<p>I've heard several people say that skipping foundation classes is a bad idea when it is the field you intend to pursue. I've gotten 5s in multiple AP exams, and I want to major in economics if I were admitted, as I aspire to be an investment banker or hedge fund manager. That being said, I would probably need to be very strong in Calculus and Statistics. This year, I'm taking AP Calc BC and AP Stats. If I receive a 5 on both of them, at Duke, would it be a good idea or ill-advised to "AP out" of the foundation classes? I've also gotten 5s in APUSH, AP Chem, AP Eng Lang, and AP US Gov. Which of these classes would it be best to use AP credit for?</p>
<p>Er… worry about getting in first?</p>
<p>In Trinity, you only get to use 2 AP credits so it’s not as major a decision as you’d think. That said, I’m for skipping intro classes. Intro classes are often the GPA killers, and anything really important they’ll review in higher level classes.
You should definitely skip math 31/32 if you can. They’re hard, have tough curves, and the only thing you need to know for higher maths is derivatives, integrals, and logarithms.</p>
<p>I’d AP out of as many courses as possible. Higher level classes are almost always more interesting, better curved, or less competitive than intro classes.</p>
<p>I second gc414</p>
<p>In Trinity, you can only use 2 AP scores for credit… however, you can use as many AP scores as you want for placement (at least that’s my understanding of the situation).</p>
<p>I tend to agree with the sentiment that you’ll rarely if ever regret “APing out” of a course, even if you don’t receive credit as funkyhamster has corrected stated if you are in Trinity. While it is true that most AP courses won’t quite cover ALL the material of a Duke course (at least not at the same depth), the basic information is there (that’s why Duke permits scores of 4 or 5 to skip out – I’m sure those decisions weren’t made lightly). But the main point is, by the time you’re a junior or senior, I can’t imagine regretting not having taken an intro course – they do tend to involve more busy work and high grades are tougher to come by because of the curve and sheer number of students in the classes.</p>