<p>Is it possible at colleges like USC, Michigan, or UConn, to graduate early using AP Credits? What majors could graduate early then, and is it a good idea not to do engineering because I need to save tuition costs by graduating early from a major I could do that with?</p>
<p>My son entered college with close to 30 credits, and there’s no way he’s graduating early in mechanical engineering. He has to take chemistry this summer as a prereq for next year’s engineering course. It wasn’t a matter of classes closed in his freshman year, it was a matter of conflicts in labs and recitation times. He attends a large state flagship, so there were plenty of course selections.</p>
<p>I did the early grad, three year route, as I was in your position, paying my own way and couldn’t afford four full years. It backfired on me, though, as I graduated with a biology degree. I came in with 18 credits for some core courses, yet had to take organic chemistry during the summer, and a full load every other semester. In the end, my biology degree got me no job. I had no money to go to grad school, so I starved for a few years before going back to school to learn a trade I could make a living at.</p>
<p>My advice, stick with the engineering, but try to find a low cost option. Maybe your state flagship or an OOS with good scholarships. Check out University of Alabama, very generous for engineering majors. You will be lucky to finish in four years, with one or two summers, and coming in with AP credit. It will be worth it in the end, as you will be more likely to find a job as an engineer than you would as a liberal arts major.</p>
<p>Another piece of advice: take some kind of computer course, where you learn a language. We have many friends who never finished college because of finances, but because they started as engineering or computer majors and had some knowledge of software and languages, they’ve always been able to pay their rent, even through temp agencies, by landing data entry, programming jobs. It may not be what you want to do, but at least you won’t starve.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I think it all matters on how much AP credit you have. I came in with about a year’s worth of credit and had no problem graduating a semester early. Actually, the only two classes I needed my final year were a seminar (we had to take four and there was only one offered per year) and my senior capstone (only offered after a long track of sequential classes). I finished with a BS in Materials Science & Engineering and a minor in Physics.</p>
<p>It depends on which AP credit you have and what your university accepts to place you into more advanced courses or fulfill requirements.</p>
<p>At [Michigan[/url</a>], it appears that scores of 5 on Calculus BC, Physics C (both), and Chemistry will fulfill about a quarter’s worth of courses (and be two quarters ahead in math and physics, which helps since these are the start of long chains of prerequisites), so that you can graduate in one less quarter if you plan your schedule properly.</p>
<p>[url=<a href="http://www.usc.edu/dept/ARR/articulation/apexamcredit.html]USC’s">http://www.usc.edu/dept/ARR/articulation/apexamcredit.html]USC’s</a> AP credit chart](<a href=“http://www.admissions.umich.edu/admitted/freshmen/adv_credit/ap_guidelines.php]Michigan[/url”>AP, IB Credit | University of Michigan Office of Undergraduate Admissions).</p>
<p>[Connecticut’s</a> AP credit chart](<a href=“http://web.uconn.edu/transfer/apchart.htm]Connecticut’s”>http://web.uconn.edu/transfer/apchart.htm).</p>
<p>Don’t rush through school and get bad grades. Sure you can graduate early, maybe add in some summer classes, but make sure you understand the material.</p>
<p>Even though my son got credit for Calc I by taking Calc AB, he retook Calc I last fall, as he really struggled with math all through high school. Not fail, but not straight As. It turned out to be a good move, as he had an excellent Calc I teacher who gave him a good basis to start on a long line of math courses as a mechanical engineering major. Calc II has been much harder, but he’s still likely to get an A- in the class, at the least, while his classmates from high school who did not take Calc AB are close to failing the course.</p>
<p>We have a few friends, also, who are engineering majors and skipping physics, calculus, core courses, all through AP. One did not even take the AP courses, as they were not offered at our high school, but self studied to get the credit. As he’s only a freshman and taking general engineering courses, it hasn’t affected him so far, but one wonders if he’ll be at a disadvantage once he gets to linear equations and the harder engineering courses that perhaps build on the basics.</p>
<p>Whether it is a good idea to skip ahead using AP credit depends on the student.</p>
<p>Someone who got scores of 5 on the AP tests while thinking it was easy probably won’t have any trouble skipping ahead; if s/he starts over, doing so in an honors or extra theory version of the course would likely be more interesting than repeating a regular course (some super-elite science and engineering schools only have what is equivalent to an honors course).</p>
<p>But someone who struggled to “pass” the AP tests with scores of 3 would likely do better starting over (many schools won’t let you skip ahead, or advise against skipping ahead, if you got less than a 5).</p>
<p>It completely depends on the school and which Engineering major. </p>
<p>For example, I’m a Chemical Engineering major at UCSB. I came in with 48 quarter units of credit, and 180 are needed for graduation. I was given sophomore status but it will still take me 4 years to graduate because there are 172 units required for my major (the most of any in my school), none of which are exempt by AP credit. </p>
<p>However, many schools offer credit for introductory science classes. As an example, I know that UC Berkeley lets you skip intro Chem for AP Chem, but UCSB does not.</p>
<p>^^^Correct. Coming in with a lot of AP is more likely to let you graduate engineering in four years rather than five. And that’s still with doing at least one summer, probably. There are so many hours in a day. You may want to do over 18 hours to get through quicker, but won’t be able to because of three hour labs, seminars, etc. Just the logistics of fitting it all in, even with AP credit, is a challenge. Son’s curriculum for mechanical engineering actually saves many of the humanities courses that he AP’d out of for his senior year. Therefore, his senior year, he’ll likely be taking less credits, maybe 12 instead of 18, but he’ll be working on a capstone project that will be time and labor intensive, so he won’t feel like he’s getting a “break” from earning all those core AP credits.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the answers guys.
Instead, I have another idea:</p>
<p>Is it possible to double major in engineering + business in four years?</p>