Option F - Students take AP classes if they are offered because most colleges expect them to.
If he has to take calculus 2, he should try the college’s old final exams for calculus 1 in order to make a more informed placement decision. Otherwise, if he just guesses, he may end up wasting time and tuition repeating what he knows well, or jumping into the more advanced course without a firm foundation of the prerequisite.
My D fits into A2 and C.
She can use her AP credits (19=English, Econ, Calc 1, history) for prepharmacy prerequisites and electives, she is able to minor in a language and at the same time take a somewhat lighter courseload her first two (of four semesters: 13 versus 16 credits or 53 versus 62 total credits).
I would say for science and engineering majors you might have to be careful with skipping intro courses.
For example some might want to skip Calc 1 and 2 if they took AP Calc BC in high school and go right to Calc 3 in college, but that might be a mistake.
Same with AP Chem and AP Bio credit, it might not be advisable to skip Gen Chem 1 and Bio 1 depending on the foundation taught in high school. Those students could alternately choose honors courses in those subjects or have an easier time adjusting to college by taking those college-level intro science courses first semester.
@gettingschooled my DD also may not take Calc 2 even though she got a 5 on the Calc AP test. Math was no fun at all, lots of hard work and too many late nights for her in this class, and jumping into a Calc 2 class her first semester in college would be a disaster (at some point her interest in math runs out). She’d rather retake Calc 1 in college, and actually get the chance to learn it thoroughly instead of cramming all year for an AP exam. She does not have to take more than 1 math class for her major or gen ed requirements.
Calculus 1 (or 2) in college will cover material at a faster pace than high school calculus AB, so it may feel more like “cramming”, unless her high school is one of those which piles on far more work than is necessary to learn the material (as discussed in another thread).
What math does she need to take for her major in college? If she needs calculus 2 or higher, she should try the college’s old calculus 1 final exams to see whether she is ready for calculus 2. If she does not need it, and is not interested in taking additional math out of interest, then she may want to consider other courses that may be useful (e.g. statistics, preferably calculus-based).
Agree with @mommdc Never assume your AP class = the first semester of the same subject in your college. It may leave you woefully underprepared.
Today many HS kids use APs as a means to show academic rigor alone, not just a means to reduce classes taken or move up levels. It depends on the kid and the school. Some kids need to wade into the pool and others can jump in over their heads.
At my older son’s college students take a math placement exam over the summer. Their reasoning is that if you can’t pass their assessment it really doesn’t matter what your AP score was. (His school does BC Calc as a one year course without doing AB first, so the pace was similar to college.)
And actually I sort of mistyped, he got out of nearly all of his Gen Ed requirements thanks to the AP credits.
It depends on whether the college is private or public. Public universities typically have more liberal policies on awarding AP/IB credit. As a result students can graduate early and many do. Private colleges tend to require higher AP scores and award credit for fewer courses. At private colleges double majoring or taking a higher level course is probably more typical
Some public schools are generous with the credit units, but stingy with the subject credit. Example at UCLA:
http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/APCreditLS.htm
Note that only in cases where a course number is listed is the AP score considered equivalent to a UCLA course, though sometimes unassigned AP credit may fulfill a low-level general education requirement (e.g. 3 on AP English fulfills the entry-level (remedial) writing requirement without the need for further placement testing).
@ucbalumnus She needs only one “quantitative reasoning course.” I agree that the course will be faster paced, but she’d have the advantage of already seeing all of the material.
An introductory statistics course, preferably with calculus*, will likely be much more useful for her in the long run, compared to repeating calculus.
*Calculus in introductory level statistics courses should be relatively light weight, but helps to understand things compared to learning statistics without calculus, so a general knowledge at the calculus 1 or high school AB level is typically ok. This should not be a junior level probability theory course for statistics majors.
Daughter had almost 50 AP credits. She used them to skip intro required classes and gen eds, take a lighter load per semester, double major and do a study abroad program. However, in my opinion the best thing with the AP credits is that it has allowed her to immerse herself in some RSOs. Her involvement in them has served to build skills that will serve her well in the future…not to mention network with classmates and faculty. She does not plan on graduating early.
Son had 50+ AP credits. He will do the same as our daughter. with the addition of a minor. He will be able to graduate in 4 yrs with enough hours to sit for the CPA exam…saving us one year’s worth of tuition, housing/etc while not losing a year of income.
APs are truly amazing for some students. For my children they contributed to their personal growth on many levels.
S1 did a variation of A and added a second major. He was still able to graduate in four years
@ucbalumnus she’s already taken AP statistics. She liked calculus much better.
She may want to see if some other course of interest beside repeating calculus could fulfill that requirement (often, courses in computer science, economics, or other subjects can count), or if her AP calculus or statistics credit can fulfill it.
D graduated a semester early. In addition, class registration at her school was done by number of credit hours so she was always able to get the classes she wanted.
S was able to place into higher level classes at his school.
D added a minor and now a second major (related to the first) and will still graduate in 4 years. She took Calculus 2 even though she had a 5 on the Calc BC. She did well but wished she had gone straight to Calc 3 as a couple her friends at the same school did. She did skip the intro class in her first major and most of the other AP credit went to fulfilling general education requirements.
S just completed his first semester. We advised him to use the flexibility afforded by his AP credits to explore. A lot of them will fulfill general education requirements and based on advice from an engineering dean, he went straight to Honors Calc 3. It was the right choice for him at that school. Since his engineering program is very structured and must start in the fall semester, he’s using open space in his schedule this year to take a couple classes in another area of engineering that may enable a minor. He will also have more hours available for upper-class electives and possibly a graduate class or two while still an undergraduate. He may also pursue an accelerated BS/MS since his scholarship will pay for a fifth year.
Happykid’s AP credits did her no good at the CC where she started (but oddly would have at the U she transferred to), however 70 minutes of a CLEP test got her 12 semester hours worth of foreign language credit at her CC which more than fulfilled an arts requirement for her AA degree, and meant that she arrived at her U with full credit for all required GEs.
I think CLEP is like a well kept a secret these days. When I bring it up, my kids smile and nod at me. The growth in AP has overshadowed it but I still see schools offering credit for them. AP exams are offered once a year but CLEP is available all year long.