3) you might not get placements out of the classes but you will get credit for them. this credit is basically like elective credit tho. you cant use it to get out of major requirements but you can take a less intensive workload if you so choose. or experiment with classes and not worry about having to drop them...whatever you choose really</p>
<p>4) exemptions arent necessary at columbia anyways. chemistry is probably the only multi-level course (outside of some languages?) that requires you to take a placement test if you want to skip some courses. for example you could place yourself into calc4 first semester even if you've never taken calc in your life</p>
<p>i dont think these should be ur considerations when deciding whether or not to take AP exams. Classes are hard enough to sort through once you get here...its even harder to try to make sense of everything beforehand. The whole point of getting credit and skipping courses is so you can either have lighter loads later on or you can take more upper level courses later on. If you want to be a science major for instance and are required to take gen chem and orgo and you get a 5 on the AP chem test and want to go right to freshman orgo, you've just saved yourself two semesters of gen chem. Thats pretty much the beauty behind AP exams. This doesnt work for all classes however, i dont think they allow you to skip bio for instance if it is required in your major.</p>
<p>Coming into Columbia, I had something like 11 AP exams, with 5s in 8 of them. I received:</p>
<ul>
<li>3 credits biology</li>
<li>6 credits history (3 each for US and Euro)</li>
<li>6 credits english (3 each for Lit and Lang)</li>
</ul>
<p>edit: I could have gotten credits for BC Calc if i had taken a more advanced course freshman year, and the same with credits for chem (needed to do orgo) or physics (needed to take accelerated physics 2801). i'm glad i made the choices I did, first semester freshman year is hard enough without taking ridiculous classes.</p>
<p>I received all of these the summer after my freshman year, since they make you finish a year before they actually award the credits. But, then, my life was made SIGNIFICANTLY easier, because I basically no longer had to worry about getting to 127 credits. I basically got a semester "for free", 15 whole credits that meant I didn't have to take 6 classes a term in order to graduate.</p>
<p>This was absolutely huge in the long run... there were two classes I dropped rather late to avoid totally screwing them up, and having the "i don't need those credits to graduate" thing was just an ace in the hole. My final semester, I basically spent every waking moment working with my team on a project for Video Game Design, and ignored my other classes basically until the final. Was taking 4 classes, dropped one, got an A in VGD, and somehow got As in Statistical Inference and Analysis & Optimization too.</p>
<p>What made all of this possible? Taking those darn AP tests as an overstressed high school junior. It's worth it in the long run, plus it looks good.</p>
<p>I don't know about your school policy, but my school refuses to give the student AP academic credit for the class if they don't take the AP exam.</p>
<p>I've been researching this a bit too. The above responses really confuse me because, as far as I can tell from the website, Columbia no longer awards credit--they let you place into a harder class though. That said, the one thing I DON'T want to do is place out of an easy class into a tough one and be stuck in that class. If I get a 5 on the BC calc, will I be obligated (assuming I'm right and there is only higher placement, not credit given for APs) to take a harder course?</p>
<p>
[quote]
The above responses really confuse me because, as far as I can tell from the website, Columbia no longer awards credit--they let you place into a harder class though.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>you're misreading what people are saying. </p>
<p>columbia DOES award credit. it is just in the form of "advanced credit". this means you can not count it towards a major unless it specifically says so. this kind of credit basically is the same thing as elective credit, nothing more or less</p>
<p>columbia DOES NOT place you. you (mostly) place yourself into whatever classes you want. as i stated above, with the exception of chemistry and a few languages, you can take a 2000 level course with no previous experience in the field (granted you will fail it, but you can do it, no one will stop you)</p>