<p>I keep hearing conflicting things on this. </p>
<p>I hear that many AP/college credits are "empty" and won't count toward many of your GEs anyway. (Bad!)</p>
<p>But then I hear that the credits can "up" your class standing and get you a better enrollment time. (Good!)</p>
<p>But then I hear that too many credits can mess you up with financial aid. (Bad, if true, but I don't understand this. Do they cut you off before you've been there your 4 years?)</p>
<p>If I add up all his AP and college-class credits, assuming he gets credits for everything, he'd start with 52 units. Is this good, bad, or neither? He's got to stay 4 years either way, because of the program.</p>
<p>Note -- All the APs he's signed up for next month would be "empty credits": </p>
<p>the "other" English AP (he already got a 5 on the first one)
Stats
Micro- and Macroecon</p>
<p>Would it make more sense to skip those exams and just go in with 36 units rather than 52, especially since none of the above count as GE? It doesn't seem those would do him any good.</p>
<p>The college classes that I'm thinking will transfer, all from a CSU campus, are </p>
<p>a year of Spanish (Lang. requirement)
year of Bio (Life Sci GE)
year of World History (Historical Analysis GE)
a semester of geology (...probably good for nothin')</p>
<p>It seems those would be useful except maybe geology, even if many of the APs are not. I appreciate the help getting this figured out. Thanks!</p>
<p>Nothing bad about more APs. You unit cap for UCLA is set at 216 + the number of AP units you come in with, but your college courses count against this, however it is easy to get this raised if you will graduate within 4 years + summer.</p>
They don’t say this about college units earned elsewhere prior to enrolling, at least not on that webpage. </p>
<p>It seems there is a chance that the almost year worth of classes you list from the CSU will mean that sometime after the end of his 1st year at UCLA he will be a junior by units and have to pick a major, plus will be on a timeline to graduate that is sooner than if he didn’t have those units. I’m not affiliated with UCLA so I don’t know this is correct, but you might want to check. From what dinoian says the unit cap can be raised (although if it was me I’d want it in writing or an email from UCLA) but you should check if it affects when he needs to declare a major. Hopefully it has no effect, but you probably want to know before he applies those credits.</p>
<p>Thanks, mikemac. This is valuable info. He is entering as a theater major, and it is a four-year program for sure - cannot be finished sooner. The CSU credits were taken as a requirement at his high school – in other words, all the kids in this high school take their biology as a year-long class under the “CSU umbrella” – same for their foreign language, world history, etc.</p>
<p>I will try to find out for sure. If I find out anything concrete or helpful from UCLA, I’ll post here. If anyone else has had the “CSU issue,” I’d love to hear about it here too.</p>
Just to make sure I’ve read what you said correctly, these are classes taught thru the CSU for which he gets a CSU transcript?</p>
<p>In that case I’d think the counselors at his school ought to know how the UCs treat those units. Maybe he can check with them. Hopefully they know what happened to the kids in the years ahead of him, some of whom must have gone to UC schools. </p>
<p>To me it would make sense to treat college units earned while a HS student the same regardless of whether they were earned in AP classes (which are supposed to be equivalent to college classes) or in actual college classes. But what makes sense to me may not be what they do!</p>
<p>That’s what would make sense to me too – especially because those classes weren’t optional – everyone takes them. Yes, the high school is on the CSU campus. The kids take certain CSU classes as part of their regular hs curriculum, with enrollment at the CSU (for free!) resulting in a CSU transcript.</p>
<p>I did contact the counselor, although in the past the counselors have always emphasized how wonderful it is because “you can graduate from college early and save $$$!” In my son’s case, because he was admitted to a program that takes a full four years, I don’t want him graduating early! :)</p>
<p>If she gets back to me, I’ll let folks know. I also asked admissions at UCLA, because they certainly have had other kids from this high school in the past (all with the identical classes; certainly they have lots of experience handling these specific classes from this specific high school/CSU) but all these folks must be extremely busy this time of year, because I haven’t heard back yet.</p>