Options w AP credits at UMN?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Minnesota
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<p>Hi - My son is very interested in UMN-TC. One of the pluses for him is the U's generosity with AP credit awards. I assume there are many students who come to the U with a fair number of credits due to AP and PSEO so hopefully there are many people out there with experience and advice. My S will have quite a few credits if he does well on the AP tests he has yet to take (80+ cr).</p>

<p>Can students coming in with a lot of credits take graduate courses or do they usually graduate early? What are other options besides exploring classes outside your major and double majoring? While the extra credits will be nice for registration priority, he wants a full college experience - not too interested in rushing through. </p>

<p>I would love to hear what other students have done/are doing in similar circumstances.</p>

<p>Thanks for any advice or experience you are willing to share.</p>

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<p>Well, I came in with a lot of credits and I-</p>

<p>Wait, 80 CREDITS?! Wow.</p>

<p>Well, realistically, those 80 credits aren’t going to get him out of a lot of upper-division courses from his major (probably). Lib eds (general education) requirements will be taken care of though, like freshman writing, reading, social science, physical science, etc.</p>

<p>You’ve probably seen something like this but I’m talking about this stuff:</p>

<p>[Advanced</a> Placement Course Awards](<a href=“http://admissions.tc.umn.edu/academics/ap.html]Advanced”>Advanced Placement Course Awards - 2021 | Office of Admissions)</p>

<p>People that come in with a lot of credits tend to do one of the following:

  1. Graduate in four years and just enjoy themselves by not taking a lot of classes each semester giving them lots of time to work, volunteer, have fun and socialize, etc.
  2. Graduate really early; if you want the full college experience you probably don’t want this. Saves a lot of money/time, but I still personally wouldn’t recommend it
  3. Double or even triple major. I know a fair amount of people that are doing this. They brought in so many credits that all their general education requirements were done in addition to the lower division courses in their major. So, they pretty much started with upper division courses in their major. Upside of this is you get to major in multiple fields you’re interested in and still major in time. Downside? You’re going to be diving in to the deep end really quickly with some very intense courses. Try to ease into it if you go this route.</p>
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<p>Thanks ZettaSlow! I think it’s a positive to at least get the distribution reqs out of the way and the registration priority is definitely a plus. He had assumed that he would major in math (he has quite a few credits in math already), but now he is rethinking that so I guess he may need the extra slack to decide what he wants to major in. Seems like a waste but maybe he can use the math credits in another major or just finish it out and do a 2nd major. </p>

<p>You made a good point about not entering the deep so early. Good advice.</p>

<p>I can’t imagine triple majoring! That must leave no time to do anything else but study. Being unsure about major adds the additional monkeywrench of which college to apply to - I had assumed he would be applying to CSE but maybe now it will be CLA because it is more flexible. I’m admittedly amazed at the number of students on here who seem to know what they want to do when they are so young. I certainly wasn’t and I guess my S inherited that from me - wah!</p>

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<p>Over the past few years, I have noted that kids and parents on this site feel that it is better to apply to CSE or CBS and then transfer to CLA soph year if you change your mind. The reverse can be difficult.</p>

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<p>This is true at most schools – easier to transfer from the engineering to liberal arts versus liberal arts to engineering. There is usually a limit on the number of seats in the engineering school.</p>

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<p>Eh, most people I know don’t know what they want to do. And even if you do “know,” you might be wrong and change your mind. So don’t worry about uncertainty.</p>

<p>But I definitely want to point out this part of your reply:</p>

<p>“I had assumed he would be applying to CSE but maybe now it will be CLA because it is more flexible.”</p>

<p>DO NOT START IN CLA IF YOU’RE UNSURE!</p>

<p>If you have even the slightest idea you want something in CSE, start in CSE!
If you have even the slightest idea you want something in CSOM, start in CSOM!
etc.</p>

<p>It’s so, so, so much easier to start in another school and then transfer to CLA if you change your mind than the other way around. I started in CLA and then changed my mind later, putting a ton of stress on myself I could have easily avoided. Don’t let him make the same mistake I did!</p>

<p>You can still take the same classes early on, so it doesn’t really matter where you are.</p>

<p>Oh yeah, and the registration priority is going to be a huge help. That’s an amazing advantage to have.</p>

<p>Two useful sites when it comes to registration:</p>

<p>[Schedulizer[/url</a>]</p>

<p>This one lets you enter in your classes and then shows you every possible schedule you can have (mixing and matching all the different sections).</p>

<p>[url=&lt;a href=“http://www.ratemyprofessors.com%5DRate”&gt;http://www.ratemyprofessors.com]Rate</a> My Professors ? Find and rate your professor, campus and more ? RateMyProfessors.com](<a href=“http://www.schedulizer.com%5DSchedulizer%5B/url”>http://www.schedulizer.com)</p>

