I haven’t seen this covered yet so I’m asking - my son has/is taking several AP classes as well as being dual enrolled his senior year at University of Wisconsin. I went though the Purdue info (one of the schools he’s accepted at) and it appears he will enter with 31 credits. My question is - what is the best way to really get the most out of these AP classes in terms of both time and cost savings in colleges?
FYI - also accepted at Tulane (honors),University of MN (honors), waiting to hear from Notre Dame, Vanderbilt and Harvard.
You have to go through on a college by college basis what coursework each school will accept for credit, how the credit will count (ex. for a core course or an elective) etc. This information is often on the school website – if not your son might have to contact the Registrar. There is no short cut and no one answer fits every school.
In addition your son might want to consider if there are any courses he would prefer to re-take in college. For example my D’s AP chem teacher suggested that she re-take chem in college (since she was going to go well past chemistry 1 at her college) since she felt each school taught the subject with a somewhat different emphasis and she could be at a disadvantage if she didn’t take the full sequence at the college.
And at some colleges, your son’s advisor will STRONGLY encourage him to ignore his AP credit/dual enrollment status and start at the beginning. Particularly in “weed out” type classes- your son may know the “material” per se, but will find the emphasis on problem-solving (i.e. not the content or the formula- but applying it to real and complex situations) much, much harder than what he’s used to.
Unless your finances dictate that he can only afford 6 semesters at college, you may want to take it slow.
There are pros and cons of applying AP credits to colleges. The pros are saving money and shortening graduation time or having room for minor or double majors. But some AP classes taught in HS may not be rigorous enough to prepare students for advanced classes, especially in selective colleges.
If your son wants to save money then why he applied to OOS public colleges? I assume he is a WI resident.
Yes we are WI residents. We looked at several WI colleges but none felt right to him. He is not as worried about saving money as I am. My thought was if he could test out of the foreign language requirement (for example) that frees up time to take more classes relevant to his major (math), and yes maybe graduate in a little shorter time. The class he is taking at the UW is definitely a weed out class (Calculus and Analytical Geometry for 5 credits) and he’s getting an A.
However, it is a waste of time and tuition to repeat what one already knows well. Even if one is not trying to graduate early, having extra schedule space to take additional electives instead of repeating lower level courses is valuable.
If the student intends to go on to more advanced courses that the course that can be skipped (with AP or transfer credit) is a prerequisite, it would be a good idea for the student to try the college’s old final exam for the course that can be skipped, in order to check his/her knowledge against the college’s expectations. That can give a better idea of whether it is a good idea to skip to the more advanced course or retake the lower level course.
You want to save time and money apply to the best instate option that will take the most credits and he graduates the quickest at the lowest cost.
The opposite approach is to enroll at a highly selective private university where they will probably not take those credits or provide merit and unless you have significant need it will be a higher cost degree.
Pick a path and exploit your best choice.
There is not much difference among the followings: U of W Madison, Purdue U, U of M.
I once wished to go to UW.
Those credits will fall into three categories. Category 1 satisfies some core requirement for the degree. Category 2 is satisfies a requirement of the major of study. Category 3 is everything else, which ends up as electives. I guess there is a fourth category for credits they dont accept at all.
My son entered freshman year with 52 credits mostly from dual enroll. As @happy1 said, you want to go through the classes offered and pick ones that satisfy category 1 or 2 above. Electives are less of a problem with liberal arts degrees, but engineering or other “tight” science degrees leave little room for electives, so they may end up going to waste.
Also be aware that in some subjects schools get finicky. In foreign language, for example, colleges prefer to offer exception from examination so they may not take those classes.
Once your son gets to college he will likely have a tougher schedule than most, since those core classes are often easier than the major sequence. Consider keeping him at the minimum course load freshman semester. Counselors are taught to make kids take larger loads to graduate in 4, but he wont need to do that.
Overall I think these programs are great and give students a great start. The 4 year grad rate is much higher for dual enroll students.
UCB- of course. Not suggesting that the OP’s kid repeat a class… just that some kids assume that if they’ve scored a 5 they can “skip” Freshman Calculus which is not always the case. Yes, they can place out of the entry level class designed for kids who have never taken calculus. But they are still taking Freshman Calc, albeit a class taught to kids who already have taken a year of the material and are entering at a more sophisticated level.
There is a fifth category…AP scores and course accepted…but don’t apply towards major or degree requirements. Both of my kids had those…as well as dual credit courses from HS.
E.g. Kid took anatomy and physiology dual credit…so got college credit. BUT her school would not apply that course to her degree requirements.
Both had AP music theory scores of 5. For DS, his wasn’t able to be used because he was a music major and colleges do not apply AP credit for this required course for music majors (sorry @ucbalumnus but this was a case when the student was required to repeat info he already knew). Second kid had the AP 5 also, but it really didn’t fulfill any useful electives because she fulfilled her fine arts requirement by playing in the orchestra.
And then there are colleges that don’t accept AP at all anymore…Dartmouth, for example.
A decent number of college frosh with 5 on AP calculus BC go straight into multivariable calculus. This is normally considered a college sophomore level course.
WOW! 31 credits? So he is an incoming sophomore? That is fantastic that you saved a whole year of tuition.
Mass, you can’t assume that every college will consider the OP’s kid a sophomore. Every college will handle the credits differently.
@threebeans, what is your child’s preferred major?
@IlliniDad18 Math with an eye on going to medical school
@MassDaD68 on paper he could be considered a sophmore. Which is good for some colleges that let you register according to how many credits you already have.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~reg/enrollment/credit_on_entrance_exemption_charts.html indicates that Dartmouth accepts AP credit for subject credit and advanced placement.
Colleges that do not accept AP credit for any purpose would be those which do not have any direct equivalents. For example, Caltech and Harvey Mudd frosh level courses are more rigorous than those at other colleges. St. John’s College has a core curriculum that is the entire curriculum with no direct equivalent to any AP course.
@threebeans, the desire for medical school adds a wrinkle to the analyzing your options and I am sure others have more pertinent opinions on its consequence.
Your state flagship (UW) would most likely offer the best options for graduating in the fewest semesters. UW would probably also offer more options for transferring classes taken at a local community college (low cost) during summer after first year on campus. For my son, this was helpful in completing sequences required to enter some required 300+ level classes for an ECE degree. He will graduate in May from UIUC after three years on campus and only taking 12 to 14 hours per semester.
The other variable is that some smaller schools do not offer all classes in a sequence every semester, so a large university generally has more scheduling options.
You really need to do with a spreadsheet and figure out all the sequences necessary to get to the desired third and fourth year course options and each school might be slightly different. My opinion is that advisers will help answer specific questions, but will not be proactively helping you figure it out.
Be aware that some or many medical schools do not accept AP credit for some or all pre-med courses (they do vary somewhat). So the pre-med may have to either take more advanced courses in the subject (which he will automatically do for math as a math major) or repeat the introductory level courses that are commonly required by medical schools.