<p>It’s seeming quite clear from this thread that on this topic, experiences vary greatly.</p>
<p>In our area, the public high schools have very strong academic reputations and it seems to be widely reported by students who have taken both, that the high school AP courses are much more challenging than DE courses at the local CCs and state directionals.</p>
<p>The high school AP courses are largely taught by capable senior teachers who are mindful of preserving their school’s reputation and success rate on AP exams. The AP students are largely the academic upper echelon of the school - the ambitious college bound offspring of ambitious middle and upper class parents. The DE courses have very different student demographics, I presume, and the CCs and directionals are doubtless trying to offer courses that a reasonable number of their students (probably mostly not from the top 10% of their high school classes) can pass.</p>
<p>Apparently, in other places, these characteristics are switched about.</p>
<p>At my D’s HS, both AP and dual can be challenging. In many cases, not all, I don’t feel my D has been well prepared for the exam in her AP class. She makes an A in the class, but doesn’t do as well as her grade would indicate on the exam. Not always, but sometimes. So she’s just spent a whole year in the class, and did not get what she needed to receive college credit. Without fail, she can go to the junior college, take the class, make the A and get the credit, AND she has more schedule flexibility that way because of night classes, etc. There are only 2 class periods for each AP class during the day, and if that conflicts with advanced music or athletics, then you are just out of luck. Considering that most college-bound students from her school go to state flagships, I am surprised that more don’t take advantage of the dual program. It seems like the benefit is greater.</p>
<p>*Apparently, in other places, these characteristics are switched about. *</p>
<p>yes, in our area CCs are full of high school students, recently graduated high school students, students who have been mostly home schooled, returning vets, displaced homemakers, flagship university students who couldn’t get the class they wanted at their own campus, adults with degrees wanting to change fields, retired folk looking for enrichment…</p>
<p>AP courses are full of teens who want something more challenging than the regular course.</p>
<p>While some students virtually take all of their high school graduation requirements at the CC, other students like my youngest dont want to give up all the high school stuff ( not to mention don’t want to deal with schedule conflicts), & take AP.</p>
<p>I see the students who choose the CC as more mature, or at least a little more interested in the academics & diversity of people at the CC as opposed to the high school.
The profs at the CC are often interchangeable with profs at state U’s, while the high school instructors may be great or they may have just been hired to meet parent demand.</p>
<p>4 on calculus BC: credit for 18.01, placement into 18.02
5 on calculus AB: placement into 18.01A
5 on physics C (both): credit for 8.01, placement into 8.02
5 on English (either): may take either CI-H or CI-HW course instead of being required to take CI-HW course</p>
<p>For all other APs, MIT either gives nothing, or free elective credit with a 5.</p>
<p>AP works better for us because the DE classes here are quite limited as far as which local colleges will give you credit (and there is no guarantee that those credits could transfer to another out of state school). Plus you had to pay per credit hour for DE and that is more expensive than AP (you could fail the AP test. . .so that is a risk. one of my kids bombed 2 out of 9–though his college wouldn’t have given credit for one of them anyway.)</p>
<p>I think I wasn’t clear. My friend’s son didn’t get credit for his university math courses such as L. Alg and Dif Equ., but did receive all the credit possible for his APs since he got 5s on everything. He was the one advising me that my son probably wouldn’t get credit for his community college courses, so it was a big surprise when he did get the credit.</p>
<p>And as others have said, YMMV regarding AP vs. Dual Enrollment.</p>
<p>The MIT transfer credit link says that “The Mathematics Department does not grant transfer credit for classes in programs designed principally for high school students.” So if those math courses were in a high school dual enrollment program, they may have been refused credit for that reason. Assuming that your son took them at a college in a class populated mainly by actual college students, that may have been the difference for him to get transfer credit at MIT.</p>
<p>Placement without credit just means skipping a request for placement. Most schools will give advanced math or other placement upon request, often asking the student to undergo some sort of appraisal first. AT my college, this is done often. but when you get placed in a course other than the intro course, you do not get college credit for it. If you have the AP, you get the credit as well as being placed in the upper level course. There in lies the diffeerence.</p>