My kids’ private colleges were like H: all or nothing. They stayed used AP credits to fulfill some GE requirements, stayed four years and added a double major, honors thesis.
A modest 19 AP credits are giving my son room to pursue a language minor and spend next year abroad. He will be able to graduate in 4 years. He could instead graduate a term early if he chose that instead of the language/study abroad. His tuition+ scholarship allows him the opportunity to choose. It makes a difference that all the AP credits count in his degree plan - 16 fulfill major requirements, and the remaining 3 a university requirement. If all were just elective credit, the impact would have been minimal. Either way, the 6 high school credits earned as AP were worth it.
My oldest got almost a full year of credits at Case Western. Since he was a double major he was able to graduate in 7 semesters with a double major. He got credits in his major (calculus) and outiside his major (multiple histories and sciences). He had higher class standing throughout his years in college so had priority for registration.
My middle son got fewer credits at Belmont University. His major is proscribed over 4 years so he won’t be able to graduate early but he was able to opt out of less interesting gen eds and take electives that were more interesting to him.
And some people are full-pay or close to it yet do not have millions.
@scoutsmom: It was possible to graduate a year early at Yale all the way back in 2009 (though few did it):
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2009/11/11/race-to-the-real-world/
Are there a decent number of schools with all-or-nothing AP policies like H?
Curious which they are.
True, but one would hope that if a FP family was only willing/preferred to pay for 3 years, then that would be a conversation they would have with the kid in advance. But as you and I pointed out, few students at HY choose to graduate early, which looking back, is what you originally asked.
- Definitely.
- No doubt.
Wanting to know why it is such a small number was part of the reason why I asked in the first place.
BTW, I consider picking up a degree+Masters in 4 years to still be graduating in 3 years.
My daughter earned about 54 credits through AP, CLEP and CC courses. She didn’t use them to graduate early (she didn’t want to and she had a full tuition scholarship, so there was no financial reason to rush), but she was able to complete a triple major, a minor and a couple specializations, as well as skip some Gen Ed courses that held no appeal for her.
At some school like UMich, the game rule is very tricky. First, you need to be very picky on which AP credit to transfer. It is not just the total number of credits that matter but whether they will give you better placement and skip some pre-req course or fulfill certain graduation requirement. Second, you don’t want to have extra credits as that would likely make you to pay upperclassmen tuition earlier without necessarily accelerating your graduation. Third, the course sequence will still limit how much faster you may go with those AP credits.
My D got 33 AP credits and 5 summer course credit and most of them are useful credits to allowed her to skip 5 pre-req course and most electives/GS credits, that are more than a whole year of workload. Nevertheless, she will still need a total of 3.5 years to graduate with her major. Even with additional AP credits from 2 other useful courses would not further accelerate her graduation but cost her $2000 more.
IMO, it gets back to my earlier comment - what’s the rush? The kid is going to be spending the next 40+ years in some combination of further education/workforce. Why not take advantage of the full 4 years? As others have noted, the AP credits can then allow the students to explore an additional subject in depth and/or study a broader selection of subjects. Additionally, there’s the social aspect/networking aspect at play.
@skieurope, if you are willing to provide the extra $70K each (actually, it will likely be more like $150K by the time my kids go to college) for a 4th year, then most certainly, I heartily endorse the idea of a 4th year. In fact, if you’re willing to subsidize even more years of schooling, I’d strongly advise them to take you up on your generous offer.
D has a substantial scholarship and we’ve been planning and preparing for college for a long time, so there was no need to pressure her to graduate early. She went in undecided, and had some catching up to do once she found her major going in to sophomore year. Her 27 AP credits are allowing her to double major, minor, and study abroad.
If the financial situation were different, we would have taken a different approach, but 4 years was what we budgeted for, and she is making the most of those 4 years, so for us this was the right decision. I only wish I had such opportunities when I was in college.
Some schools require attendance for four years regardless of the # of AP credits. Some schools allow AP credits only for electives and a limited #, not for majors. It really depends on the school policy, the major, as well as the AP score.
Sometimes it allows you to place at the next higher level of a core requirement but that is not necessarily such a good thing in the long run.
Our oldest ds was able to graduate with his chemE degree in 4 yrs which included 12 full months of co-oping. He took 6 full semesters and a couple of summer classes 1 summer semester.
Our other ds will graduate with a double and a masters in 4 yrs. He could have graduated in 2 yrs with a single major.
@bookmama22, heh. I’m familiar with a school that useto_ require 4 years worth of tuition money regardless.
Definitely curious to hear which schools currently have that 4 year attendance policy, however.
My D also got pretty good scholarships and a grant that pretty much cover the full tuition. So she is not even interested in graduating one semester early. She rather takes less credit each semester and add a minor and enjoy the full 4 years of college life.
Perhaps because few students and parents choose an expensive college where graduating in fewer than 8 semesters is required to be (barely) affordable? (Although there are probably many students who can barely afford the local state university, so they would benefit from shaving a semester off. But these students are less likely to be the ones on these forums – and those with lots of AP credit would be more likely to be able to get large scholarships or admission to schools with good financial aid to relieve the financial pressure that way.)
Presumably, you mean schools that cost the student/parents money to attend, as opposed to schools like the military service academies?
@ucbalumnus, right.