<p>Alright, so I'm interested in being a chemical engineer at the University of MN and I checked out the 4 year plan of classes along with the AP credit awards for high school AP classes. </p>
<p>After looking at it, I realized that for getting a 4s or 5s on AP exams (even a 3 in Physics/English), I could potentially be exempt from my Freshman year of college. Granted, I don't have any of those credits YET (took calc and english exams this yr) and currently am signed up for AP physics but not AP chem next year, but I was thinking, could it be a bad thing to skip these freshman college classes anyways?</p>
<p>I personally want to enjoy college as much I can, so trying to speed through it doesn't sound that appealing to me, especially when engineering is only a 4 year degree anyways. Also, I think that some of those first year classes would be important to take just to get acclimated to college, instead of jumping into second year classes like Organic Chemistry right away. </p>
<p>I'm sure many of you have been in the same situation, after getting so many AP credits in HS, on whether or not to retake the classes in college. In summary, some of my questions are:</p>
<p>Did you guys choose to use as many AP credits as possible, or did you pick and choose certain classes?</p>
<p>Do any of you regret skipping intro college classes, because you got bogged down by more difficult 2nd year classes that you weren't ready for?</p>
<p>I hope the post wasn't too long, and I'd greatly appreciate any responses. Thanks</p>
<p>I only used the AP credits that satisfied my general requirements like history and English. The ones related to engineering I did not ‘accept’ as I still took the classes, which I found helpful as the curriculum for aerospace is four years no matter whether I took those classes or not. Also I had not taken calculus since 11th grade and it was a good refresher, especially since some of the principles were used in later classes. In my engineering group of friends, all but one that had AP classes like calculus and physics took the courses as well.</p>
<p>Good question. I just completed my junior year of mechanical engineering and have a concentration in design. In note to the above post: our aero program is extremely structured, too.</p>
<p>My school caps our AP credits, especially in humanities and the sciences (AP Chem and AP Physics C are only counted for real credit, as opposed to electives). They accept AP credit (4+), placement tests and the ability to skip math courses (If you entered without Calculus 2 credit and started in Calculus 3, you could get credit for passing 3 and 4, retroactively. If you failed EITHER of these, you had to start back at Calculus 1, and could waste 1.5 years). We work on terms, so your freshman year would consist of some amount of Calculus 1-4. Calculus 1-2 is like AB Calculus, Calculus 3 is infinite series and Calculus 4 is 3-D.</p>
<p>I received AP math credit and started in Calculus 3. I thought in my head about starting in Calculus 1. Well, Calc 3 was the hardest thing for me. It was the quintessential math course: professor would lecture and I would have no idea what was going on. Some of my friends started in Calc 1, despite having credit, and found themselves with a much better understanding of calc and found less issues in the future. Mind you, I have never been too skilled at math (As I joke with my physics friends: You guys do math, we get tables). And, yes, the introduction courses do intend to get you use to college.</p>
<p>My advice for you would be to opt out of courses that you feel that you can rock. If you can, e-mail a professor and ask for a syllabus. There might not be as much of an overlap as you think. If you feel you know everything about calculus, skip it. Are you a bit hesitant? Take the course: worse come to worse, you learn something new and boost your GPA. Weight your selections, but remember that these two or so classes really are not really going to impact the time of your degree. I think most schools expect you to come in with no credit. As an engineer, don’t try to pass over the introduction courses or it will bite you in the ass at some point.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the detailed responses. After seeing that, I think I’m only going to use AP credits for writing and lib ed classes (if I can), not math, chemistry, or physics classes. That basically confirmed what I was thinking earlier, I just wanted another opinion on it. Also, I feel pretty confident in my math/science abilities, but even so I’ll just retake the intro classes because it will refresh my brain on the subject, I really enjoy math/science, and I’m in no rush to get through college in less than 4 years. </p>
<p>Way back when, I had two AP scores that gave me useful subject credit. One covered a peripheral requirement for my major (nothing else required it as a prerequisite), so it was an obvious choice to skip the course and take something else of interest in its place. The other was math, and I went on to more advanced math courses without any problem.</p>
<p>What I would suggest is making the decision on a course by course basis.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>If the course that you can skip with AP credit is not a prerequisite for anything else you will take, then skip it and enjoy a free elective in its place.</p></li>
<li><p>If the course that you can skip with AP credit is a prerequisite for something else you will take, find the old final exams for the course that you can skip and try them. Base your decision on how well you know the material covered in the college’s course. If you know the material well, it is better to skip the course so that you can use the schedule space for something interesting instead of wasting time and tuition on something you know well. But if the college’s final exam shows large gaps in your knowledge, then you may want to retake the course.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Whether or not to retake the course depends on how comfortable you feel with the material. For what it’s worth, I took all of my AP credit, which covered a handful of GE requirements and nearly all of my lower division prerequisites for my major. I was completely fine taking the higher level courses, and rather than speeding through college, it gave me the flexibility to slow down, to wait for the good professors, to take classes when they were offered at a better time for my schedule, to do things outside of class, and to take classes in different departments or extra upper div coursework. I still graduated in four years with a double major, and I was able to take classes that I was interested in different departments. I sat through some of the classes I skipped as a notetaker, and I’m glad I didn’t take them, just because I would have been bored stiff. I liked the flexibility that the AP credit gave me, but that choice is not for everyone.</p>