<p>Amazing website. Has ratings for professors put up by students. Can easily find you an amazing professor who will change your life (a professor I had with a 4.9 is one of the greatest people I’ve ever met) or help you avoid a terrible professor who will cause your GPA to plummet.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that, as with most things statistics, if there’s only a few reviews, take it all with a grain of salt. Ideally there will be numerous reviews.</p>

<p>For example, here’s the page of the guy I had who had a 4.9. Apparently, he actually has a 5.0 now. </p>

<p>[Robert Poch</a> - University of Minnesota - RateMyProfessors.com](<a href=“http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1294843]Robert Poch”>Robert Poch at University of Minnesota - Twin Cities | Rate My Professors)</p>

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<p>Wow! (and phew!) Thank you everyone for the heads up applying to CSE rather than CLA. I knew it was more difficult to get in CSE or CBS or CSOM than CLA, but I didn’t even think about the difficulty one may encounter in attempting to transfer. You saved us from a major error. </p>

<p>Do CSE students regularly take CLA classes even after freshman year? Or I guess another way to ask the question: is it easy to take CLA classes if one is in CSOM or CSE? Could a student have a major at CSE and a 2nd major at CLA? I’m hoping my S will want to finish his math major and then use his extra time to do another major (may end up being a major in CLA).</p>

<p>Robert Poch sounds wonderful! My S took APUSH and is taking AP World w/ the original intention of getting out of dist reqs, but he is finding himself actually interested in what he is learning. So good to know there is such a passionate wonderful history prof at the U. S is getting more and more confused about what he wants to major in as he takes these AP classes intending to get out of areas he had been dismissive of before taking the class. Econ is another one he ended up liking a lot. Before he seemed so math/science slanted. I guess this is the reason that I was originally thinking CLA may be the way to go…until you all gave me the heads up that is.</p>

<p>Thanks again for the great advice and also for the very helpful links.</p>

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<p>A double-major is certainly possible, but interest in a course does not mean a major in that subject will be worthwhile. What would be the objective?</p>

<p>Economics is an intensely mathematical discipline, and many successful econ PhDs have undergrad degrees in math.</p>

<p>If your son is considering graduate school in math, he may wish to use his extra time to take graduate courses and gain research experience.</p>

<p>Your son should consider contacting the Undergraduate Mathematics Office and setting up an appointment to learn more about the program (if you are not local, he can ask for an email contact):
[Undergraduate</a> Mathematics - math.umn.edu](<a href=“School of Mathematics | College of Science and Engineering”>School of Mathematics | College of Science and Engineering)</p>

<p>As an upperclassman, I strongly recommend meeting with people in the various departments to discuss different majors. Taking intro courses and hoping for an epiphany is a terrible way to pick a degree. He will learn more from talking to faculty or instructional staff. Also, if we are talking about majors and not just elective courses he needs to think about outcomes after graduation.</p>

<p>You might also want to post a more general inquiry here:
[Math/Computer</a> Science Majors - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/math-computer-science-majors/]Math/Computer”>Math/Computer Science Majors - College Confidential Forums)</p>

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<p>Good points all noimagination - thanks. But, I didn’t mean that he would hope for epiphany to lead him to major or I expected him to randomly take up history major etc. The history comment was more in response to the mention of the excellent history prof and having some wriggle room to try out some other classes thanks to the U’s generous AP credit policy. </p>

<p>My S is somewhat familiar w/ the UMN math dept and did a research project this summer. While the research was interesting and he really liked the prof, he utterly hates the formal write up process, so I can’t imagine him doing more than an undergrad math major. That’s why I asked the original question re CLA vs CSE for flexibility (thankfully posters on here saved us from that foolish notion). </p>

<p>Thanks for the good advice to talk to some of the depts and post in the math/Csci forum. He really likes what he’s seen of the U so far and would likely go there if he got into the honors program. Hopefully he will score well enough on upcoming tests to be in the running for that (?). </p>

<p>Thanks again!</p>

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<p>There are only 950 seats in CSE and 450 in CBS. There were about 10000 students that applied to CSE. So, apply early!</p>

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<p>The ACT average for CSE is very high (I believe 32) so if he is an excellent student, your S will be with many other high achieving students. My NMF engineering son was very surprised (and a little intimidated) at how “smart everyone was” when he started at UMN. Always an A student in high school with a 35 ACT, he has worked hard at UMN to get his As and Bs in his STEM courses. However, some friend’s kids in non-stem fields and in other UMN colleges felt that their freshman year was a breeze (one said easier than high school.) Just sharing with you that your S might have different experiences in whatever college and field he chooses.</p>