@rjm. Nebraska won my kid’s heart…especially liked the convenience of the compact campus, the relatively small enrollment (<20k undergrads at the time) ,the amazing efficiency of the administration (got acceptance a few days after applying), $14k merit scholarship (with only a 2.5 gpa required to renew it), and direct admit to biz school (which is really important for someone with lots of AP credits). By the way, they no longer grant 16 credits for a 5 on AP foreign language exams (though I think UN-Omaha & Mich State still do). Mich State is a wonderful place, but it is so spread out & kind of overwhelming for some kids.
Another thing to watch for especially if your kid is going into accounting is what sort of internship opportunities are nearby during school year. Lincoln is a state capital & decent-sized city, & Omaha is an hr away. So internships were available. One thing that stuck out about the U of Oklahoma was how Norman is close to bustling Ok City. Some of the others we checked out were a little isolated (e.g, Bama, Texas Tech, West Va).
My daughter wanted to pass on a senior year AP test for that reason-- she thought she wouldn’t get credit at her chosen college, and I also thought the same thing — and it turned out we were mistaken. She did get the credit. So in hindsight she was lucky that her high school insisted she take the test.
And as I posted above, my son’s first college didn’t award AP credit — but then he transferred to a college that did, where those credits were put to good use. Without those credits he would have been a junior transfer enrolled in multiple freshman level courses to make up general ed requirements, and it probably would have taken him an extra semester or year to graduate.
So rather than skip the tests, I’d simply suggest prioritizing which to put the most prep effort into-- but take them all, since you will have already paid for them. My son ended up transferring into a public U that not only offered more AP credit, but offered that credit tied to lower scores (such as giving credit in most disciplines for scores of 3 or higher).
My daughter is a nursing student - and she was able to use AP credits to accelerate other core classes so that when she gets to clinicals and very demanding nursing classes, she will have a slightly lighter load and still graduate in 4 years. My other daughter did something similar – but to have a slightly lighter load during lacrosse season because it is demanding and our 3rd daughter got her BS one semester early.
Taking a maximum number of AP classes was the path that my pups chose in order to be competitive for valedictorian, as class rank was determined using weighted GPA. By junior year it became clear to them that they’d most likely earn the valedictorian or at least salutatorian, which assured them a full tuition scholarship to Flagship State.
It also helped demonstrate to the elite schools that they were driven to take the most challenging courses available, and since they excelled at them, they were admitted at many, so they each had several great choices from schools with single digit acceptance rates.
I respectfully disagree with @moooop post #29, about Elite Private schools being “stingy on all fronts”. They gave my pups fabulous financial aid: DS graduated with no loans from Columbia, and DD will graduate with no loans from Stanford this year. Additionally, both were able to use their AP courses to satisfy at least one distribution requirement / placement issue.
Had they chosen Flagship State with full tuition covered, and only paid R&B/fees, and graduated in 3 years instead of 4, it still would have cost them more than the better schools they chose.
Taking so many AP courses prepared them for hard work. DD has been able to double major, and has loved her entire experience.
D was able to pick up a minor and graduate a semester early. I think the biggest bonus was keeping her out of Chem 101, the notorious science weeder course where she went. Many of her AP credits counted only for general credits, but more would have counted if she decided not to do Honors. She graduated with over 140 hours.
S2 at Notre Dame got credit for only 6 hours (AP English and Calc) after taking a ton of AP and college courses. He would have been done with two years at a state school.
S15 & D16 both went into college with 19 hrs of AP credits that their colleges accepted. Now S20 is trying to figure it out. With both kids, it saved a few hours each semester, and allowed for a few fun classes to remain full-time. S could have graduated 1 semester early; D can not because she needs 8 concurrent semesters for her major.
We made spread sheets on their college choices, and their majors, and which APs were accepted, and needed scores. It wasn’t all perfectly aligned, but in general it helped and saved some $.
