After reviewing the AP credit chart for TAMU, my son will be going in with at least 30 hours (that doesn’t include classes/credits that he plans on retaking at TAMU). According to the academic status classification, that makes him a sophomore going in his first year. Will this hinder him in any way? Is it recommended to accept/use all, or most, of your AP credits? Right now he plans on using all his non-major credits (English, History, PolySci) and retaking the first year major specific courses. Is this something that will be addressed at NSC? I heard that the NSCs are pretty full and you are working in a small group and there isn’t one-on-one advising. I’m not sure it that is correct, it is just what I heard. Would it be acceptable for him to email or meet with an advisor from his college before the NSC? Is that even allowed?
Sorry for all the questions… he is our first one and we have no idea what other kids do with their AP credits. TIA
They will talk about it at the NSC. They discourage you from taking it all at once for a variety of reasons. My son had a bunch coming in and so far has only accepted what he needed as prereq’s for another class (took his calc bc credit to get into calc 3). One nice thing about holding on to some is that you can use them to get your hours up as needed. He only took 13 hours this fall and needs 15 for his scholarships. Having the ap credits pulls him up to the needed hours.
@rosegeo, was this for the Brown scholarship that they allowed the AP credits to count toward the 15hr/semester requirement? I would be glad to hear that.
Thank you @rosegeo. I really appreciate your feedback and explaining your son’s experience with the credits. It makes a lot of sense to only accept them as he needs them. Will make sure my son knows!
Thanks, @rosegeo. So if I’m understanding correctly, the student would actually need to wait and take the AP credits in the semester they are needed to add the extra credits? If the AP credits were taken all up front, then they wouldn’t count toward the semester totals?
If there is a possibility your son changes majors it could be a problem. My son started A&M with 25 credit hours and then after his freshman year decided engineering wasn’t for him. The major he wanted to switch to would not let him in if he had more then 60 hours. I’m sure each degree program is different though.
My son is a senior at A&M now and graduates in May with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He too was advised to not use his AP credits, but my son did use most of his and was glad he did. He even used one for Physics that helped him out quite a bit. It only took him 4 years to finish since he used his AP credits. I say use them if you are comfortable with the subject. It does help you graduate sooner. The first 2 years of A&M are some of the hardest. They use some of these early math and physics courses to weed out students.
So do “we” send all of the AP scores in May after they have finished with their senior AP exams? How do they indicate which scores they want to use and when to use them?.
You should have all the ap scores sent to A&M. Once they are there you can decide to accept them or not. They sit in your Howdy account. Don’t do anything with them there until your NSC. At the NSC, they will have you accept only those that you need as prereq’s for the classes you are registering for. I would advise then just waiting for a semester or so to take any more of the credits so you can get a feel for what is going on and what you really want. I agree with the above post that they can be very helpful so long as you are very comfortable with the material. My son took his ap cal bc credit and went into calc 3 despite it being discouraged. The class was a lot of work for him but he got an A. On the other hand, he chose not to take his ap chem credit. He only got a 4 on the exam and that was in his sophomore year. He didn’t feel he would be prepared to move on to organic chemistry. He still seems happy with that choice as well.
@rosegeo Would you recommend accepting AP credits for the classes that aren’t major specific? My son’s program catalog shows English 104 and an American history elective as classes for his first semester. He has AP credits for both. He was thinking about taking the AP credits and then using those 2 spots for classes for his minor. Is that what you mean by accepting them as you need them? Sorry for all the confusion on this point, I understand that there is limited advisement during NSC and we’d like him to understand his options. Thanks!
I would definitively consider taking all non major related ap credits that count towards the general education requirements. That frees up a lot of space on your schedule and allows either a lighter load or a minor or even both. My son plans to take all of his history, English and economics credits and that fulfills all but a couple of his gen ed classes. And the amount of advisement at the nsc is very limited. At least it was for engineering.
My son just finished his first semester in engineering at A&M and was similarly advised to not accept his AP credits until he needed to do so to elect another course that they are a prerequisite for. He since found out that this is because some majors/minors can not be elected once you pass a certain total credit hours; for quite a few 60 credit hours is the maximum. For his first semester they had him take his calc 1 and calc2 so he could enroll in calc 3, and they had him take his chem 111 lab credit so he could take chem 101 ( he elected to retake chem 1 but didn’t want to take the lab over ). Toward the end of the first semester he wanted to elect some more AP credits so that he could have sophomore U2 status in the hopes of not having to pay for a meal plan, so he took his credits for AP English lit which was ENGL 104 and ENGL 203 and HIST 105/6 for AP US History. With the 15 credit hours he earned from his first semester he is now close to that 60 credit maximum so he has not yet taken his credit for Physic 208/218 and BIOL 111/112 but is planning to do so before ETAM; he just wanted a bit more time to decide if he wanted to elect any minors. He does have a few other AP credits that he does not need at all for his major at TAMU so is not planning on taking those at this time. His advisor just told him to check with her first before electing any AP credit to make sure he was aware of any limitations doing so would incur.
Second the recommendations to send all AP scores to A&M and then have your student accept them based on the degree plan. My son has 20+ AP credits available, but last time I talked with him he has plans to only accept 15. Taking the 15 AP credits will essentially save 1 semester of tuition!
Accept with your advisor with your degree plan in front of you. If you are absolutely set on your major and won’t switch, you won’t be hurt by the excess credit hour rule. I’m in the college of education and human development, so they were able to accept most of my AP credits except for Spanish. I accepted Spanish anyways so that I would get my aggie ring next week. I’m a sophomore by year, senior by hour, and starting my masters degree this summer! I love the opportunities the Aggie family provides!
Do many kids come in with the IB diploma and AP credit? Assuming there is no doubling of subjects, is it possible to apply both or is the IBD the max (24 semester credit hours at least granted by IBD). We are not looking at major core credit though, just gen eds. Can this be applied in a cherry picked fashion by semester as per the APs? IBD seems pretty popular in texas?
This is very helpful and interesting information. Let me make sure I am understanding this correctly. Say my son takes 12 hours his first semester and drops two courses. He needs 9 credits a semester to stay enrolled as a full time student, if I understand correctly. So if he had AP credit could he then accept 3 credits from a passed AP test to stay enrolled full time? And do Clep credits work the same way?
