<p>I was hoping some current/past Rice students could help me out here clarifying AP credit, because I'm really not understanding how it all works, haha...</p>
<p>Basically from what I understand, Rice students need 12 credits in each distribution group, right? I don't really get how it works with your major. Say, for example, I'm a chemistry major, and I get a 5 on the AP Macroeconomics test. It's not needed for my major, and it doesn't apply to any distribution group, but it does say that it counts for "3 credit hours." Would this "3 hour credit" be useful to me at all?</p>
<p>Thank you for any help! Our school has cut funding for AP tests, so I don't want to take any tests unless I know I will be able to use them at Rice. :)</p>
<p>It will count for general credit. You need a certain amount of total credit hours to graduate (slightly different depending on degree) and major/distribution requirements will not add up to that total. Free elective credit will fill in the gap. The 3 credits from the AP exam will count towards that.</p>
<p>Another consideration: registration times (not for your first semester, but after that) are determined by total credit hours completed. See [When</a> to Register | Office of the Registrar | Rice University](<a href=“http://registrar.rice.edu/students/when_to_register/]When”>http://registrar.rice.edu/students/when_to_register/) for this current semester as an example. If you have no transfer/AP credit, you end up in the last group to register. AP credit will help you get an earlier registration time. I would not choose to take the test just because of this reason, but perhaps something to consider.</p>
<p>There are many classes at Rice that do not count towards a distribution requirement that fall outside of any major/minor requirements. I’m an engineer, and I’m currently taking an anthropology course that does not count towards the social sciences distribution (D2). That’s the closest thing I can equate it to.</p>
<p>Exactly what I was looking for! Thank you so much! Side question - is registering for classes a hassle? (i.e. it’s hard to arrange what classes you want with which professors at what time because they’re all full or something?) I know a lot of people at larger universities like UT Austin have that problem, but I dunno if the same still applies to a smaller school like Rice.</p>
<p>Your get to register in terms of seniority (by credits). There are some classes that are extremely popular and fill up really quickly, but the majority are fairly easy to get into.</p>
<p>There is currently consideration of removing AP and IB credits from the number used to determine registration times so that the system does what it’s intended to do (which is to give preference to those who most need the courses because they have the fewest semesters remaining in which to take them) instead of determining registration based both on seniority and what you did in high school. There’s freshmen who register before sophomores because of their AP credits, and that’s a problem when they take spots in courses they want, but sophomores need.</p>
<p>Thanks guys! Another question… I think Adam answered it, but I just wanted to make sure:</p>
<p>Okay, so you can’t use AP credit for BOTH distribution credit and credit for your major, am I correct? Like if I have 6 credit hours for Bio, I can’t use it to place out of Intro Bio AND fulfill some of the D3 requirements? </p>
<p>This is all very new to me and I’m not understanding the website too well, so thank you all for your help!</p>
<p>To add to adamb’s post, this is the same as actual classes taken at Rice. If you are an engineer, you do not need to do additional D3 classes. Your major satisfies one of the categories of distribution.</p>
<p>“Actually, Bio would count for both. You would receive credit for both courses indicated, which count as 6 of the 12 required D3 credits.”</p>
<p>@Adam - are you sure? My D’s understanding is that the AP credits count for general credits, but not towards your distributions. She said, she would still need to take 12 “english” distibution credits even though she had 2 AP courses and tested out of freshman English.</p>
<p>@flute1298: To clarify, only certain AP exams count for distribution credit. See the listing at [AP</a> Credit | Office of the Registrar | Rice University](<a href=“http://registrar.rice.edu/students/ap_credit/]AP”>Advanced Placement (AP) Credit | Office of the Registrar | Rice University) and look at the last column. The english exams do not count for D1 (humanities) credit. Most of the math/science courses count for D3 credit. My personal theory on this is that math/science courses are much more likely to be taught similarly no matter where you take them (need to cover same material) whereas courses in other distributions may be taught in different ways and cover different things. Therefore, they do not grant distribution transfer credit for them.</p>
<p>Hey, sorry to sort of change the subject, but does Rice accept any college (or dual credit) classes you have taken? For example, I’ve taken a math and an english college class that counted for dual credit along with a few others. I’ve also taken a few college classes, such as psychology, british literature, and botany that were just for fun and to hopefully use as some of my credits once I got to college. Will they all count? Does any of this make sense? I’m not even sure if I want them to count seeing as they would make my time at Rice shorter…</p>
<ol>
<li>They would not make your time at Rice shorter.</li>
<li>You need to contact the department chair of the appropriate department. They can tell you their transfer credit policies. It’s not Rice as a whole that determines that - it’s up to each department.</li>
</ol>
<p>@RiceHopeful2012 Depends, did you take the courses at the college. I took dual credit classes in high school but because I didn’t take the courses on the campus of the community college Rice didn’t accept them.</p>
<p>They’ll accept dual credit for a course as long as you can provide (1) the official transcript from wherever you took the course, and (2) a letter from your high school principal or counselor confirming that the course was not used for credit.</p>
<p>This will sometimes count as general credit and sometimes be automatically marked as the Rice equivalent course (and thus counted as satisfying any requirements satisfying that course), depending on the nature of the course. If it’s not automatically given a Rice equivalent, there’s a form you can fill out to demonstrate that there is an equivalent course offered at Rice. This will require the syllabus, so make sure to keep a copy of it somewhere.</p>