Colleges Won't Accept AP Credits? Find Out Whether You Should Take the Tests Anyway

Here’s how to determine whether to take AP tests when your target schools won’t accept the credits. https://www.collegeconfidential.com/articles/should-you-take-ap-exams-if-colleges-wont-accept-the-credits/

That article misses some reasons to take AP tests:

  1. Even if the college does not give credits toward graduation, it (or its departments) may use AP tests for subject credit or advanced placement.
  2. If you transfer to a different college, the other college may use AP tests to your advantage.

But there could be another reason not to take AP tests:

  1. If you are a pre-med who intends to retake the course in college anyway, not having the AP score at all removes all possibility of having to mark "repeat" on the medical school application.

I spent hundreds of dollars on AP tests for my son, because his high school required kids to take the tests in order to get the AP designation on the transcript. Otherwise, they would count the course as a nonweighted course. So, senior year, even though by then we already knew my son’s college would give him no credits and minimal placement, he took the tests. I had to shell out $600ish. My son did not mind sitting for the tests- he actually likes tests- so at least that aspect of it was okay!

So, now he is in college. He got no credit for any class because that is the policy.

Most subjects he has taken or is interested in taking during college do not even give any placement for AP, and he got 5’s on all those tests! Of the only three subjects that would have given placement for AP, he got 4’s on two of the tests and would have needed a 5 for placement, and for the third so far he has chosen not to use the placement for his 5 in Calculus, the only score he could have used for placement!

He took thirteen AP tests. No credit, no placement.

Oh, well. At least the scores confirmed his high GPA and helped him get into his college in the first place. That is very important.

I still think it is wrong to require families in a public high school to pay for AP tests out of pocket in order to get credit for the classwork the kids worked hard on all year.

Just griping!

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I have never seen a case where a change in AP credit policy by college will result in more credit. If the college does not grant credit for APHG now, I doubt that it will change in the future.

I think the author is overstating the impact of an AP Scholar award on an AO.

That said, unless finances are an issue or the student is really bombing the class, I see no valid reason for a non-senior student not to take the exam. If the score ends up being unsatisfactory, s/he can simply not report on a college application and omit from the score report sent to the college attending.

For us, in the end it was worth it. Shelling out $1300 for 13 tests did give my kid 41 semester credits towards graduation (of which most of it useless) which helps with getting a better time for registration. But more importantly, his 5s in AP Calc BC and AP English Lit it gave subject credits for 4 mandatory classes which he’ll never have to take, which for a public school is one semester and worth $7K.

My kid’s anxiety is such that we figured she would want to take the first level of college classes regardless of AP test scores. So we encouraged her to skip the exams regardless of potential college credit. Her HS teachers didn’t like that much, but it made sense for us.

It is only worth the monetary value if the student would otherwise need more semesters or credits at extra cost to graduate.

However, even if the student will not graduate any earlier to save money, having subject credit and/or advanced placement can allow the student to take additional electives and/or higher level courses that s/he would otherwise be able to take if s/he had to repeat what s/he learned in high school. Given how it is often said on these forums that college is about more than just the monetary return-on-investment, it seems odd that the conventional wisdom on these forums is that students should repeat their AP credit, even when the college gives subject credit and/or advanced placement that is an opportunity for the student to learn more new things than s/he would otherwise be able to learn.

Sometimes the AP version is a LOT easier than the college version. I think some colleges insist you take their own Intro (let’s say Chem), because they want all students to be similarly prepared.

That is why I wrote “even when the college gives subject credit and/or advanced placement” to exclude those situations where the college does not consider the AP score sufficient for subject credit and/or advanced placement.

I think there are times when the college will allow it but the student still should not. @ucbalumnus

Yes, if the student intends to take a course for which the course allowed to be skipped is a prerequisite, but finds that the college’s old final exam for that course is too hard.

But that is not the conventional wisdom found on these forums, which is to unconditionally repeat one’s AP credit.

While some may say that, I would not classify it as “conventional wisdom.” For the record, I’ve stated numerous times that in most cases, I would not suggest taking a college course for which AP credit had been already granted.

I’ve always appreciated your advice to get an old final, @ucbalumnus . If possible, it’s a great way to help make that decision.

