<p>I have taken enough AP exams to be able to earn so-called "advanced standing." Can AP credit ONLY be applied if a student wishes to pursue this? Or can AP credit also be used for placement purposes? The website is a bit ambiguous to me. Please no "let me Google that for you" replies.</p>
<p>Students can choose to pursue “Advance Standing,” or not; it’s not something that is forced upon you. See: <a href=“http://webdocs.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/ugrad_handbook/current/chapter2/advanced_standing.html[/url]”>http://webdocs.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/ugrad_handbook/current/chapter2/advanced_standing.html</a></p>
<p>Other than for Advanced Standing, Harvard does not give credit for AP’s. The only exception is for exempting students from the foreign language requirement. See: <a href=“http://webdocs.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/ugrad_handbook/current/chapter2/requirements.html[/url]”>http://webdocs.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/ugrad_handbook/current/chapter2/requirements.html</a></p>
<p>Son is doing this. It’s not too bad a program, except that it’s sort of “all or nothing.” You have to commit to either getting a bachelors and masters in four years or graduating in three. You can’t just use APs to pad your transcript so that you can take fewer classes total graduating with a bachelors in four.</p>
<p>You cannot use AP credit for placement purpose but you can use your AP score to place into certain courses. You will still need the same number of courses to graduate.</p>
<p>sewhappy, really? That’s new in the last…um, 25 years.
I took advanced standing but they didn’t really bug me about whether or not I was really going to graduate a year early or not. I think they asked me my junior year and I said I wasn’t and that was it. I did take a full load but it occurred to me once, during junior year when I had to drop a statistics course, that I really didn’t have to make it up, since I had a year of credit already. I’m not sure what would have happened if I hadn’t made it up, because I did.</p>
<p>The only real effect on me was having to declare a major freshman year and take the sophomore seminar. Also, I got to go to the Senior Soiree twice.</p>
<p>lol . . . “commit” is perhaps too harsh a word. I don’t think it’s off with your head if you don’t stay on track for the bachelors in 3 or the masters in 4. But my main point remains the same . . . tho I’m just a Harvard parent not a student . . . it’s not like lots of universities where you can tell them “Hey, I got a 5 in AP lit and lang so give me a year of credit in English.” It doesn’t work that way. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. I actually get a headache when son explains what he’s doing exactly.</p>
<p>No, as a current parent I’m sure you are much more up-to-date on how things work there these days than I am!</p>
<p>But, yes, you’re right, I see that it is very different at some other universities. Since Harvard awards advanced standing for three AP exams, I didn’t even take the exam at the end of one of my senior year AP courses. There was no point, since I had three without it.</p>
<p>I believe you can also activate advanced standing for a semester - which is used occasionally if a student wants to go abroad, but the program doesn’t count for Harvard credit.</p>
<p>It’s 4 AP exams, with scores of 5 in each (and not every AP exam counts for credit). S found that AP-language counted for 1/2 credit. He was eligible for AS because he had more AP scores of 5 but chose not to take up the option–as do a large number of AS-eligible students. I believe that one can drop the AS status after having chosen to take it up.</p>
<p>They’ve changed it. It was 3 AP exams, with a score of 4, if I recall correctly.
But this was when dinosaurs roamed the earth and my high school, one of the top in the country, offered about half-a-dozen AP courses in total, and my class was the first to be offered AP English Lit!</p>
<p>DeskPotato: Sorry, but Harvard has not changed it’s requirement for Advanced Standing. See: [Advanced</a> Standing: General Information](<a href=“http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~advising/advanced/general.html#1]Advanced”>http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~advising/advanced/general.html#1)</p>
<p>Eligibility for Advanced Standing
Freshmen who have taken College Board Advanced Placement exams need a total of four full credits to be eligible for Advanced Standing. Credits are earned by scoring 5 on a minimum of four AP tests.</p>
<p>A score of 5 on the following College Board Advanced Placement examinations may earn one full credit toward eligibility:
Art (History)
Biology
Calculus BC1
Chemistry
Economics (micro and macro)
English (literature and composition)2
French (language)3
French (literature)3
German (language)
History (European)
History (United States)
Italian (language and culture)
Physics B4
Spanish (language)3
Spanish (literature)3</p>
<p>A score of 5 on the following College Board Advanced Placement examinations may earn one half credit toward eligibility:
Calculus AB (or Calc AB subscore)1
Computer Science AB
Economics (micro)
Economics (macro)
English (language and composition)2
Latin Literature
Latin: Vergil Music (theory)5
Music (listening and literature)5
Physics C (E&M)4
Physics C (Mechanics)4
Psychology
Statistics</p>
<p>The following College Board Advanced Placement examinations may NOT be used for eligibility:
Art (Studio and Portfolio)
Comparative Government and Politics
Computer Science A
Environmental Science
Human Geography
International English
United States Government and Politics.</p>
<p>Sorry, I meant they must have changed it since 1980.</p>
<p>I’m sure I entered with only 3 AP exams, because I only took 4 AP courses and did not take the exam for one of them. </p>
<p>And I know that I took advanced standing.</p>
<p>I believe that you can also get AS if you score high enough (42+?) on the IB total score. My son was also eligible, but did not want to take AS (and he’s having a hard enough time fitting in what he has to take).</p>
<p>Yes, you can use IB, A-levels, German Arbitur and French Baccalaureat to receive Advanced Standing.</p>
<p>My son also qualified for advanced standing, but chose not to take this route. He was under the impression that he would be limited in the choices of courses he could take. From what we understand the course track is pretty detailed as to what a student can take. We’re not sure which of his high school AP’s would have counted (he took 12 total and earned 5’s on all). My son wanted to take several language courses and with the advanced standing he couldn’t have done this. </p>
<p>I do know of a girl a few years older who did do the Advanced Standing because she knew exactly what she wanted to do as far as her major and courses. This worked out VERY VERY nicely for her. I guess it depends on the course of study one wants to take.</p>
<p>I understand that the vast majority of those who take greater than fifteen AP tests still decide not to accept Advanced Standing.</p>
<p>What about international students who wish to graduate in 3 years or with a joint AB/AM degree in four but did not take any AP tests?</p>
<p>The best source of information is the college website (already linked earlier):
[Advanced</a> Standing: General Information](<a href=“http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~advising/advanced/general.html#1]Advanced”>http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~advising/advanced/general.html#1)</p>
<p>I wish students interested in a college would actually read what is on the college’s website and not depend on sometimes misinformed posters or people who graduated decades ago.</p>
<p>Perhaps I did not make myself clear enough, my bad. I guess what I wanted to know is what else is acceptable in terms of international testing. I did the STPM, which is the Malaysian equivalent of the Cambridge A-Levels with some slight differences in syllabi. As far as I’m concerned, all Malaysians who got accepted to Harvard did not go through the STPM. Most of them either did the IB or A-Levels, or simply uninterested in activating their Advanced Standing. So there was no one to “test it out.”</p>
<p>But yes, I did check the fas website inside out before taking my doubts to CC. Suppose the best place to ask this is still the Advising Programs Office.</p>
<p>Indeed. I would think that this would be the first place to call, rather than relying on CC which is not an authoritative source of information.</p>