<p>For comparison, [UC</a> Berkeley engineering](<a href=“http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/students/college-of-engineering-announcement]UC”>Undergraduate Guide - Berkeley Engineering) lists sample programs of study (starting at page 19 of the large PDF that is the 2010-2011 announcement) that assume no AP credit and starting at Math 1A / Calculus 1, although it is likely that a large percentage of entering freshmen do have some usable AP credit that allows starting in a higher math course.</p>
<p>Playing “Devil’s Advocate” here, I would say that it does make a difference if you are applying to a 4 year Engineering program vs a CC. I have 3 sons, 2 of which went the CC route, 1 being a Paramedic and the other Undecided. </p>
<p>The 3rd is a soon to be Jr. at the Univ of Michigan as a dual degree candidate in CEE and a BFA in Musical Theatre. Being that he had AP Physics, AP Calculus, AP World History, AP Chemistry, and AP Biology and passed the tests with 5’s, he entered his freshman year at UMich with 28 transfer credits.</p>
<p>This enabled my s to carry 18 credit hours per semester with a combination of engineering courses and music, theatre, and dance and although it will take him 5 years, he will graduate with 2 Bachelor’s degrees from U Mich from 2 different programs.</p>
<p>While I agree that enjoying your HS years is important, when it comes to applying to schools with hefty OOS tuition, the careful planning of your last 2 years of HS curriculum can really pay off.</p>
<p>Good luck to all with your process…as it is a process!!! :)</p>
<p>I know I am late to this thread. More than anything, HAVE FUN senior year. It will be your last year with absolutely no responsibilities. About 3 months into college, you’ll realize how much of a joke high school is. DOn’t take it too seriously. However, if I were you, I’d focus on two AP classes: AP Physics C and AP Calc BC. I’d say REALLY focus onp hysics and try to get a 5 to place out of college physics. College physics blows and is really hard. Don’t stress too much on Calc, but try to learn the material. If I were you, I’d probably retake calc in college anyways because you’ll see how much better the professors are and those classes will be important for later in your college career for various math classes. BUT, you’ll breeze through calc 1 and 2, and that is a great way to start college.</p>
<p>Besides those 2, fill your schedule with some fun classes. I’d say go honors english, maybe throw in a bs AP class like APES or STAT, then do some fun classes (yearbook, law, accounting, web design, etc.)</p>
<p>Someone who gets a 5 on AP Calculus BC would probably find retaking freshman calculus to be a waste of time, unless s/he takes an honors version (or if attending a super-elite science and engineering school where the freshman calculus would be an honors course anywhere else). Also, starting a semester or two ahead in math adds some slack in the schedule, since there can be some very long prerequisite chains starting with freshman calculus where delaying a single course could delay graduation.</p>
<p>I looked at that list and it seemed like alot! Depending on if you actually have to declare engineering on your college application, I would say just take what you want. No need to kill yourself but thats just me. I dont think it will make a bit of difference one way or the other if you had all those AP’s or not.</p>
<p>I just wish my school had at least 2 of those AP’s. Gosh I would have been happier student. I had never even heard of AP until I got to college and it sounded like it would have made high school more interesting</p>
<p>Repeating the courses even when you have credits,in my opinion, is plain naive. In college you have no time to actually “learn” substantially more from your intro courses than in high school. With some exception, prof. will move very fast (considering u r just out of high school) and u won’t be able to understand anything more than you already knew before. My advice,
Come with plenty of credits.
Don’t redo the classes u don’t have to.
Instead, venture into new fields that seems interesting to you. That will leave you plenty of time to breeze through your curriculum if you have any trouble ( like take fewer classes if the semester is hard) and enjoy college.
Having said that, don’t kill yourself in high school. There’s plenty of time for that in college if that’s your way :). Try to balance your academics and social life. I think 3 or 4 credits (on any course that counts) will put you in a good place.</p>
<p>AP Credits, my school only offered three AP classes and one of them had issues with the way it was taught because apparently we only had a few people in a numbers of years get credit out of it.</p>
<p>If I were you, I wouldn’t nessicarly worry about the number of AP classes you get in, more so of the ones you take. Calc and physics are nice to have for sure. The calc, I would use it to skip a class, the physics on the other hand… it might be a good idea to take it again anyways at the university. </p>
<p>The University of TN requires students to have a 28 math ACT to be exempt from pre-calc, in fact, many engineering students take pre-calc at UT and learn a lot from it, a lot more than what you could expect to learn in HS and surprisingly enough, it is more difficult than calc I here.</p>
<p>Im taking calc II this summer so I can dif-e-q in the fall :)</p>