<p>I'm interested in attending Virginia Tech's engineering program with a triple major in mechanical engineering, computer/software engineering, and either physics or electrical engineering. I know having a triple major requires taking a large amount of courses that usually takes more than 4 years to complete. In preparation, I have been taking math and engineering courses at my local community college since last year. Also, I'm planning to take many math and science AP exams that I feel confident in passing. After doing some research, I realized that I still have to take 60 some courses, as a rough estimate, after transferring all my earned credits (assuming I completely pass all my AP exams). I was wondering if Virginia Tech offers placement or course exemption exams or assessments that I could take so that I am able to complete all my degrees in about 4 years? Thanks.</p>
<p>If you are taking courses at a Virginia CC then some of the course credit may be accepted. If you go to the VT website and type in AP Course Credit in the search box you will find a description of the classes for which you can obtain AP credit. I think it’s Calc I and II if you get a 5 of the Calc BC exam. Physics depends upon the particular AP test. Chemistry is usually one semester for your major(s) and you can get AP credit for that as well. </p>
<p>In my opinion going for a triple major offers very little benefit to you with the downside that you won’t have a life during college. Since you haven’t started engineering yet at VT you don’t even know how well you’ll handle the work for just a single major. Or, whether you will like the classes in all of your suggested majors.</p>
<p>I may just end up doing a double major and minor or a maybe even just a double major only, but triple majoring was just a thought I had. I knew, beforehand that my community class credits would transfer along with my AP credits, if I meet the score requirements, but my real question was if VT allows for someone to place out of some courses if they are able to pass some sort of exam or assessment? I think that that would be the real factor in determining if I really want to go for a triple major. I’m really like to just learn and I was thinking that I would enjoy the sense of achievement if I do complete all 3 majors in 4 years, given that I could somehow place out of some courses. Since I wasn’t able to take every class I wanted to at my community college, due to scheduling reasons, I kinda self-studied some of them. If I could take an exam to prove my knowledge in Tech’s corresponding classes, I hope to reduce my workload somewhat and actually have a decent chance of perhaps finishing in at least 4 years.</p>
<p>Judging by your previous threads along with this one, I truly think you’re out of reality with how things are done. You seem to want to double, triple major just for the sake of it, but you fail to understand how pointless and unrealistic it would be. Few AP exams and community college courses aren’t impressive or uncommon. Just focus on a single engineering major, even that should be difficult.</p>
<p>Yeah, what c&w said. Three concurrent majors are a bad, bad idea. Two is also a bad idea. My analogy for it is that double majoring in engineering is like strapping a lawnmower engine to a jet engine. You’re just weighing yourself down. You’ll severely limit the time you have for research, internships and activities, all of which are way more important than an extra major would, for grad school or for a job. A minor could work out well for you though, and you’ll have tech electives that you can use to explore other sections of engineering.</p>
<p>The other reason it is a bad idea is that the three you picked are largely unrelated to eachother and even the intro classes won’t have any overlap. CE and ME don’t even have the same intro to engineering class.</p>
<p>My number 1 choice is mechanical engineering, so I guess I’ll probably go for that as my major and do computer science as a minor. Still, I would like to take electrical engineering courses primarily for self-enrichment because I sincerely enjoy all 3 fields. However, I still feel that my original question had not been answered yet. Can you place out of courses if you can prove your knowledge of the course material by taking and passing an exam? Any and all response would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.</p>
<p>For the vast majority of classes no you can’t place out of them that way. The exceptions are Calc I (I think) and maybe one or two other lower level classes. </p>
<p>Even a CE minor is going to be rough. Everyone’s first engineering class is the same, but the second splits between computer engineering and pretty much everything else. To take the CE classes I think you have to have taken their version of that class, and to take ME (or most others) you’ll have to take the regular version. And I don’t know that you can take both.</p>
<p>edit: But you are walking in with a lot of options. You will have time to get into as much research as you’d like, or get a minor, or take tech electives to get a very deep set of knowledge, or even start taking grad classes as an undergrad (some majors offer that.) So congrats on getting to where you are, and good luck.</p>
<p>there is something called ‘credit by exam’ (cbe) but the success rate has to be abysmal. You can consider looking into that, but I don’t have any more information.</p>