I’m considering what kind of coursework I would undertake at UT Austin; I have an enormous amount of AP credit, to the point where I literally have a year taken off my normal Chemical Engineering degree plan. What are your thoughts on a BS ChE with a BSA Biochemistry and a minor in Korean (or possibly some other foreign language)? Would it be a smart idea to/could I add an extra year to complete this kind of degree plan? I feel like there’s a significant amount of courses available to both majors that an extra year would be a great idea to further spread out the workload and add even more experience. I don’t have any sort of experience and I have no idea what to expect - any explanation on a process to get towards this kind of degree plan would be appreciated!
I can’t give you any nuts and bolts advice. Wait and talk to your adviser about that. What I will say as an adult and a bystander is 1) take your time, take the full four years to graduate and 2) be careful about taking the AP credit. If you have a solid foundation in the classes for which you have AP credit, either use it to jump to more advanced courses or use it to NOT take courses you’d rather not take/don’t have to take, like if you don’t want to take a literature class again. If you think you got lucky on the AP test, like you never dreamed you’d make a five in Calculus BC, don’t take the credit and take the class to shore up your knowledge. As an engineer, much of your math and science will be cumulative so you want to have really mastered it before you move on.
But do take the full four years and explore new areas of interest. Is that what Korean is to you? Biochem? As an old fart, I can tell you to take your time and enjoy your college years. Don’t be in a hurry to rush through. Heck, you could do a semester abroad.
I have a kid who came in with a bunch of AP credit. He used it strategically to get a better class choice time (ask your adviser; I don’t know how this works) and to skip some intro classes. Like you he is thinking of doing a minor and is in general taking all kinds of classes, not necessarily just in his major.
I generally make 5’s on AP tests - I feel like I always have a pretty good grasp of what I’m doing, never really got lucky, just been prepared. I feel like with all the credit I can use it to broaden what I’m learning even further (just from the straight up BS ChE path that I would be taking.) I will do some talking with the guys actually at UT, though! But I think I have a lot of room to play around with what I actually do because of all the spare time AP credit should give me.