Most colleges offer some credits or advancement placement for scoring a 4 or 5 in AP exams. This can lead to saving in college on tuition fees. But just how much can this saving amount to? Is it a significant saving?
If you graduate in 3 years, it’s one whole year of tuition/room and board/books savings.
My younger son got credit for 5 AP and allowed him to opt out of those classes, so he could graduate 1 semester earlier which would save about $3500 in tuition. He is probably going to do a minor, so he will end up staying all 4 years. Older son got credit for 4 AP classes, but they did not significantly reduce his time in college, so no real savings there. It will depend if you just get credit or if will you be allowed to also opt out of the classes also.
All of my children’s universities have had the Costco price effect: 12 units=full time=1 price.
AP credits have served all of my 3 kids, at all of their 3 very different universities, as electives.
It really depends on what you decide to do with the extra credits. I came into college with 16 credits (a semester’s worth) of AP courses, and placed out of some other general education requirements like math and English (which you then have to replace with random electives). But instead of graduating early, I decided to take that extra time granted and study abroad. My study abroad classes counted as those random electives I needed to graduate, but placing out of classes meant that I had plenty of time to take my major courses. I was also on a full merit scholarship, so I wasn’t trying to save any money. I also messed up a little one semester so the extra credits gave me some cushion to retake those classes and still graduate on time.
If you get a semester’s worth of AP credit and are in a major that typically takes four years at a school that has no impacted classes, and you don’t mess up, then you could save a semester’s worth of tuition - which could be anywhere from $3000 to $20,000 depending on what kind of college you attend. But the extra AP credits could be an opportunity to study abroad even if you are in a major in which it is difficult to take credits abroad, or a cushion in case you need to retake some classes, or an opportunity for you to reduce a 5-year program to a 4.5 or 4-year program.
It depends on the school, your major, which AP’s, and whether you change majors (or can/can’t settle on one or not).
It could save you a semester or a year of costs (or even 1.5 years; kids have graduated—from UIUC Engineering, no less–in 2.5 years because they came in with a ton of AP credits). However, other kids couldn’t fit their classes in in the right sequence, so needed 4 years to graduate anyway.
So it all depends. You should research AP credits and graduation requirements at schools you are looking at, though.
Yes, for our family it looks like it will be a significant savings. When our son was in high school taking all those AP courses I did not really understand the value. Now that he seems to be planning to graduate a semester early the savings are measurable.
Do AP credits ever apply toward university honors program/college credits? I suspect the $ paid toward AP will not amount to savings in a university setting due to honors requirements when a student chooses that route.
It looks like it could be about a year for my kid for chem engineering. We are doing the math of the two most likely
schools. He only has one freshman mandatory class req that is 1 credit (intro to eng or something) at Uminn. He can add up at least 30 credits assuming the grades work out.
It depends on where you go. Son will graduate high school with an AA degree, based on AP and dual enrollment classes. He’s going in-state honors and all 60 credits will transfer. If he were to go OOS, there’s no telling what would transfer.
As noted above, it isn’t just graduating earlier, if you can get out of some the prereqs there’s more room in your schedule to explore electives.
@Palomina, every school and program is different, so I would check the requirements rather than assume anything.
Also, I doubt that the honors requirements will fill all the non-major spaces, so AP credits may still save you money.