Do AP credits help or hurt?

Unfortunately I don’t think ap credit will keep you at full time status. I could be wrong but I don’t think so. It can be used to get up to the 15 hours a semester that is required for a lot of scholarships. And I always thought full time status for undergrad was 12 hours, not 9.

I agree - full time status is not the correct term. I’m just not sure what the correct term is. I called and asked two different departments if my son took 12 hours and ended up dropping one course could he stay enrolled for that semester and previous semester with just 9 hours and was told yes. He hasn’t been awarded any scholarships or financial aid.

I agree full time is normally 12 units per semester - other places that often request full time status is insurance companies - might want to know their requirement if any ( medical & auto).

12 semester hours (apart from any accepted AP credit) are required for full-time status. As @AGmomx2 points out, not achieving full-time status may cause a student to lose insurance coverage under their parents’ policy/ies. See http://registrar.tamu.edu/Courses,-Registration,-Scheduling/Registration-Enrollment-Information/Enrollment-Status-Definitions#0-Undergraduate%26ProfessionalStudents.

@TexasMustang - Did you ever get clarification on whether or not AP credits can be used as part of the 12 hours needed for full-time status? In other words, would a student still be considered full time with 9 hours of on-campus classes and 3 hours of AP credit?

Another AP question - in Howdy, we have 3 options for using AP U.S. History credit:

Option A credit for HIST 105
Option B credit for HIST 106
Option C credit for both HIST 105 & HIST 106

The instructions say:
“IMPORTANT: Below are the courses you will be able to select from once you are enrolled. If you already have earned credit for the course(s), then you will not receive credit for it again through this process. You will receive credit only for the course(s) that you have not already earned credit. If you have already earned credit for the course(s) in some other way, then you will not receive credit for it again through this process. For exam AP - US History you may choose one of the options:”

My question refers to the part about choosing ONE of the options. We were hoping to take credit for HIST 105 one semester and HIST 106 the following semester. If I am understanding this correctly, we have to take all 6 credits (option C) in the same semester. Is that correct or am I misunderstanding? Thank you.

It is possible to take them at different times but I’m not sure in that case how easy it would be. My son took credit for calc 1 then later decided he didn’t want to take calc 2 either. He had to go see a counselor, talk to someone in some record keeping office (sat on hold for 30 minutes) to get the score released then was able to take credit for the second calc. I’m not sure I would take the chance that they wouldn’t allow you to do this but you could ask at the NSC.

Thanks for the reply, @rosegeo !

In the fall of 2014, my son accepted 48 AP credits: CHEM 101, CHEM 102, CHEM 111, CHEM 112, ENGL 104, ENGL 203, ENGL 241, GERM 101, GERM 102, HIST 102, HIST 105, HIST 106, MATH 151, MATH 152, POLS 206, and PSYC 107. He could have accepted another 20-30 credits (biology, Chinese, macro and micro economics, computer science, and environmental science) but was given some bad advice by his advisor about maintaining his scholarship eligibility. He also could have later transferred in another year of German credits and a year of Russian credits based on summer classes at other universities but didn’t bother. But ultimately this really didn’t matter, because he still just graduated two weeks ago with 174 credits and a degree in aerospace engineering. Another 40 transfer credits on his transcript would not make much difference.

The only AP-related complaint I ever heard from him concerned taking Math 308 (Differential Equations) in his freshman year. He got an “A” but by junior year when he needed to apply the subject in his AE classes, he had to forgotten much of what he had learned freshman year.