<p>Are kids running into unit caps and being disallowed from finishing a double major or additional minor? This happened to me 30 years ago at a UC.</p>
<p>Note that AP credit policies may distinguish between three uses of AP credit:</p>
<ul>
<li>Credit units.</li>
<li>Subject credit for major or breadth requirements.</li>
<li>Placement into higher level courses.</li>
</ul>
<p>It is not necessarily true that a school (or department within a school) will necessarily allow AP credit for all or none of the above. In some cases, an AP score may give subject credit or placement, but no credit units, while in other cases, an AP score may give credit units that can only be used for free elective credit units since they fulfill no subject credit or placement needs.</p>
<p>ordinarylives, I may have missed this earlier, but did the math not work because of her major requirement, and there was a specific math designed just for her major at that college that she would not have been able to get anywhere else?</p>
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<p>UC Berkeley does not count AP credit against unit ceilings. However, transferred in college credit taken after high school graduation does count, although no more than 70 semester credit units from CCs count.</p>
<p><a href=“http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/registration/unitceiling.html[/url]”>http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/registration/unitceiling.html</a></p>
<p>mihcal1- I can see where that would be a problem in some of the colleges that are “forcing” a student to apply for graduation when they hit the graduation threshold. I believe I have heard of colleges in California doing that. I am not sure if that is common anywhere else.</p>
<p>The financial aid problem is an intersting one, which I have absolutely no insight for. I could see where that could really mess a student up on my limited knowledge of it. </p>
<p>UCBalumnus- one of the really confusing things that you point out is that not all colleges apply the credits the same. The policies within the different departments at the college may apply the credits differently from another department at the college. That is why research on how each school will utilize AP/DE credit is important. This may only work if the student has a REALLY good idea what they want to major in.</p>
<p>Vlines, yes. Had her major not had it’s own discipline-specific math requirement, calc would have fulfilled the gen Ed and freed up some time. All the credits were accepted; they just weren’t useful. I mean, if a student wants to explore using electives, take them at the college, not as DE.</p>
<p>We saw some of that too, ordinarylives. And we saw a lot of placement vs credit as my son was looking at schools. His take on that policy “if I am just going to have to take harder classes, but the same amount credits, I am going to retake freshman level classes and not mess up my GPA”. It felt like punishment to him.</p>
<p>I was thinking along the financial advantage of graduating early and whether the ever increasing sticker price is driving the apparent popularity of this at DSs private school where the majority of students are full pay. And given this demographic, why is the school so ‘generous’ with giving college credit for AP classes. One would think that they would want to keep the students for all 4 years and that the full pay kids are (on the whole) the ones coming in with AP credits. </p>
<p>Are full pay or other financially stretched parents putting pressure on the kids to take advantage of graduating early? This was not in our equation with DS but with DD coming up, if we also end up as full pay at a private, I will certainly look at it long and hard.</p>
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<p>Unless it’s for a science/math class I’d say the non-freshman level classes will be easier and graded lighter. I had that experience with being able to skip 100-level history classes via AP credit, and really enjoyed my 15 student History of Urban America class while “World History” with 100 other students would have been a bear. I know my friends that were able to place out of freshman English/writing felt the same way about the upper division classes they took.</p>
<p>I went into college with 8 APs of credit, and wound up graduating a semester early. My final semester the only course I actually needed to take was a senior capstone, and due to sequential nature of my department there was no way to do it a year early. My other options would have been to try to pick up a MS in 4 to 4.5 years, double major in 4 years, or pick up a second minor to finish off my spring semester. I chose to graduate a semester early since my brother had recently finished college and my student loans had increased significantly, and I knew I was going to grad school so there was no reason to pick up a MS.</p>
