College Credit

<p>As you can see I'm international, I want to know something about college credit...( I don't know anything)..</p>

<p>Can you be a tid bit more specific? Do you want to know how the credit system works, or are you wondering if/how you can get college credit for your high school work, or…?</p>

<p>How the system work?
I don’t know anything… </p>

<p>are the credits important?</p>

<p>yes, credits are critical unless you are going to college just for fun and/or don’t need a degree.</p>

<p>you earn a specific number of credits for each course you complete & pass. Usually, it’s 3 credits a course for universities operating on semester calender (the vast majority) and 4 credits a course for universities operating on quarter calender. However, there are courses where you earn less than three credits or more than three credits. Normally, the number of credits you earn per course is roughly equivalent to the number of hours per week the course is in session. </p>

<p>Most Bachelor degrees require around 120 semester credits which you can easily finish in 4 years.</p>

<p>(x-posted with zerolife)</p>

<p>Most colleges and universities in the US require their students to satisfy requirements in three areas before they award a degree:

  • completion of a major
  • completion of general education requirements
  • a minimum number of credits</p>

<p>For example, a college might require 132 credits to graduate, where most courses count for 3 or 4 credits. The requirements for any single major plus general education requirements typically stay below the total credit minimum. (For example, you major might require 50 credits and you might need 32 credits for general education requirements. That would leave you with another 50 credits to spare.) The remaining credits are “free electives” which you can fulfill any way you want.</p>

<p>Students often use their free electives for one of the following purposes:

  • complete a second major or a minor
  • take advanced or graduate-level courses in their major
  • take random courses that sound interesting (for example, a physics major could take history, music and Chinese as free electives)</p>

<p>Many colleges award incoming students college credit for college-level courses that they took in high school. For example, American AP courses, British A-levels or the German Abitur often qualify for some transfer credit. These credits replace some of the free electives and allow students to graduate earlier. A few colleges allow high-school transfer credits to satisfy general education requirements.</p>

<p>Different colleges use different systems to count credits. Many colleges require 120-132 credits to graduate and award 3-4 credits to most courses. Some colleges require 32 credits for graduation and award 1 credit to a typical course. Whichever way colleges count credits, it is usually done with the intention that students should finish their Bachelor’s degree in 8 semesters.</p>

<p>Thanks, so If I don’t get credits in High School, it won’t a problem.</p>

<p>It totally shouldn’t be a problem. High school credits only help a little in college. In fact, not all AP/A-Levels credit are transferable for college courses, so you end up taking the college course anyway.</p>

<p>E.g. I got 6 college credits from my A Levels Accounting class and even though I’m a business school major, I didn’t get any accounting class exempted.</p>