Can someone explain how the AP policy works on a practical basis?

I’m sorry if I seem crazy, but I just don’t understand how the AP policy works, or how it benefits the students.

I see what courses/scores are accepted, but unlike public schools where you can use AP credits to meet core curriculum requirements, it doesn’t look like that’s the way it works at Tulane. So if you have, for example - US and European History credits, you receive credit for the courses but still have to take two history classes to satisfy the core curriculum? How does this help students in a practical way if History is not their intended major? It just seems like kids are getting lots of credits, but they still have to take an additional 15+ courses (@45 credit hours) for core credit, so they don’t have loads of room in their schedule to either graduate early, double major, etc.

Can someone walk me through this - please?

Some classes count for more than one core requirement. So in your example, a student may not have to take 15 additional courses; perhaps it is 7 or 8. It is easy to double major. From the two on campus tours that my family attended, most of the kids that spoke were double majors or doing a fifth year masters program. The children learn how to work the system pretty quickly!

It depends upon the college, and even the departments and your studebt’s Choice of major, as to how AP can work. I’ve seen AP courses take care of a core requirement for some majors and merely be for placement purposes for another all within the same school.

Ultimately, many students take AP courses because they are the most rigorous classes offered by their school.

Tulane, like many other private schools, is pickier about how they allow you to apply AP credit. The requirements became stricter in Fall 2018. AP credit can cover the Formal Reasoning (math) and Foreign Language proficiency requirements. Note that additional requirements such as Race and Inclusion and Global Perspectives can be met with certain classes that also meet distribution requirements, so there is some doubling-up allowed. AP credit covered intro classes in Econ for our daughter, so she could move on to intermediate, so there was a benefit in that. However, as in your example, the credit for the history and science is not useful, since she still has to take those at Tulane.

It does seem very tricky at Tulane. We are still trying to figure it out. For example, my dd brought AP English credit with her. She shows the credit hours but she still has to take 2 English classes. So not sure of the real benefit at Tulane…

The benefit really isn’t in replacing individual courses or eliminating requirements, it’s in having an accumulation of credits to help with schedule flexibility and eliminating the need to find electives to fulfill credits toward graduation. My D is in her second year but with her AP credits is technically a junior. This enables her to focus in on her major requirements and create a manageable schedule that allows time for internships and research assistantships that may not fulfill credits because she does not have to worry about making sure she has enough credits to be on schedule to graduate in four years. It alleviates the pressure of making up credits if she should have to drop a class or needs to lighten a load for what will be a rigorous semester.

S19 is at a public where his 27 credits from AP courses got him out of all but two of the college core requirements. However, he is in the Honors college, and the Honors college has its own Honors core that cannot be satisfied by AP credits.

He is still very glad for the AP credits, which are giving him a wider range of classes to choose from. Instead of taking the 2-semester English series required by the general core (for which he got AP credit), he can take any of the “fun” Honors lit classes. He only needs to take one Honors lab science instead of the two sciences required by the general core because of AP credit. His advanced standing got him into an Honors Experimental Music class for fine arts. He could start at a higher level of the math required for his degree. And honestly the rigor of his AP classes prepared him for the college coursework.

@pishicaca I agree that the flexibility comes mostly in not having to worry about chasing so many of the distribution requirements that the typical incoming freshman needs to fulfill (my son only had language credits, and didn’t score well enough on other APs for credit).

The other REAL benefit I’m starting to see now (as he registers for Spring 2020 classes) is that any/all credits s/he has secured before freshman year will earn them a preferential registration status, because it is all based on seniority. In other words, a freshman coming in with several AP credits will technically be considered a sophomore based on cumulative credit hours earned, and therefore be able to register ahead of the entire freshman class (with exception of freshmen fall term). This becomes important when trying to secure the more coveted professors, times, and sections and optimize your schedule. And assuming they keep a normal course load, they’ll always stay ahead of the class below them.