<p>My daughter did the IB program and at SUNY Binghamton she got approx. 30 credits for it (based on her IB test scores). She is taking a couple of summer courses and thinks she can graduate in 2.5 years instead of 4. She plans to go to grad school for a teaching degree (she majored in Math).</p>
<p>A friend’s S took lots of CC classes junior and senior year of h.s. He did not earn an associates degree. He then went to one of our big state u’s and graduated in three years.</p>
<p>My S1 had enough AP credit to have graduated early but he was on a NROTC scholarship that required four years to complete the program.</p>
<p>I’ve seen it done, but it’s not common where I go. I can’t tell if that means it’s increasing in popularity (as in, no one used to do it before but a few do it now) or if it’s not increasing, but I certainly wouldn’t say it’s popular now. </p>
<p>Most of us don’t go to schools that cost 50K+/year, so there’s less incentive there. Sure, there’s the loss of a year of work, but there’s certainly value to being able to take your time with school.</p>
<p>My daughter got 28 credits from AP classes which fulled almost all of her school’s core requirements. The fact that they were varied probably helped. </p>
<p>Her two AP History classes are allowing her to get a History minor (which she would not have done otherwise). She is going to do a math/econ major and I am glad she did not get credit for BC Calc (only AB) since Calc 2 for her major is half BC and half multivariable Calc. If she had only BC Calc she would enter Calc 3 unprepared. Her AP Stat got her credit for a higher level math but unfortunately it is not a math she needs for her major. Her Environmental Science credits means she does not have to take any more college science (assuming you do not consider Math a science). Her two English APs got her completely out of freshman English. </p>
<p>The other advantage is priority registration since she has more credits - she was considered a Sophomore right away and got to register a few days earlier.</p>
<p>Will she graduate early? Too soon to tell, but she can potentially graduated 6 months to a year ahead - it will depend upon how many semesters of co-op she wants to do.</p>
<p>My son graduated high school in 3 years, largely because he almost completely ran out of math and science classes to take by the end of sophomore year. However, he opted for 4 years at Brown over 3 years at our state flagship, because he knew the diversity and depth of the upper level classes could keep him happy and interested for a long time to come. The APs still had their value, by allowing him to start on sophomore-level classes his freshman year.</p>
<p>I would think that a STEM major with a large number of advanced classes under his belt would be a more desirable job or grad school candidate than another who rushed to just do the minimum and get out the door.</p>
<p>My son’s college caps the number of credits you can bring in at 32. If he’d chosen another school he would have had between 47 and 52 usable credits. Hopefully it will save us some money And/or allow him to do a coop program or a grad program within 4 years. He has actually chosen to drop a class each semester this year, so he’s not as far ahead as he would have been. We told him he is responsible for any amount over X that his school costs. If he graduates in even 7 semesters he will owe nothing.</p>
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<p>That seems odd, unless he was pre-med or pre-law (where GPA management is extremely important).</p>
<p>Even if the student gets only placement and subject credit, but not credit units, being able to skip the introductory courses opens up schedule space for free electives. Why go to a four year school to retake common introductory courses (that one already knows, are available cheaply at community colleges, and are often the largest classes at the school) instead of using the schedule space to take unusual or more advanced courses that are where most of the value of attending a four year school is?</p>
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<p>When considering skipping courses with AP credit, it is a good idea to check the old final exams of the courses to be skipped, to see if one knows what the college course expects. Small gaps in knowledge could be covered by self-study if the student is sufficiently motivated; large gaps may require retaking the course.</p>
<p>A friend of mine graduated in 3 years from Berkeley due to APs the dual eligible cc credits in the mid 1980s, so it was done even a long time ago.</p>
<p>An example, found on Cornell’s website:</p>
<p>College courses taken during high school may be available for transfer credit. No credit, however, will be awarded for courses taken during high school, unless the student attended the course(s) on a college or university campus (i.e., no credit will be awarded for courses designated college-level if the courses were offered in the student’s high school).</p>
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<p>Unless one wanted to attend NWU for law school, in which case a high LSAT (171+) can offset a GPA in the 3.0-3.2 range.</p>