<p>I'm still a senior in high school, but I was wondering if it was a good idea to graduate college a year early? If I get 4's on 3 AP tests and take some summer classes at a community college, I could hypothetically start college with 32 credits. </p>
<p>I'm hoping to go to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, but I'm out of state so it would be really expensive if I went for 4 years. 3 years would be much more manageable financially. Is this a good or bad idea?</p>
<p>What are your long-term goals?</p>
<p>I’m not sure yet… I think I’m just going to get a job after I get my BS.</p>
<p>Be prepared for the possibility that all of your AP credits don’t actually count toward completing your degree. Or for a certain sequence of classes to not be available and fit with everything else</p>
<p>depends on what degree you are trying to get.</p>
<p>@ThisIsMichigan: Oh okay… I would have about 18 AP credits, would they not accept all of them?</p>
<p>@Engstudent1: I’m hoping to get a BS in Computer Science</p>
<p>They may or may not, depending on your AP scores and their own policies. Check the UIUC handbook (and other schools to which you plan to apply); it’ll tell you how many AP and CC credits they will take.</p>
<p>Also, sometimes colleges may take the credit but still require you to take certain classes for the major. For example, at my alma mater my college would take AP Psychology credit if you got a 4 on the exam, but it didn’t count towards the major - so if you were a psych major and took AP Psychology, the credits would count towards your 120 credits for graduation but you still had to take Psych 101 and 102 (our intro courses) and you still had to take 40 credits in psychology. It was as if the AP Psych credit was just a random elective. In other instances (sometimes in math, for example) you may be able to start the course sequence further in - like if you pass the Cal BC exam with a 5, maybe you start with multivariable calculus/Cal II, but you still have to take 40 credits in the major - the AP credit just helps you be able to take more advanced classes in your junior and senior years but doesn’t count towards your major. It just gives you elective credit.</p>
<p>So check.</p>
<p>I don’t so much mean whether or not they would accept them based on your scores ( I assumed you figured that out already).</p>
<p>Let’s say your degree required 12 credits of social sciences. You may transfer in 18 fr your AP courses. Them you would just have 6 credits of GEs that probably wont help. Or you may transfer in a course you think will matter and it just becomes worthless departmental credit or GE. That happened to me with AP Stats and AP Comp Sci. The better the school the more likely this happens and Illinois is pretty good so…</p>
<p>@juillet: Okay thanks, I’ll look into it. I was just hoping to use my advanced credit for Gen Ed requirements and free electives. I have dual enrollment credit for French and Political Science classes, and hopefully I can get History and English credit through the AP tests.</p>
<p>@ThisIsMichigan: Oh I see… hmm UIUC requires 18 hours of GE credit so I was hoping to get that out of the way before I start college. Like I said to juillet, most of my advanced credit is for subjects in the humanities so I can use them to fulfill GE requirements and free electives. On the UIUC site it said I can get credit for getting a 4 on Calc AB, but I’ll ask to make sure.</p>
<p>You’ll have to look up the degree requirements of your intended major (including breadth requirements) and the AP credit chart at the college. Then you can try to construct a schedule to see how feasable early graduation can be (note that 7 semesters may be more feasable than 6 semesters).</p>
<p>But note carefully that even if your AP score lets you skip a course, if that course is an important prerequisite to other courses, it is best to review the potentially skipped course’s final exams to make sure that you know the material from the college’s point of view. This is especially important if you got less than a 5 score on the AP test.</p>
<p>Have you run the net price calculator on the college’s web site?</p>
<p>I think it’s a good thing that you have that type of goal set for yourself! At my university, I’m in a special program for students who plan to graduate in 3 years, and the school helps us by giving us priority registration, individualized advising, and the ability to use the 4th year of our scholarships during the summers instead of never seeing that money just because we graduate early. </p>
<p>Like others have said though, you need to make sure your credits will count for what they would need to count for. I took a combination of AICE exams and dual enrollment courses in high school, bringing with me to a total of 49 credit hours when I started my first year in college. As it turns out, because of my degree requirements, I still needed 3 full years to graduate, even though you would think I’d only need two and a half. The reason for this is because of prerequisite tracks: I have to take one class before I can take another, and then another, and then that VERY last one before I qualify for my degree. That’s something a lot of people find out the hard way, but you can easily look up degree requirements and course prerequisites on the university’s website in their course catalog. </p>
<p>Your dual enrollment courses especially would need to be evaluated by an adviser at the school, because it’s out of state credit. What they count for at your CC may not be what they count for at your new university. I ran into that problem with a couple of my classes, and I stayed in-state for school.</p>
<p>It is doable to graduate early, however. You may consider taking classes at your community college the summer before you leave for your university, so that you knock out even more classes before you get there. You would need to approve this with your university, but it’ll save you money in the long-run. Summer classes while you’re away at school in general would save time as well, and it looks good to employers when you’re doing something worthwhile with your summer semesters. At my school, I’m required to take x amount of classes in the summer in order to graduate.</p>
