(As a starter, I’m 100% positive I’ll be attending a UC, most likely Berkeley, LA, or San Diego).
So I’m aware that for certain AP courses (like AP literature) a high score will allow me to skip a certain english class. But what about other AP courses, like Macroeconomics and Microeconomics? Econ classes usually aren’t required at universities so will taking the AP test and getting a score matter? Are there certain classes that I can skip even if they’re unrelated to Econ? Thanks!
How do AP credits work? Do most universities accept AP credits as applicable to all general classes?
Usually credit garnered from classes unrelated to your major will be used towards general education requirements. It is actually ideal that you do not get credit for major classes since most AP classes are fundamental/introductory classes and skipping one in your major might make higher level courses difficult.
For UC, see http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/exam-credit/ap-credits/index.html . Also click on each campus on the left side of the page for the subject credit. For Berkeley College of Letters and Science, each major may have its own policies on the use of AP credit on major requirements (see department web sites).
For other colleges, try going to their web sites and searching for “AP credit”.
In general, if you plan to take a more advanced course using AP credit as the prerequisite, it would be a good idea to try the college’s old final exams for the course that you may skip using the AP credit, so that you can check your knowledge compared to the college’s expectations. Of course, this is something to do after you have chosen which college to attend. Note: while most colleges allow you the option of retaking the course that AP credit allows you to skip (although you may lose the AP credit if you do that), some UCs (e.g. UCSD, UCI) will not give credit or grade points for retaking the course.
If you are pre-med, note that many medical schools do not accept AP credit to fulfill pre-med course requirements. If you skip a pre-med course using AP credit, you may have to substitute a more advanced course in the same subject area for the purposes of applying to many medical schools.
If you are planning a major in a college that it IGETC-friendly, like UC Berkeley College of Letters Arts & Sciences, you can get a lot of mileage from a community college. UCB does not give much credit for AP courses (see the link provided). However, you could satisfy much of your breadth requirement by going to a community college and using your AP scores (if you have a lot of 5s or 4s) to satisfy IGETC requirements. My DS needed only 4 community college classes to satisfy IGETC, pick up an AA, and transfer to UC as ‘Junior’ status. That allows you to live in International House, rather than one of the Units- a much better housing situation.
At my school it varied.
I took AP lit which did NOT place me out of English (I had to take a test for that). It counted as an open elective.
Before switching my concentration to history my AP econ class counted as an elective; now it counted as part of my major.
My APUSH class counted for exactly what it was.
I go to UC Davis, so I can answer from that perspective. You can’t use AP credits towards GE requirements, except the lower division English requirement (depending on what college you’re in). However, you can use them to fulfill prereqs. They also give you units towards graduation and improving your registration time. For instance, I came in with 24 AP units and currently have senior level registration priority as a second quarter junior thanks to my AP units.
That said, there are certain classes that you can take for full credit after passing the corresponding exam. Not all allow that though. For classes that you can take for credit after passing the relevant AP exam, it’s usually recommended that you retake it if you’re planning on using it as a prereq for another class.
For econ, you’re not allowed to take the corresponding class after passing the AP exam. Not for credit, at least. You can use those AP credits to fulfill prereqs, and you can fulfill major requirements. You can’t use them for GE credit though.
Look into specific campuses for how they deal with them. But that’s how Davis handles them.
The only AP credits that transferred directly to a class I needed in my major were AP lang and APUSH. All the others transferred indirectly and maybe I got out of certain core requirements. Since I have a fantastic adviser I was able to get out of certain classes using AP credits, even though they technically aren’t supposed to count.
Definitely look online at the university’s transfer equivalents, and ask your adviser when you get one if anything else can count.
AP Calculus BC is the staple course to have so you can get out of two levels of math courses and skip to the higher ones such as Calculus III and DEs.
Abused the system in the CSUs and got 79 semester units and cleared all but 2 courses of GE that AP can’t cover. Now the UC’s are a little stricter because you’re getting better students…