<p>The only time I’ve regretted taking the AP credit was when looking at graduate schools. Some graduate schools do not take AP credit, which is something to think about if you are considering going into a field where schools have prerequisite requirements.</p>
<p>Some schools also have placement tests, which is something you may want to consider taking. My school had online placement tests for different subjects that students could take to determine which class they should take.</p>
<p>By this, do you mean medical schools with respect to pre-med course requirements? PhD programs probably are not looking at whether you skipped a frosh-level course with AP credit; they are looking at your record in junior/senior-level courses, undergraduate research, and recommendations.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus, medical school, yes, but other graduate programs as well. I’m going into genetic counseling (MS), for example, which has prerequisite courses and some schools explicitly do not accept AP credit. It’s likely not going to be an issue for most students or the OP (I certainly didn’t think it was going to be for me, and it was probably why no one brought it up), but sometimes, I mention it just on the off chance that it’s relevant. It’s something that was very much relevant to me, but I didn’t know it at the time. I only brought it up because it was the only time where taking the AP credit or not taking it mattered to me–I never had an issue with taking the next level of classes, but that was just my experience.</p>
<p>The professional degree programs did not allow you to substitute more advanced courses in the same department for the courses skipped with AP credit? (e.g. instead of calculus 1 that you skipped with AP credit, listing calculus 3 for a calculus requirement)</p>
<p>You often can, which I thought I mentioned earlier but it seems that I skipped over it. In my case, I decided late in the game about what I wanted to do and didn’t have the time or inclination to take another year of chemistry or calculus.</p>
<p>As an engineering major, if I were you, I’d accept as many AP credits as possible. It won’t force you to graduate in three years. Instead, you can take a lighter load each semester which will be helpful in keeping a high GPA and your stress levels down.</p>
<p>I have engineering friends (mechanical granted) who came in with little to no AP credits and they’re wishing they had now. They’ve got jam packed semesters and are in the library pretty much 24/7.</p>
<p>The short answer is yes. While AP’s can be a great time and money saver they can also be a shot in the foot for some. For example getting exempted out of English at your university can mean you never get college level writing training unless you intentionally take a class on it. And everyone can use writing practice and help. Also for those students who are undecided on a major or who change theirs having tested out of your first year or 2 has taken away all that growing and exploring time. At many schools you have to declare your major by the time you have 30-60 credits so those with tons of AP’s have to make a choice right away even if they don’t want to. If not they end up taking more classes than they need to. Some schools are cracking down on time to degree and won’t allow or will $$ penalize you for taking more than the required # of credits. Basically it’s a personal choice, but talk with your high school counselor and your college advisor to build a good plan for you. Good luck!</p>
<p>But like everyone has suggested here if it allows you to space out your higher level classes (and you feel you won’t change your major) then they can very worth it. :)</p>
<p>First of all, many colleges don’t allow you to use AP classes to exempt out of classes in their major. So for example, at some schools even if you got a 5 in AP calculus, you still need to take calculus I if you major in math, physics, engineering or economics. My college was like that in most majors - if you got a 5 in AP psychology it would count as 4 credits but you still had to take intro psychology if you were a psych major.</p>
<p>Second of all, it doesn’t mean you have to speed through anything. It can be a cushion for failure or allow you to take time to do something else. I came in to college with a semester’s worth of AP credits (16), which was the max I could take given my scores. I got out of taking freshman math and English, as well as some distributional requirements. I still spent four years in college. I spent one semester studying abroad and I didn’t earn any credit towards my major, which I was able to do because I started my major earlier because I didn’t have to take a lot of my freshman year requirements. I also got sick one semester and had to withdraw from classes that I needed and I wasn’t thrown too far off track because of my AP credit.</p>
<p>One of the best things I did in undergrad was take credit for as many AP tests as my school would accept. It meant I got to place out of a lot of the killer freshman courses, and instead take a ton of extra upper-level courses which were more interesting to me. By the time senior year had rolled around I only had one required class left to take, and I was running out of classes within my department. Wound up graduating a semester early and saving a ton of money.</p>
<p>Actually, sometimes the reverse exists. At Berkeley, for example, the math and various engineering majors allow students with a 5 on AP calculus BC to skip both semesters of frosh calculus, but the largest biology majors and the business major do not (though they may allow substitution of more advanced math courses). The math department and engineering division probably realize that they get a lot of top math students who would be wasting their time retaking frosh calculus (and who have to take more advanced math courses for their majors anyway), while the biology and business departments likely attract less-strong-in-math students who would otherwise try to avoid taking any college math course (since those majors normally do not require anything beyond frosh calculus).</p>