<p>So I get that you need to take a certain amount of units each quarter in order to comply with MCP, but how does it work with AP credit prior to attendance? Do you still need to take the minimum amount of units per quarter? Does that mean i would graduate early if I have prior credit, rather than just taking less units per quarter and graduating normally?</p>
<p>I have a kid starting his senior year this Fall. He went in with 40 AP units that didn’t count towards MCP. His plan was to work and take 12-13 units per quarter, but he immediately fell under the MCP requirements. So he took a summer course to catch up. </p>
<p>Second year he had a bad quarter and fell under again. He again went to summer school, but didn’t catch up on the MCP. He saw an adviser and told the adviser that he is behind the MCP, but when he adds in the AP credits and stays above the MCP, he will be over the maximum allowable units. At that point the adviser told him that the MCP is in place to make sure students aren’t just coasting along with no progress and to ignore the MCP warnings since he is on pace to graduate within 4 years.</p>
<p>He was below the MCP throughout the 3rd year and is starting his 4th still below the MCP. He starts the year needing 28 units to graduate. </p>
<p>So he took two summer quarters trying to catch up on MCP, when in reality it wasn’t necessary at all. Their system is flawed and it cost us money for summer school. I don’t want to advise anyone to ignore the MCP warnings, but see an advisor if you have AP credits and are under your MCP.</p>
<p>Californiadreamn, I must say, your posts are always so helpful, especially for me, a mother of a freshman student at UCSB. In fact, the MCP is actually something that I thought about again lastnight. Thank you so much for the info. BTW, does the school let you know if you have fallen under the MCP? Do they send out a warning or is it just in their portal? Thanks in advance. And congrats on your upcoming graduate of UCSB.</p>
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The advisor should have been able to clear up his misconception.
</p>
<p>Summersun120,
As a parent, I never received any notifications. I’m not sure if the student gets a notification in an e-mail, but my students have shown me the portal where there is an MCP warning.</p>
<p>Mikemac,
This is a point I forgot about. Both my student and one of his room-mates were incorrectly told by advisors (3 years ago) that they didn’t have an answer for that “misconception”. I found that statement you posted several months later. The problem I still have with the MCP, is that a student should be able to graduate in 4 years by using the AP units to take a smaller quarter load (like 12-13 units). This would allow them to either work part-time or get more involved in the college extra-curriculars. But instead they are told to take more units, and end up graduating with 30-40 extra units because they followed the MCP requirments.</p>
My son just reviewed his 2nd quarter results and found that he is -2 units in red for MCP. He is freshman and he was told min units required are 12, now it turns out there is such thing as MCP policy that actually requires 15 units. And he just discovered it during the spring break, when he is already out of compliance for Winter q, and all the classes already full for Spring q. So, potentially he either has to register to some lame class in attempt to remedy situation, or find himself out of compliance for 2 quarters in a row, which leads to MCP Probation, and 4 quarters in a row leads to dismissal.
He essentially got blindsided, because no one clearly articulated this policy. And he has over 50 AP credits.
But according to MCP policy AP credits are excluded from MCP calculation by design, so no excuses given for that.
I have a feeling a lot of students will get that surprise, and it is a way to push them to Summer q.
Here is the article I found that talks about when, how and why this policy was first introduced.
http://www.independent.com/news/2008/may/29/ucsb-increases-minimum-average-credits-quarter/