Now we are fine tuning it for S20. It’s fun for me to figure these things out - but its easy now that we are pretty sure of S20’s college and major.
We are figuring out his classes based senior year based on his college’s requirements. For example: AP Chem will not help him at all in his major (engineering); they won’t take it. So it’s a NO. We’ve sorted out what his major needs in humanities and other non-engineering requirements - and we are figuring out which of the AP classes his school offers transfers into needed classes. Eg: Why have two English-type AP classes when only one counts; and have 0 arts classes when 1 is needed?
You can google a university and it’s AP transfer credits and see what is needed and what transfers; and same with majors and colleges within the U. It’s like a puzzle that takes time but is rewarding.
Two different kids at the same school, both entirely armed with 5s, roughly the same result. Pretty sure that while neither kid was aiming at early graduation, and both would have double majored anyway, the combination of credits / bumps out of entry-level classes allowed them each to comfortably do a semester abroad, and explore some areas of interest just for fun.
@moooop, thank you for providing more info. Glad your kid ended up at a school (Nebraska) that was a good fit and also took many of his AP credits. I had a longer post earlier but since I went off topic I think it was deleted.
My older D went to a private indepdent school (Quaker) with a limited number of AP courses. She took all of the AP courses offered and got a 5 on the AP tests. One benefit when she went to college (Tufts) was that she was able to skip introductory courses and take upper level courses in those AP subjects. The other benefit turned out to be more significant. Tufts didn’t give D credit for one of her study abroad courses (she studied in Spain). D checked before she signed up for the program in Spain and was told that she would get credit for the courses. When she found out that the course wasn’t approved, she went to the registrar and complained because she was short of the total number of credits needed to graduate. At the meeting with the registrar, she found out that she’d been given credit for her Spanish AP course. Because of that AP credit, she was able to graduate as planned.
My dd went in with many AP credits (not sure how many - but lots). She had enough to get priority registration and to make it to upper division in her first semester of sophomore year. She has not yet taken an easier semester and had carried 16-18 credits each semester so far. She could push it to graduate in 2.5, easily graduate in 3 with a double major but is planning on taking all 4 years and getting a double major, a minor, and a concentration. This will allow her another year for internship opportunities and a chance to pick up some extra experiences and courses.
One benefit not mentioned was that my dd was able to interview and secure some pretty awesome spots in organizations on campus. She was able to leverage knowledge from her upper level classes but she was still an underclassman. Some orgs. take a set number from each class so she was brought on in her first year to one and the first semester of her sophomore year for another but she had met many of the members (older students) in her classes and had a deeper knowledge from taking upper level coursework. She knows it gave an advantage during the interview process.
D1 graduated in three years in ChE with a minor in Spanish. D2 graduated in four years with two distinct degrees (BS in BME and BMusic in performance). Neither carried a lighter load (they actually still overloaded a few times). Both enjoyed early registration to get their desired classes (e.g. D2 registered with seniors starting in her third semester).
AP and DE allowed my son to take fewer credits during a few very demanding quarters (he was a Mechanical Engineering major) and to start taking graduate level classes his third year. He’s walking out with a BS and a thesis based MS in 5 years at a school where the average BS takes 5.
My D’s major requires 145 credits vs. the normal 120, which most students manage by taking summer courses. My D was able to work and earn money during the summer and not worry about taking classes.
Also, sophomores are allowed to choose a lower level of meal plan, so we saved a significant amount of money that way since she wouldn’t have been able to use all of the meals in the dining hall that were on the larger plan.
My S’s school limits him to 12 AP credits. He was able to take more advanced classes (for example, took multivariable calc his first semester). Yes they did check off some gen ed requirements but in most cases he will likely take electives in some of those areas so in the end I don’t think it will matter much. For example he had credit through AP English but chose to take freshman English anyway to gain confidence in his writing. No plans to graduate early. Too early to say if he will double major but since only 12 credits are accepted it won’t get him too far.