<p>Are there courses that everyone attending a particular school must take irrespective of declared major? I ask this because I've noticed some people taking additional AP courses to increase the number of scores they can list on an application.
Hypothetically, if a student thought they wanted to major in math while high school, is it worthwhile for them to take literature AP tests? Do graduation requirements ever include "minimum of x random credits"? If so, wouldn't it be worthwhile to take easy AP tests for easy credits for the sake of graduating early?</p>
<p>i think this only applies to ivies but,</p>
<p>…swim class.</p>
<p>or pass the swimming test. </p>
<p>(seriously speaking tho, most students just take and pass the test. i took intro to swim =P)</p>
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<p>that’s actually a very legitimate plan.</p>
<p>Whoa. You just asked a million questions in one post. I’ll try to answer it to the best of my ability. </p>
<p>I’m going to boil down the three types of credit you can receive: general requirements, courses for your major, and elective credits. </p>
<p>Courses for your major- essentially, whatever your major is, you take a certain number of courses as underclassmen and upperclassmen. Upperclassmen courses are more specialized. </p>
<p>General requirements- If you’re going to attend a liberal arts college (by itself or as part of a university-wide system), then you’ll probably have general requirements. These are in a broad range of things (e.g. math, science, literature, arts, etc.) and they’re implemented in order to make people more well-rounded (hence liberal arts) </p>
<p>Elective credit- These are courses taken outside your major and outside the general requirements. Generally-speaking, you’ll need a certain number of these courses to graduate as prescribed by you’re school. </p>
<p>Pretty much all colleges require you to complete generals. Most of the time, you fulfill these requirements in the first two years of college. The only time you don’t have to complete generals is if you attend a school with an open curriculum (e.g. Brown.) </p>
<p>As for AP credit, if you want to be a math major, it is worth it to take the AP Lit exam because then you wouldn’t have to be bothered with it in college; however, some schools don’t allow you to use AP credit to fulfill general requirements. It all depends on your school. Most colleges don’t like to see students graduate in less than four years though.</p>