<p>Can anyone tell me how the AP or IB courses work in college? Is it true that if S or D have take them in high school they are able to finish with college early.</p>
<p>Sure they helped. Our DS will be able to begin a combined undergrad/grad program next semester, his 7th semester.</p>
<p>It depends on the AP courses, and it depends on the college. Some schools take a lot of AP credits, and some schools just use AP credit for placement. Many do a combination of those two things. The most elite schools tend not to use many AP credits, and many schools put a cap on the number of APs that can be used for credit.</p>
<p>I do not advocate finishing college early in the majority of circumstances, and I think that college courses are much more valuable and informative than their AP alternatives (assuming a good college and a typical high school). AP/IB courses are mainly used to provide a more challenging curriculum to the smartest and most motivated students. They work as proof that a student has taken advantage of all of the educational opportunities at his school, which is something that college admissions values very highly.</p>
<p>It has helped my son with some of his general education requirements allowing him to take more courses directly involved with his major and his interests. I agree with coarranged, it helps in the admission process indicating a student has taken the most challenging curriculum.</p>
<p>Besides finishing college early, there are other reasons to take AP/IB classes.
Getting certain scores will allow you to take higher level classes, in smaller groups, avoiding what could be huge introductory-level class sizes.</p>
<p>Also students who take a fair number of AP/IB classes are going to find college level work easier to deal with in general.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Colleges want to see your child take the hardest classes in H.S. If that is IB or AP, then they want to see how they performed.</p></li>
<li><p>More importantly than graduating early....going in with credits allows your student to take a lighter load first semester, or to really expore areas that interest him/her such as say astronomy or celtic music or literature of the south, and not simply checking off degree requirements.</p></li>
<li><p>I don't think a h.s. AP class can begin to compare with most colleges so avoid taking one of a series in H.S. and the other at college....that can be a problem. Different books, different level of instruction.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The year D was applying, we noticed a trend on the Yale site - IB students, even those with lesser stats (most of whom expressed shock) were accepted. That year, IB seemed to have helped, at least for the CC kids. It appeared that the AP kids posting here overall were the ones waitlisted and rejected. Not saying all of them, but the trend was there. D's college doesn't give credit for IB or AP. In some departments, with permission, they are used for placement. (Yet, D was placed up a year in German, even tho she only had a couple yrs in HS, but the prof talked to her, and told her to switch - so even no test can get you advanced placement in the right dept.) And every engineering student I know that even had a 5 on calc AP is retaking it in college, because the level is so much higher.</p>
<p>At most high schools, AP and/or IB courses are the most rigorous courses available. By forcing students to work at a relatively high level, they help the kids ramp up to the kind of rigor that will be expected in college.</p>
<p>Whether they also enable a student to graduate from college earlier is a different matter. That varies from college to college.</p>
<p>As a teacher who keeps track of former students I can say that everyone I know who took AP Calc and earned a 5, placed into higher level math and did fine. They often seemed better prepared than those who took the first calc course at college. The same goes for Physic C, Bio and other courses. These kids are at all types of schools. AP can help placing out of frehman english and other courses. Whether one chooses to graduate early depends of the personal circumstances, including their monetary situation, views toward their college etc. For many though, as was cited abov,e it provides flexiblity such as MS/BS, doulble majors, not needing to worry about tranfering credit from semester abroad to have enough hours to graduate etc.
A good AP course should mimic the rigor of college course and is sometimes even better because for many courses there is more class time and indiviudal attentiion in the high school than in the equivalent college course. AP/IB can teach a student how to study, handle rigor, and build the self-confidence needed to suceed in college.</p>
<p>No one has quite answered frustratedmom's question directly, so I will:</p>
<p>Yes, in most cases it is true that students can obtain college credit for AP or IB courses in in which they received an acceptable score on the actual exam. (Taking the course but not the standard exam doesn't work.) If they leave high school with enough of those courses under their belts, it becomes relatively easy to graduate a year (or more, sometimes) early from most colleges if they want to.</p>
<p>The rules vary from college to college, as people have indicated. But only a comparative few of the most selective private colleges fail to grant fairly generous credit. (However, if a high school offers such classes, taking a bunch of them is a prerequisite, as a practical matter, for students from that high school applying to the most selective private colleges.) Public universities tend to give full credit, and many students are able to graduate early on that basis.</p>
<p>How AP/IB works out for college also depends on the particular major chosen by the student. For example, my S entered USC with the maximum 32 credits you can have from AP exams. It won't help him much in meeting his requirements toward an engineering degree but if he chose to get a degree in Economics, History, or some Arts & Science field, he would probably be able to graduate a year early. What the AP courses do that helps is give him a very solid background for all the courses he's taking in college & also give him advanced standing so he registers early & gets the classes & times he wants, which makes him VERY happy.</p>
<p>Expanding on what HImom says, for example, a 4 or 5 on the Physics AP test would get you credit at USC for the standard versions of of Physics classes, ones that would satisfy the science requirements for a Poetry major and count as 6 or 8 hours of credit toward that degree. For engineering and science majors, however, you get nada. There are heavy-duty Physics classes you have to take <em>at USC</em> for use in those degree plans.</p>
<p>So one has to scrutinize the fine print on a school's AP policy to see what you get. Sometimes the policy is not even published, or is subject to frequent changes, and you don't know what you have until your first academic advisement.</p>
<p>Unlike USC a large number of top schools, in fact the majority, do take the AP Physics C for engineering degrees. Different schools have different ideas. Some will use the results to place into honors sections.Some do not take any AP credits for anything (Caltech).</p>
<p>Sons are going into engineering and had HS AP Calc. To a person all the college professors they talked to on the visits encouraged them to not skip the entry engineering classes in Physics or Calculus. They said they have seen to many kids with 4- 5 scores really struggle with the next level of classes in college engineering classes.</p>
<p>Interesting. The only kids I know who repeated Physics said it was a repeat and often a waste of time. All those who went to the next level (most all did this) did well and excelled the rest of the way.
Every kid I know who has gone to college, even top schools, has come back and advised my students to take the credit and move on.
S took AP Physics quite early and had no trouble in follow up college courses and any engineering core courses.</p>
<p>For math, D ,who was math major and S ,took AP calc in 10 and 8th grades respectively and had no problems with going right into multivariable and then diff eq in college.</p>
<p>As a followup I guess it depends on the rigor of the AP course at a particular HS.</p>
<p>One of my students will be an engineering major at LSU, where they recommend you take calc and physics there even if you have a 5 on APs. They have seen too many kids flounder at the next level.</p>
<p>We allowed our S & USC to figure out which courses S should take. He chose to re-take everything, as most of his classmates are doing. I think students who place out may find it tougher because most of the other freshmen are repeating the courses they already had as APs in HS. In any case, it's fine with us that S has chosen to retake everything & focus his energies on the transition from HS to college. He's been very happy & joined the national freshman honor society & has no concerns about keeping his merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Unfortunately HImom, I think the kids who really find it tough are those who take the same introductory courses your son is taking but who didn't happen to take AP courses in those particular subjects. They must be very intimidated by their more-qualified classmates. And heaven help them if the courses are graded on a curve!</p>