Now that acceptances and FA packages are nearly all in, it’s getting to be decision time. One of the things we may need to factor in is the credit given for AP/IB classes. The state school option accepts the most credits, which could start D as a sophomore ( I understand she’s still a first year for all other purposes) then of the 2 other private school options she’s most considering, one will take 12 credit hours and one will take 24. What does that really mean for her? Would this usually mean graduating earlier, or just taking other classes to fill those spaces? I’m just not sure how to factor this in.
My kid went in with 17 at a State U and will graduate 1 semester early next Fall. Two of our other State U’s were going to give 12 and 24 respectively.
Your kid could take more classes, or use those credits to graduate on time if they change majors. For kids who stay on track with a major it is a great way to graduate early. With 24 credits there is no reason not to graduate at least 1 semester early, and someone could easily get out a full year early by taking an extra course during a couple of semesters, or a couple of summer school courses.
Edited to add: kids will be different and it will depend on the major. We told our daughter that if she saved us a semester of tuition that we would get some of that money back to her for either grad school or something else.
Depends on how applicable the credit is to specific course requirements for one’s major and GEs.
Some students do try to graduate early. Some take extra free electives in place of required courses fulfilled by AP credit. Some take lighter loads but still graduate in 8 semesters, using the extra time for more work hours to earn money to afford school or time consuming ECs.
Also, if a student will take more advanced courses that the potentially skipped course (by AP credit) is a prerequisite, it is a good idea to try the college’s old final exams of the potentially skipped course. For example, a student with AP calculus BC credit can try the college’s old calculus 1 and 2 exams to see if s/he is ready for calculus 3 or should consider retaking calculus 1 or 2 before taking calculus 3.
It’s different for each school. The schools I know will give you units to increase your class standing (instead of freshman-standing, you are sophomore-standing). What this means also depends on each school. In my experience, it means you have enough units to classify as sophomore, which boosts class registration priority–and nothing else. That’s why “freshman,” “sophomore,” “junior,” and “senior” become meaningless in this context. Instead, being a first-year, second-year, and so forth can be more descriptive.
That said, in my experience the more elite schools will grant units for class standing, and may waive SOME course requirements, but for the most part they do not. You still have to take the same number of courses as an entering first-year without credit would.
I don’t really think there is one typical path. As listed above, there are many different policies and paths that students take.
I came in with enough credits to be a Junior (don’t remember the exact number or anything). I used it to get a dual degree and take plenty of electives as they fulfilled all of my gen ed requirements and my two degrees were pretty low on required courses within the major.
I knew others who used the extra credits to take less courses each semester.
There are lots of different paths.
Re #4
Some schools distinguish between class standing based on credits and class level based on semesters. They may also have registration priorities that do not necessarily favor higher class standing. For example, an important prerequisite the declaring a major may give priority to undeclared frosh and soph students over junior and senior students.
All schools are different, but I would incent my kids to try to save money. So if they can graduate earlier or otherwise save on costs with AP credits, they’d get a portion of the savings (for grad school or something else).
Every school and situation is different. The only way to know is to look at the course requirements for their major. The school may have a four-year plan or you could make one that accounts for the credits. Take a look at what courses your daughter could get credit for and how it will impact her four-year plan. That’s a fairly labor intensive undertaking, if the school doesn’t give some four year plans to get you started (but fairly easy, if the schools provide sample four year plans). Sometimes, AP classes will give credit but won’t count for a specific major or GE requirement. Sometimes, courses need to be taken in a specific sequence so your daughter will have to stay the full four years even if she has enough credits to graduate.
And even then, it could all change if your daughter changes her major, decides to double major, or decides to take four years even though she could graduate early.
It all kind of depends on what classes she’s getting credit for. It might make GE requirements easier. It might allow her to skip prerequisites and start with higher level classes in her major. It might allow her to graduate early. It might allow her to take more classes that she’s interested in. It might do nothing. There’s no one size fits all answer. I, personally, wouldn’t let it factor into your decision too heavily. So much could change between now and when your daughter is graduating that it might not matter at all.
DS2 added a second major. He technically could graduate early but won’t, using the extra time senior year to get a killer internship. We hope. 
If the school says your child can get sophomore status, it generally means that they have enough credits, usually 30 or so on a 3-credit system, to graduate a year early. Big savings, 25% essentially. Make sure to confirm that your child can graduate early, my one brother was the last to graduate early and not pay a penalty at a big Midwest university. My parents saved 10K even back then by him graduating early.
