As the name implies, @SevenDad is a parent, and credit for AP scores was more generous at many schools a generation ago. That said, even today, one can potentially graduate from Penn in less than 4 years as a result of AP credit.
One cannot say “As a rule” on this subject; each college/uni determines its own credit policy. Some cap the number of credit, while others don’t. Some are very liberal with credit and others give no credit.
Agreed to a point. My potential major does not allow for exemption of major requirements due to AP; they place you into an honors version. However, AP does allow me to bypass large intro lecture courses to fulfill my gen ed requirements with smaller classes on a more in-depth topic.
@skieurope, one may not say “as a rule”, according to you, but as a rule and by that I mean in the large majority of cases, AP credits are not effective as time or cost advantages. Statements to the contrary are misleading. Perhaps you have more detailed information than I do as to Penn’s policies regarding AP credit circa 1990 when @SevenDad attended and perhaps you have specific details how AP scores may allow a current Penn u.g. to get through in less than 4 years. Certainly there are numerous colleges that currently grant actual unit credit for AP tests though one would be hard pressed to find such a trend in selective colleges today or indeed in this century and I say this as someone in that business. In my academic day, which predates @SevenDad, I racked up unit credit from prep school AP tests but was still steered through department and university requirements towards a full or nearly full four years; such was the case for decades. Again, there are always exceptions. Regardless, overall in today’s world, it is a disservice to parents and students to argue for AP tests as a means to speed up the undergraduate process. It just isn’t, in the main, and more than a few students become deeply disappointed to discover that all the work they put in AP courses and exams did not lead to unit credit at their universities.
The point is not, as you state, that colleges have different rules about AP credit, but rather that overall, as a rule, in the main, in general, taken for all in all, AP credit should not be assumed to be equivalent to unit credit nor taken with the intention of a quick exit for undergraduate study. Its chief value lies to skipping over those infernal intro courses.
“The benefit is not in shortening one’s time on campus, it’s in testing out of gigantic mind numbing freshman intro courses and jumping immediately into more focused higher level courses.”
I was going to address this motivation to take APs in my post #15, but figured I was lapsing into my usual long-windedness so cut it short.
While I won’t disagree that some large-format frosh courses at some schools could be considered mind-numbing, I don’t know that I’d consider ANY of my frosh year courses so worthless.
Additionally, I think there is something to be said for going through a school’s particular system for a student’s desired area of study. For example, I was not a Wharton undergrad, but I took the max number of classes I could as a College student. In the massive (over 300 person lecture format with smaller TA groups) intro Marketing classes, I had one of the best, most inspirational teachers I’ve ever had…yes, I realize that there is no AP Marketing exam, but my point is that it’s unfair to label all intro level courses “mind numbing”.
Nor should the number of students enrolled in a course necessarily considered a negative. As I’ve already noted elsewhere, I took two History courses (200 person lecture + TA group format as well) with Drew Faust when she was at Penn, and she was perhaps the single best lecturer I’ve ever seen in action. She made the material come alive…so much so that I signed up for a second course.
Again, just the perspective of one dad, CAS 1991.
Interesting thread. My child is at a school that offers limited AP classes (and students need to be recommended.) Whereas she would have taken 6+ APs in her vg public, she will take just 2 in BS. Partially because there are some non APs that she was really excited to take. We encouraged her to take the teachers she wanted even though she may look “less rigorous”. - something every college stresses as highly important. I hope this won’t work against her but it was a risk we decided was worth taking. Every student at her school is capable of AP work imho.