<p>Also consider taking CLEP exams for courses that you don’t think you need to take to demonstrate your ability in. It’s around $100 a test, and if you pass, most colleges will award you credit for the course. It’s another way to knock out gen-eds and save money. Again, check with your university about policies on this, because some will only accept so many credits by examination (AP, IB, CLEP, etc.).</p>
<p>Many schools will require that you carry a minimum of 12 credits over eight semesters whether on-campus or in approved study abroad or for-credit internship in order to graduate.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus: Okay, I’m in the process of figuring that out… I’m going to take AP English Lit, US History, and Calc AB. I’m not too worried because I know a lot of people in the College of Engineering go in with Calc AB credit and do fine, and I don’t need to worry about English and History being pre-reqs for my major. The COA is about 48,000 a year… so if I can graduate early, it would definitely help a lot financially.</p>
<p>@itsxlizzyxox: Thanks 
That sounds really neat, I don’t know if UIUC has that, but it would be nice if they did. And yeah, I’ll keep the pre-reqs in mind when I try to plan out what classes to take each year.</p>
<p>@bookmama22: Hmm I’m not sure if UIUC requires that, but I’ll check. I guess I could always do co-ops and internships to fill up the last 2 semesters.</p>
<p>A lot of people are telling you that the credits might not transfer but not actually addressing the possibility that they may very well transfer! This was the case for me. I took 8 AP classes in high school and got credit for all of them. I’m now planning on graduating a year early. Biggest factor for me is money. If we lived in some magical world where college is totally free, of course it’d be cool to stay a fourth year. But now we’re talking about an extra $20-60k, which is a LOT of money if you don’t really need it. Plus the extra year could help you in job search in the long run.</p>
<p>I recommend talking to an adviser once you get to school about graduating early. Confirm with them that it’s possible. If so, work towards it! Don’t take too many just-for-fun classes-- work towards your major and a realistic goal. If, after three years, you don’t want to graduate yet, you don’t have to. No one is going to force you to leave and you could use your fourth year to pick up a second major or something. But at least then the option to graduate is also there.</p>
<p>@rebeccar: Thanks, I’m hoping that’s what will happen :)</p>
<p>Ok, here is UIUC’s AP credit chart:</p>
<p>[U</a> of I Admissions: Advanced Placement](<a href=“http://admissions.illinois.edu/academics/placement_AP.html]U”>Academics, Undergraduate Admissions, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)</p>
<p>For the three AP tests you mention, you need a score of 4 to get useful credit (18 credits if you get all three – this is slightly more than a semester’s worth of credit). The US history and English literature look like they could fulfill some breadth requirements as described here:</p>
<p><a href=“https://my.illinois.edu/uPortal/render.userLayoutRootNode.uP?&uP_sparam=activeTabTag&activeTabTag=Academics&uP_fname=illinois-ssdt-courseinformationsuite&pltp_action=genedCatView[/url]”>https://my.illinois.edu/uPortal/render.userLayoutRootNode.uP?&uP_sparam=activeTabTag&activeTabTag=Academics&uP_fname=illinois-ssdt-courseinformationsuite&pltp_action=genedCatView</a></p>
<p>You can see if <a href=“http://www.transfer.org%5B/url%5D”>http://www.transfer.org</a> can tell you if any courses at your local community college are equivalent to courses at UIUC.</p>
<p>The price you mentioned is the out-of-state price. Do you have any less expensive choices?</p>
<p>Here are some UIUC Math 220 and 221 final exams to review:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~eid1/f11/t/F1.pdf[/url]”>http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~eid1/f11/t/F1.pdf</a>
[Bob</a> Murphy, Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign](<a href=“http://www.math.illinois.edu/~murphyrf/teaching/M220/]Bob”>Bob Murphy, Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
[Fall</a> 2011 Math 221 BL1](<a href=“http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~ccccc/2011/Fall/221/]Fall”>Fall 2011 Math 221 BL1)
<a href=“http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~kmortens/221-Fa11/oldtests.htm[/url]”>http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~kmortens/221-Fa11/oldtests.htm</a></p>
<p>There are also proficiency exams to place out of introductory courses:
[Mathematics</a> Placement and Proficiency, Undergraduate Program in Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign](<a href=“http://www.math.illinois.edu/UndergraduateProgram/profic.html]Mathematics”>Mathematics Proficiency Examinations | Mathematics at Illinois)</p>
<p>It is pretty doable to graduate in 3 years at UIUC with AP credits. My son had 18 credits and now after 3 semesters he is a junior due to 17-18 hours each semester + a summer class. Our original plan was 3 years + a one year masters and then he look for a job. He is enjoying the school so much that he really wants to stay the fourth year so he is looking at doing a double major. This semester he is doing a semester abroad and he has to make the decision if he wants to finish early. To be honest I think he is 90% convinced that he will be there four years…</p>
<p>Good luck, but agree that you should look at other options that are cheaper. I hope you enjoy your college experience.</p>
<p>@ucbalamnus: Thanks for all those links! I’ve been accepted to University of Minnesota, Purdue, Missouri S&T, University of Pittsburgh, and a bunch of other slightly random schools. UIUC is the most expensive, but I think it’s the best academically.</p>
<p>@lacrossemom: Okay, thanks! Hopefully I can graduate in 3 years too. Honestly I’d prefer to enjoy my undergrad experience for the full 4 years, but I don’t think that’s possible financially for me at UIUC. If this 3 year plan doesn’t work out I’m probably going to have to go to a less expensive school…</p>
<p>Thanks for all the help everyone! 
I really appreciate it!!!</p>
<p>So I kinda planned out a schedule of all 6 semesters if I were to graduate early… would my schedule be too difficult or overwhelming? <a href=“https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1Mb-vt7PHSR4KgL0JWF8O0dlkUkCiWZ9Oc8NHZfI_QP8[/url]”>UIUC 3 year track;