<p>“At one top college I can think of off hand – Williams, students can place out of certain intro courses in certain departments with AP scores of 4 or 5, but they still must take the full 8 semesters’ worth of courses to graduate. In other words, AP credits don’t get them through Williams any faster. There’s no tuition $ to be saved.”</p>
<p>This policy hasn’t seemed to hurt interest in Williams. I’m guessing there are other elite LACs with a policy like this. Haverford? Swarthmore? other rigorous colleges?</p>
<p>At most of my kids’ schools, AP credit could only be used to replace (a very few) elective credits.
I never thought of this as a money grab, but rather a way to protect the integrity of the school. That is, when a degree is awarded, it is with the understanding that the work completed meets the standards of that school.</p>
<p>Yes, you’re still getting an education as long as you still have to take courses one way or another. If you’re taking, say, 94 credit-hours of coursework (26 credits taken up by AP credit, then again that’s overly generous unless one attends a school that has liberal AP credit policies) you’re still getting an education. An education doesn’t have to be 120+ credit-hours…</p>
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<p>Depends on what goes in a 3-year BA/BS. Brown could offer one, given all the academic freedom they leave undergrads with.</p>
<p>Very few APs will get you intro credit at MIT, but MIT does still use APs. The decision comes to the department as to whether or not the AP course is adequate, but physics and math still allow it to some degree.</p>
<p>(All humanities APs can get you general elective credit. Though most people graduate with far more elective credit than they need.)</p>
<p>That said, all the beginner courses have advanced standing exams. Even if you didn’t take the AP, or the AP doesn’t count, you have opportunity to prove you know what it takes to pass out of the course.</p>
<p>My D is a student at Dartmouth. Many of her friends that went to high schools with numerous AP offerings came in with lots of credits. Most of them (not all) use AP credits so they can take one less class per term, especially senior year. I’m sure there are those that use AP’s to graduate early, but from what I’ve heard, no one wants to leave Dartmouth when they graduate, let alone early.</p>
<p>Given that Dartmouth accepts only a small percentage of applicants, it should have no problem filling up any seats vacated by students who graduate early due to AP credits. So it is unclear how Dartmouth would benefit financially by this new policy of restricting the use of AP credits.</p>
<p>My son, a soph a Dartmouth, got credit and advanced placement for 5 subjects at Dartmouth from his AP scores. Before he chose to use these credits he also took placement exams during freshman orientation which gave him the confidence to go on to the next levels. We had previously discussed the possibility that he would not be prepared adequately to skip to higher level courses but that was not an issue at all. He was well-prepared for all of the upper level courses(multivariable calc, physics, chem and Japanese) and it was a great move that will likely save us lots of $ since he is an engineering major (usually a 5 year program)with a minor in a foreign language. He was able to skip most of the engineering pre-requisites and start in with courses that count toward his major. In the subjects where he did not take the upper level that he tested into(basically where Dartmouth told him to start; ex: tested into Honors physics 15 but decided to start at 13 because he was worried it would be too difficult), he found the classes easy. I think the combo of AP score with Dartmouth placement exam was ideal.</p>
<p>I think that’s a good idea as AP courses and exams are very often less rigorous than the corresponding college classes. Until College Board designs harder tests, I will support universities’ decision to minimize the impact of AP credits.</p>
<p>I like the idea of AP credits as they give kids the chances to get ahead and make school cheaper while not penalizing kids who they aren’t availible to in admissions. AP credits should be allowed to still be used as college credit, even for Ivies. I like the aproach that other Ives take by requiring high scores and limiting the classes to certain classes like Calc that theey can verify are equal college credit. If anyone has questions as to what colleges accept what scores and tests then please go here:</p>
<p>However as you can see for Dartmouth ([AP</a> Credit Policy Info - Advanced Placement Program - AP Policy Search](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)) that it has not updates to the new policy since it doesn’t take effect until 2014 for freshman. That’s why you could always click on the link that takes you to the actual school webpage.</p>
<p>^excellent question
However, I think without AP, it might be more difficult to uniformly offer a rigorous curriculum or to in service the teachers well. The AP material offers a way to at least determine, via the tests, if the material was delivered. In other countries, advanced classes (eg U levels in Canada) are offered with uniform curriculum as a form of university prep. I think AP has come to actually be the rough equivalent. At most of the rigorous colleges, they look to APs to signify a capability for increased rigor, and to determine a student’s motivation for advanced inquiry. </p>
<p>So, I would say APs can be good preparation for upper tier colleges, but nonetheless are not necessarily the equivalent of a college course. At less rigorous colleges, however, they may indeed be equivalent.</p>
<p>My son, who’s a freshman at Maryland on a full ride, entered college in the fall with 55 credits–most of them from AP (8 of the credits were from a college math course).</p>
<p>Starting with close to junior standing credit-wise has been an amazing opportunity for him. Because of his credit level, he gets certain perks such as early registration and preferred parking. More to the point, he can now accomplish his goal of acquiring two degrees (B.A. in Classics and B.S. in Computer Science) while completing the Gemstone internship program–all within four years. Earning a double degree requires a minimum of 150 credits, which would have required at least one additional year at Maryland were it not for AP credits.</p>
<p>AP also enabled him to skip over a lot of intro classes in Chem, Physics, Math, Latin and History, which has opened up his schedule to fascinating upper-level courses that really interest him. Win win!</p>
<p>Thank you egelloc80 - the link to the College Board list - AP Credit Policy, Advanced Placement Program, AP policy search - provides a wealth of information.</p>
<p>This is a good thing. There is now way that a full year of AP calculus or chemistry equals a year of college calculus or chemistry, not even close.</p>
<p>Freshman courses in calculus, chemistry, physics, biology, psychology etc. are cash cows for the universities, enrolling hundreds of students. Of course they don’t want to grant AP credit for comparable work done in high school.</p>
<p>Does this revised policy also include IB credit? My experience is that IB HL courses are very similar to intro college equivalents and a 6 or 7 on these tests indicates competence. (At least that is my personal observation from my own children and their classmates). It seems AP seems a little less aligned with college curriculum than IB. But I am guessing this new “policy” applies to IB and A levels as well?</p>
