<p>DS is a junior STEM major at a private top tier mid sized research U where many students come in with AP credits. The school accepts mainly STEM and language APs. I was surprised to hear about multiple friends/acquaintances who are graduating early, presumably due to AP credits, some as early as after 5 semesters. DSs roommate came in with 32 usable credits (of 120 required) and a few others that were accepted but that he could not use for any particular requirement. He could easily graduate after 3 years although he will take 4 years and graduate with a Masters as well. </p>
<p>It occurred to me that graduating early may be becoming even more popular with the cost of college. Graduating 1 year early will save 50-60K, and if one can graduate in 2.5 years, that makes full pay COA <150K. A much less daunting number than 240K. </p>
<p>Are other folks seeing that at other schools? I realize not every school accepts AP credits in the same way and that this may take away from one's college experience. However, if finances are a significant determining factor, it may well be worth it to see how AP credit policy at a given school could be used to mitigate that. That may add yet another column to the decision spreadsheet :)</p>
<p>And incidentally, what advantage does the school get out of allowing students to graduate early like this?</p>
<p>My son is in the engineering program at the state flagship school, and he and some friends all plan on graduating early. It makes sense, perhaps more with STEM students. I know with my son and his friends, college has been a lot more work than play, so they don’t seem to feel the need to linger for social reasons. There are lots of jobs awaiting them, so they want to get the jump on those as well. A lot of these STEM kids had sophomore standing in freshman year because of all the AP classes they had taken in HS.</p>
<p>For the kids I know who just want to get done with schooling and into the workforce, a combination of AP and DE credits has them entering college with at least a year’s worth of credit, often 2 years. Many of the kids, however, end up at schools that don’t take many, if any, AP credits. I don’t know that it’s “new” as I’ve known kids that have been doing this for over 10 years, but it’s getting more popular as more schools offer AP.</p>
<p>I suppose much has to do with the college your child attends. My S15 will have 33 DE college credits when he graduates and will have probably taken 4 AP classes as well( Our HS focuses on DE rather than AP. Unfortunately colleges he is looking at specifically state that they offer no course credit for college classes that are dual enrollment(and we are still required to pay for the credit hours to be enrolled in the HS classes even though the credits will end up being useless) and most either don’t take the AP credit at all or only take it to place you in a higher level but still mandatory distribution requirement course. However it would be great if he were attending a CC or less competitive 4 year school. Also with the growing popularity of AP and DE I can see colleges getting more and more prohibitive–it is not in their best interest to have tons of early graduates!</p>
<p>My son went into the college search wanting to use his AP/DE credits. So he looked at the way they could be utilized at the college before he even applied. Like IHS, he will stay 4years, but will be getting his MS in those 4 years because of the number of AP/DE credits he has. </p>
<p>He was a competitive student for top 10 schools, but did not even apply to any because of their limited use of AP/DE credits. It is a personal choice.</p>
<p>My D is a 2nd semester freshman who at the end of the semester will have 83 credits; she came in with 48. She has no plans to graduate early; the extra credits allow her to double major, pick up a minor and participate in a program where she’ll get BS and MS in 4 years.</p>
<p>It depends on the school. It can also depend on major. D was able to graduate in 3.5 years due to her AP credits, so it worked for us! In D’s case it was unplanned, she did not take the AP classes with the intention of actually getting the college credits, it just worked out that way.</p>
<p>My S is a second semester freshman with junior status due to 46 AP credits. He will be double majoring and finishing in 4 years with BS and MS. He’ll have the 150 credits to sit for the CPA exam.</p>
<p>This was a consideration when he applied to colleges, he checked to see which colleges gave AP credit.</p>
<p>My son had a boat load of credits at Carnegie Mellon, but said that the sequencing of courses made it impossible to graduate early. I think he might have been able to do a masters in addition to the BS, but he had zippo interest in doing research and writing a thesis. Not sure if he’d have gotten as good a job if he had tried to graduate early.</p>
<p>D’s in her 4th semester at college. She is classified as a senior. However, those DE credits didn’t help at all in terms of getting done early. For instance, she had calc. It transferred. It fulfilled a gen ed, BUT the major requires a different math course (which would also fulfill the gen ed). So, got the credit, but it didn’t provide much benefit.</p>
<p>At the universities with which I am most familiar, the non-engineering students who come in with lots of AP credit usually get a double major and/or a minor.</p>
<p>My son had 13 APs in high school, which translated in 65 credits. He was able to double major and double minor. The number of credits allowed him to select classes and housing earlier than others. His younger brother is currently college shopping (he’s a junior). AP/DE credit is important as he searches for a school, because it would offer other options that students without such credit would have.</p>
<p>Vlines, no because the required math course would also fill the general education requirement. </p>
<p>She did get the benefit of a better housing lottery number for second year to her junior standing. But I’m not sure being a senior for 2.5 years has any other perks.</p>
<p>That’s how our high school is attempting to sell the parents, and students, on taking all of their AP tests, which enable the school to raise their ranking status. But in our case, we would encourage our kids to either double major, or double minor, and still remain in undergrad four years.</p>
<p>ordinarylives, did the other AP/DE classes help in anyway? Was math the only one that she had this problem with? </p>
<p>I know that everyone’s mileage will be different with the AP/DE. If it is important to the student to get credit for those courses, then they take it into account when deciding which schools to apply to. We did find that the information on which courses would transfer as DE, and which classes a student would get credit for for the AP courses was readily available on all of the college websites. As were the policies for the amount of credit that could be used/ transferred.</p>
<p>Our school tries to sell us on that, too. The problem is that unless a kid knows where he’s going and what he plans to major in, there’s no way to know what will be useful. Many are shocked when I share our experience with D1. Oh, and if we had traditional fin aid, she’d be in danger of losing it senior year for having too many credits toward the as yet unearned degree. My high school never warns about hitting the SAP cap.</p>
<p>Vlines, three classes were helpful: comp, western civ, and art appreciation. All fulfilled gen eds in areas where the major had no specific requirement. What wasn’t useful was 2 physics classes, biology (again because the major had other science requirements that fulfilled gen Ed), a second English class, and calc. Am I sorry she took them? No, because I’m not in the position of needing to worry about what will happen to her aid senior year.</p>
<p>State universities tend to be more generous with credit units (although not necessarily any more generous with subject credit and placement), since each additional in-state student requires a subsidy from the state government. The faster students graduate from state universities, the better the state university’s finances are, or the more students it can serve.</p>
<p>Of course, the incentives are different for private universities.</p>