My DS is enrolled in multivariable calculus. He has the option of getting credit at George Mason for the course (in addition to high school credit), but that costs just over $500, so not free.
If he goes to a private school he will not receive credit because he already maxed out on the few credits private schools give based on AP exams.
My question: suppose he is at a private school and he majors in a field that requires multivariable. Will universities generally ask him to retake the class if he doesn’t have college credit for it? If he does have the college credit (i.e. we pay for the credit at GMU), will private schools generally waive the requirement even if they do not give him credit?
Interested to hear experiences to see if it’s worth getting the credit at GMU, or whether it’s pointless for schools that don’t transfer or accept the credit.
Is the multivariable calc class a dual enrollment class? If it’s a high school class, it’s probably advisable to retake it if he’s majoring in something that requires it. I’m taking the one offered by my high school, and it pales in comparison (in terms of depth/difficulty) to an undergraduate-level class.
But I think many schools will give placement exams that allow you to skip multivariable if you understand the material.
It’s really hard to say without knowing the destination school.
My daughter’s college picked out the credits it wanted her to have from the advanced credit she completed. It may be that the multivariable calc credit would be accepted in place of intro calculus if he’s not allowed to get credits for both. (In her case, she got credit for French III but not I and II.)
You have to look up each college’s transfer credit policies to see if they will consider it for subject credit, whether or not they accept it for credit units. You may have to ask the college directly.
It depends upon the college. At many colleges, MVC courses cover more breadth and depth than an MVC class offered at a community college or through DE.
Additionally, again depends upon the college, but even if he does get credit for MVC, it is possible that it will not reduce the number of credits required for the major.
I agree that it depends on the college. However, you may not even know how that will play out until after enrollment. My DD took multi-variable as a senior at her high school. Despite the rigor of the course, her high school teacher generally recommends student repeat the class in college. She registered for multi-variable (highest course offered to a first year) and took the required placement exams. A math professor then contacted her personally after reviewing her transcript, exams, etc to offer moving her up to differential equations. They discussed what her high school course covered/did not cover relative to the college course and then determined moving her up was the best option (she is one of only two freshmen in differential equations). She will still have to take a multi-variable test at the end of the semester in order to get the credit for multi-variable, and she has to teach herself a couple concepts missed. We were concerned at first but then trusted that the math professor at the college could determine if she was truly ready or not to move up. So far, so good. I really think it varies from school to school as to whether making that move is a good option or even an option at all.
He can ask for a math placement exam at his college/university and the department will decide whether he needs to retake MVC - that is not an issue.
Does he have any college credits already from GMU? If he hasn’t, and takes the class for college credit, for the rest of his life whenever he needs to send all of his college transcripts, he will have to order an official transcript for this one class from GMU. The headache of dealing with that alone may be enough reason to not take the college credit.
Is GMU on his college application list? Then taking MVC for credit there makes sense. It would be one less course to worry about there.
What have his math grades been like? Is he likely to get at least a B in MVC? That grade would be a permanent part of his college-level academic record.
You say that he is already maxed out on likely credits for AP exams. If those are all acceptable for credit, and the MVC course is also considered transferrable, he will most likely be given several options for choosing what to apply toward his degree program as college credits, and which to just use for advanced placement into higher level courses or for no college credit but waivers for other requirements. As noted above, how this works depends on the college/university attended. Each of them sets their own policy.
My son took multivariable in high school as a dual enrollment and is going to a private college. The math department held off allowing the credits until he came this fall and went through the syllabus with them. He ended up getting full credit. We are in Wisconsin and UW-Madison allows credit for the same class so he did come armed with how they would have allowed college credit.
My DD took a HS Project Lead the Way course where she could get credit…it was only $200 and she ended up using the credits with her IB credits to graduate early (this was a Public State U)