But this board doesn’t have much in the way of conventional wisdom, IMO!

There is also an element of tuition revenue protection in some of the policies on AP credit. And the marketing aspect of “Sure your 5 on Y AP exam shows you are strong in Y but we need to know you are X college strong in Y” is big (even if its not true).

Especially since the frosh-level courses tend to be less expensive for the college than the upper level courses that the student may take if allowed to skip the frosh-level courses.

However, note that public universities are often quite generous with credit units for AP scores, even though they may not be as generous with subject credit or advanced placement as they are for credit units. That is likely because most students are subsidized in-state students, so getting them to graduate as quickly as possible is better for the public universities’ finances and capacity management.

It certainly varies college by college but for my D, she came into school as a 2nd sophomore which had perks for priority scheduling, and then for housing for next year. Because of engineering course sequences, she can’t graduate early but it allows her to take courses for a special certification and to easily add a minor.

Also if you want credit for the AP tests…apply to colleges where you will get credit for the AP tests.

D could have skipped some calc courses as she got 5’s on the A/B and B/C tests. However, because her college is highly competitive and she wanted a solid math foundation moving forward into a STEM major, she retook the classes. A’s in both (although she concedes they weren’t exactly cakewalks and there were a few things she learned) - set her up well for multivariable. She DID use her scores on the AP Lang/Lit tests to bypass freshman English classes, which saved her some time. She may have been able to swing graduating a semester early if she applied all of her AP scores, but certainly not a year as she’s also pursuing a minor AND her major requires a year-long senior year thesis project. She is hearing that people on the quarter system with similar stats are able to graduate earlier, so semester vs. quarter may make a difference.

No one has a crystal ball - I’d say hedge your bets and take the test if you think the class has prepared you.

Help me out, please. My son is unmotivated to study for his 3 AP tests. He has been accepted to a “dream school” - Princeton. He plans to study math and get his PhD in it. I have thoroughly reviewed Princeton’s AP policy. They do not give any credit for AP’s. They give advanced standing for some AP courses, mostly limited to a score of 5. He got 5’s on calc BC (which gets him out of calc 1 and 2) and physics C mech last year (see below), 4 on Eng lang (gets him nil).

He’s homeschooled and taking online AP Eng Lit now (which includes test prep and he’s fine with that). He self-studied physics C E/M and Comp Sci but doesn’t want to prepare any more. He is practice-testing at low-to middle 4’s on both. His point is that he won’t get credit anyway. Comp Sci won’t get him placed higher, even with a 5 (he knows Python well and is frustrated by the cumbersome syntax of Java he has to learn for Comp Sci A). If he gets a second physics C 5 to go with last year’s mech score, he can place out of first year physics. He says he doesn’t care since he probably won’t take physics anyway, and if he did, he wouldn’t claim the advanced standing.

I’m telling him about perseverance and doing one’s best always, since he will certainly encounter a college class he doesn’t like but needs to do well in.

Should I:

  1. Keep encouraging him to prepare better? He has the time, but not the will.
  2. Let him prepare lightly and probably get 4’s? He won’t lose his spot, and it won’t really affect college cost or his projected course of study. I really don’t care about him just having a “pretty transcript” with more 5’s when he’s done.
  3. Call Princeton and ask if they would withdraw his offer if he doesn’t take one or two of the 3 AP tests? All 3 classes are on his homeschool transcript.

One hopes that you are not being serious. I can just imagine the eyeroll of the person at Princeton taking that phone call.

Tying in with my earlier comments, I see no reason for him to put much/any time into prepping for CS when there is no credit to be gained anyway. In terms of E&M, when you say he self-studied, what does that mean? He used no outside resources, no online class, nothing more than reading a text on his own? Depending upon how he prepared all year, it might be tough for him to get a 5, or it might not. He’d know better than I. But I would compromise on shifting resources away from prepping for CS into E&M. If that does not work, I’m not sure that this is the battle on which you choose to fall on the sword. A 4 is a fine score. Since he’s leaving for Princeton in a few months, where, presumably, you will not be setting his schedule, I’d let him choose how to allocate his time.