If I have 32 credits in terms of APs could I skip an entire year at Northeastern and gradate a year early? Does this mean I would only have to pay for three years?
You still need to take all the classes required for your major and fill distribution requirements. Some classes need to be taken in a particular sequence. So, it might take you less time to graduate and you would then pay less. But, I would ‘t count on two semesters worth of credit leading graduating a full two semesters early.
It would depend on what the AP credits are in and how they match the requirements of the program. Northeastern requires 4 or 5 to get credit.
Here is a chart of AP class equivalents, and only 4 or 5 is accepted. You may get credit for certain classes but you not get credits towards your degree to allow you to drop a whole year. https://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/AP-2019-2020.pdf
what do semester hours mean? Assuming that I get credit for the exams I take this year I would have 58 semester hours so how many credits would I get from that.
@kash123 Credit hours (aka semester hours) are just a way to measure classes. You need a set amount to graduate on top of fulfilling major requirements.
Northeastern limits you to taking in a max of 32 semester hours. 16 hours is typically a full semester, so theoretically, if you pick from your 58 hours perfectly and it fits your major, you could cut two semesters of classes. Likely this will be closer to 1-1.5 given major requirements and all.
Can you use AP credits for classes that aren’t required? For instance, if I had a credit for microeconomics and I wasn’t required to take it for my major, could I still use the credit to cut into the total number of credits I need? Also, for premed, how would it be different (since they usually have a certain number of semesters they want of certain subject like bio and chem)?
Additionally, would I be able to use my bio credits as a premed?
You can use any class as a “general electives” and the like which are part of basically every degree.
Generally it is not advised to use AP credit for classes critical to your major or career path so it would probably not be a good idea to use your bio credits if you plan on being premed.
Northeaster may accept the AP biology credits but medical schools may not.
I intend on doing pre-med as well and I have heard that most medical schools don’t like students using science ap credits. If we do we need to take a higher level class to complement the ap credit which may be hard during the first year. I am still deciding whether to use mine or not but I am leaning towards not using any of my science credits.
Yes, this is possible. About 1/3 of all courses required for a college degrees at most colleges are ‘general education’ courses, AKA “distribution requirements”, AKA “Core Curriculum” AKA - at Northeastern, they are called NU Path. Use the link above to see if your AP credits fit into the NU Path requirements.
Anecdotal - my son had 7 AP courses (all 5s) across a bunch of core subjects: Science, English, Psychology, Calc, Econ and was able to shave 2 semesters off, and will graduate in 3.5 years including 1 coop. NEU is very flexible with APs and have a lot of opportunities to take courses outside the normal on campus experience (see Dialogue of Civilization). Many kids use their APs to take other courses of interest or take on a minor or change their major, and stay the full 8 academic semesters plus 1-2 coops. Others with APs shave off 1 semester or do other things. Again, this is dependent on breadth of APs you have - don’t expect APs to cover any courses within your major.