@thealternative can you even do that-take an AP test if you haven’t taken the class? At our school, the AP exam is given during the school day, or after school, but definitely taken at the school. No one would be allowed to take the AP exam, if they weren’t enrolled in that class.
Huge difference in our district, between Dual Credit classes (taught via local community college) and AP. AP definitely more rigorous, doubtful kids taking DC could pass an AP exam, if they didn’t take the AP class.
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My kid’s school is public, but independent study, and with the spate of retiring teachers, has lost the following AP classes since my kid started there a few years ago: French, Art History, Calculus, Physics, Chemistry. So our school is an outlier, and smaller than most.
I will have to check with the counsellor about taking the tests for Calculus and English. My kid had to take AP Spanish at an alternate campus last year. Probably will have to do the same this year for Psych, which is now online.
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What does your kiddo plan to major in? If pre-med, there some potential issues with taking those courses while in high school…as all college courses must be reported to medical schools.
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Kid likes working with their hands, so Mechanical Engineering seems like a logical contender. Thus far, the transcript is solid, grade-wise. Of course, there are two years left of school, so it’s important for the work to remain strong. No expressed interest in pre-med.
One of my kids had both AP and DE credits from high school that her college gladly took. BUT these didn’t help her at all with courses towards her two college majors. She simply had a bunch of extra credits.
My other kid got a five on the AP Literature exam and at his university, that gave him a full year of English required courses credit so it did lighten his load a little. But he also had AP test scores of 5 on another AP that didn’t apply to anything towards his degree.
So…I guess what I’m saying is…you never know what will be accepted or not…and this is a moving target at this point. Seems like schools get added to the NO AP credits in college list every year.
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And there’s not enough easily-accessible information out there for students/parents who would like to plan ahead, do a strategic course load in high school so they can take the more interesting classes in college.
There’s nothing wrong with mapping out a plan. And I encourage it. But the plan really needs to represent the most challenging coursework a student can handle across all (or most) cire disciplines.
The info on transfer credit policy is almost universally available on college websites. The challenge is that planning based on college policy, particularly for highly selective colleges, is futile since acceptance is not assured.
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USC is generally more transfer-friendly than most more selective private schools.
But also, some private colleges are less generous with transfer credit for frosh than transfer students. Or they may have rules against transfer credit that frosh are more likely to have (e.g. “college in the high school” courses, courses used to fulfill high school graduation requirements, etc.).
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