Hey guys. My friend visited Notre Dame in the winter and went to an information session. He was told that Notre Dame was no longer awarding any course credits for AP tests starting with the high school graduating class of 2018 (which is my class). I looked on their website and couldn’t find any information on this. Does anyone know definitively if this is true? I think it probably is, as an information session seems to be a pretty reliable source lol. However, you’d think they’d have put something on their website to let potential students know. If this is the case, does anyone know if there are placement exams instead? For example, since I took BC calculus in high school, can I take a test to get out of introductory calculus? Thanks for your time.
Basicaly, the AP changes prevent you from fulfilling university requirments with AP
(ie right now with a 5 in BC you don’t need to take any math). You can still get out of the classes (ie with a 5 you could get credit for and placement out of calc 1 and 2) but you still would need to take two other math courses. You can read about all the changes here. https://irishrover.net/2016/09/core-curriculum-review-committee-releases-final-report/
@ilhistorygeek thanks so much, that’s exactly what I was looking for.
As @ilhistorygeek said, you won’t be able to use AP credits to satisfy University Requirements. However, they have said that you could possibly use AP credits to satisfy requirements of individual majors. It will be up to each department to determine if they will accept AP credits for majors within their department. I don’t believe that there has been any announcements related to what departments will be accepting AP credits.
@GraceDad ok, thanks for the clarification.
Is it still advisable to load up with AP’s to be competitive with the admissions process? My daughter is planning on taking 4 AP for her senior year and just took 4 AP s for junior year. I would love to see her not have so many senior year but she is afraid she won’t have a chance of getting in without them. Any thoughts on this?
@greentravel I’m just a high schooler, but I feel that I can answer this pretty well. Yes, it is advisable to take 4 AP classes. In fact, it is advisable to take more than that if the school offers it and your daughter can maintain A’s. Notre Dame, as well as every other school with a similar level of selectivity, expects students to take the absolute most rigorous schedule offered by the school (within reason of course… I’m not saying take seven or anything like that). 4 AP’s really isn’t extreme at all. In Notre Dame’s applicant pool, I would say that about half if not more of students have that many (or the IB or non-AP equivalent at their high school). In other words, many if not most people wanting to go to ND caliber schools are taking the most difficult classes they possibly can. 4 AP classes probably puts the rigor of you daughter’s schedule at about the average for a student who applies. So yes, if she wants to go to ND and she can get A’s, she should absolutely take 4 APs or more.
@callogan44 nailed it. Taking AP’s will still be advisable as academic rigor is one of the most heavily weighted factors in the admissions process.
Just curious what everyone’s thoughts are in relation to the AP credit issue.
Do you think it will have any significant impact on the decision making process of students considering Notre Dame?
Especially curious to hear thoughts from current juniors considering Notre Dame.
My daughter chose not to get caught up in taking as many AP’s as possible. She took AP’s that interested her.
She just graduated with 5 AP’s and is heading to ND in the Fall. Another student in her school, also heading to ND graduated with 10 AP’s.
For me, I don’t think the AP credit issue will make any difference. The main thing I care about is being placed in the appropriate classes (for example, not being forced to retake Calculus 1 if I get a 5 on BC). As long as AP exams can still be used for placement, I will have no problem, especially considering that a considerable number of colleges either only allow limited AP credit or don’t accept it at all. I’m fine with meeting the core requirements. It seems to me that they are the whole reason why you go to ND undergrad: to get a balanced, liberal education, and be around other students who are doing the same thing.