Other schools will not give sophomore status, they will make all students with AP or IB credits take another course to replace the one credit was received for - still 120 credits in college, but 30 upper-level course credits to replace the ones placed out of. I also took several graduate courses because I had AP credit because of this, which was pretty cool when you go to a research university with cutting-edge grad school topics.
In my case, my school used the latter system, so I was able to take 300-level courses in my sophomore year in the area I got AP credit. We couldn’t get lab credit either so I took a bunch of labs with no lecture to make up for that requirement.
Depends heavily on what the student wants to study.
One of my kiddos will use AP credits to finish undergrad degree in 3 years and complete an accelerated master’s degree in fourth year. In final evaluation between 2 schools, the fact that one had such an accelerated opportunity in her (probable) chosen field, and accepted more AP credits (albeit with mostly 5s) was the tipping point.
Other child could not graduate early in her desired major because of prerequisite mapping of required courses; she will get a second major and a minor, and graduate with around 200 credits.
Evaluating the AP impact on the final college choices led both kiddos to opt out of taking AP Lit, AP Physics, and AP Computer science tests because the scores would have no impact at any of their final schools, mainly because no further credits would be given or were needed. Made end of senior year a little less stressful.
My daughter had an IB Diploma and went to SUNY Binghamton. She had a little over a year of credits going in…that plus a summer class or two allowed her to graduate an year and a half early. We told her she didn’t have to be in a hurry, but she went on to get a Masters which we paid for because the total of undergrad + masters would be 4 years.
I earned 58 transfer credit hours through AP and dual enrollment. I got a large scholarship that lasts eight semesters, so I don’t really have a financial incentive to graduate early. Instead, I’m trying to get a master’s degree (my school has a BS/MS program that normally takes five years) and possibly double major. I’m also interested in co-ops and practicums, so I’d be willing to graduate even later as long as I don’t have to pay extra tuition.
AP credits can count for college credit and can cause you to graduate early, however it depends the major. I am a architecture major and I know students who finished all of there core classes at community college or as AP credit in HS, however some courses (design studio) have pre-reqs and must be taken in a period of 4 years. So even if you have all of your core classes from HS, architecture majors still have to be in school for 4 years because of pre-req design studios. So it all depends on the school and major. Business, science, and humanities major can usually be completed sooner, while architecture and engineering usually cannot.
At my son’s school the biggest benefit was in housing. Having more credits moved him up the ladder in the housing lottery. It also allowed him more flexibility in choosing classes and doing a study abroad where he could take a class just for fun. He’s graduating on time, not early. He’ll probably go to grad school on his companies dime so there was no reason to rush through undergrad and while it might have saved us money, in the long run we thought the four years in his college was a good investment.
There’s no such thing as typical, lol.
At one of the two flagships (only people out of state would say we have one!), it takes lots of students 5 years to graduate. AP/DE might mean getting done on time as almost all the courses would transfer, and probably as something useful.
Private schools or OOS schools? Man, it’s crap shoot.
Oldest went in with 29 hours worth of credits. Nine were useful in terms of meeting a gen ed or giving her a little flexibility. The others were all electives because her major was highly sequenced and included specific courses that also would meet the same gen eds. So, kid came in with credit for Calc I, which would have fulfilled the math requirement but her major required statistics, which fulfilled the same requirement. No benefit from Calc except elective credits. Same for physics, Comp II . . . That kid graduates this May, in 4 years, but with a grand total of 191 credits. Scary.
Youngest went in with 44 AP/DE credits. So, she had junior standing after her first semester. Benefits of all those hours appear to be earlier registration times and getting to meet the modified “transfer” gen ed distributions instead of the full slate. Again, lots of those credits are counting as electives. However, without the highly sequenced major, it may be possible for her to finish early. In terms of credit hours, she can definitely wrap it up in 3, BUT she’ll only finish her double major–no minor, no time for study abroad, etc. If she goes 4, she can add a minor and think about a semester abroad or multiple internship opportunities.
Thank you all so much for your input! It is interesting to see that the affect can be so varied. Some of these possible options I hadn’t thought of!
My older son got credit for everything which meant he jumped into advanced math and physics and didn’t have to take a bunch of gen eds. He didn’t graduate early because of the sequencing required by his major. There was an option to do a Masters the fourth year, but he didn’t want to write a thesis.
Younger son only got credit for 5 APs. It turned out to be useful because after taking an entire junior year abroad and getting limited credits for those courses he ended up needing all those APs for gen ed credits.
College is very expensive so it makes sense to try to save in any way possible. I’d urge students to be thoughtful about which classes they opt out of in favor of using high school (AP) credits. Here is a good description of possible concerns: https://chronicle.com/article/How-I-Aced-College-and-Why-I/63791/