So if I pass AP exams I do not get credit for it unless I needed that exam/course for my major? I got a 4 on AP Spanish Language & Culture and I was going to take AP Psychology and AP English Literature but my major is economics and I would need any of those to meet my major requirements. So I don’t get any credit at all for these?
You should get credit even if it doesn’t apply towards graduation requirements for your degree. At most schools this will bump your priority for registration and help getting classes. Not sure if it works that way at Davis - Hopefully someone can address that.
UCD and UCLA will no longer use AP credits to bump up your priority registration. It is suppose to start this Winter Quarter 2016, so basically the only advantages to taking the AP exams is to help you opt out of some GE courses (if applicable).
From UC Davis Registar Website::::
Advanced placement (AP) and international baccalaureate (IB) will no longer be included in the unit calculation for pass times.
https://registrar.ucdavis.edu/registration/register/pass-times.cfm
@Gumbymom Does this mean all other UC campuses will give you priority based on number of units including APs?
I only saw UCLA and UCD in the news about the AP credits. I am sure that the other UC’s may follow suit but I do not know the particulars for the rest of the UC campuses. You could search the Registar sites at the other UC’s to see if there is any information posted.
This is the UCLA article I saw earlier this year. Students still get AP credits butt they will not be used for better priority registration. Athletes, Honors students etc… will still get priority registration regardless.
Also, Davis will not let you use AP credit to satisfy GE requirements. They pretty much only allow you to skip some prerequisites for higher level classes (and graduate early, of course).
@gumbymom @MelloG I guess I’m not really sure how college works but what’s the point of getting credits for something if it doesn’t meet my general ed or major requirements? Don’t my major and general ed requirements make up all of the credits I need to graduate? So wouldn’t those be just random extra credits?
Some of the AP credits can be used to opt out of some Pre-req courses but cannot be used for required General Education courses and not for priority registration. Pre-req courses would be part of your major requirements so do get credits as an In-coming Freshman but most cannot be used toward fulfilling the total credits toward your degree. You are correct that they would be extra credits.
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/exam-credit/ap-credits/davis/index.html
@Gumbymom oh, I think I understand now. Thank you very much.
This ended up longer than I intended, but I hope it gives you an idea for why AP units might be useful.
The thing is, between just GEs and major credits you probably won’t have enough to graduate. You need 180 units to graduate, and most majors tend to be around 60-100 units (usually social sciences/humanities on the lower end, and usually hard sciences on the higher end). Engineering tends to be closer to the 180. GEs account for around 54 units, but you can use major requirements towards them so in reality your purely GE classes will be fewer units than that. If we assume that you’re in a 100 unit major and don’t double dip the GE requirements with your major requirements (which is near impossible because most intro classes at least count for something), that leaves you with 154 units completed and 26 more to complete to qualify to graduate.
In your case, economics requires 61-64 units. Assume you don’t minor, don’t double major, and don’t double dip for your GEs and they take 54 units. That’d give you 118 units with 62 more units needed to graduate. If we assume a minor, minors tend to be 20-24 units. Let’s assume 24 units to get a high count, and you now have 142 units. That leaves you with 38 units left before you can graduate. Now if we take into account that your major requirements fulfill GE requirements, let’s say you have around 32 units in pure GEs (that’s probably a high estimate). That’d cancel out the added units from the minor. I think you can see where this is going: In some (I’d wager many) cases, just completing your major and GE requirements, even if you add a minor, won’t be enough units to graduate.
To put it in some realistic perspective, I’m double majoring. I’m double majoring in linguistics and computer science, so I only needed a couple classes outside my majors to fulfill GE requirements. Between the two majors, I had around 150-160 units. My GE classes outside my majors were around 8-12 units, so it came out to around 158-172 units. I calculated it out with my advisers, and if I hadn’t taken some random classes (after completing GEs) for financial aid purposes I would have needed my AP units to have the 180 to graduate. I came in with 24 AP units so it would’ve been overkill for getting to the 180, but it still potentially could have been the units that let me graduate.
As far as graduation units go though, keep in mind that APs only count towards lower division units. You need at least 64 upper division units to graduate. So AP units are only good for added units if you’ve completed literally every other requirement except the 180 unit requirement. But they can still make a difference.
@PhantomVirgo that was actually extremely helpful thank you