<p>My son’s high school didn’t want to be locked into a rigid AP curriculum, so it offered many “advanced” classes without the AP designation. Clearly, he won’t be able to get AP credit for the non-AP classes, and that’s okay, but he does want to be able to register for the upper level classes for which he feels he’s prepared.</p>
<p>How should he proceed? Just wait until orientation and speak with his advisor about it then? Or reach out to the prof’s ahead of time to see about getting permission to skip the prerequisites for certain upper-level classes?</p>
<p>Certain subjects have CLEP tests and the foreign language departments have placement tests. Either of these possibilities would offer a means of obtaining not only credit, but placement in more advanced classes. Otherwise, if the subject isn’t available by CLEP or departmental placement, the best hope is probably to meet with the department head for an override. (The advisors at Bama Bound might not be able to provide the necessary overrides since this sort of decision is likely to be a departmental decision). For students who may run into this problem in the future, it is possible to take AP tests even if you haven’t had an official AP class. My oldest son’s school, much like your sons school, doesn’t offer any AP classes for similar reasons, but offers the AP tests to students nonetheless so that they have a means of establishing that their course was of college level rigor. (Students can also take AP tests at other schools if their own school doesn’t offer the tests.) </p>
<p>Second the CLEP tests. UA shows what they offer for CLEP in their AP/CLEP Policy.</p>
<p>Link for easy search: </p>
<p><a href=“Page Not Found | The University of Alabama”>Page Not Found | The University of Alabama;
<p>You underestimate me . . . I already have the AP/CLEP listings bookmarked! :D</p>
<p>But there are far more subjects than there are CLEP tests (although they’re quite useful for the basics), so I guess the solution, as @paying4collegex4 suggested, is to contact to the department head.</p>
<p>I’d like to weigh in on this, but need more info. What classes specifically does he want to move up/on to? What courses (advanced level) has he taken in HS? </p>
<p>Honestly, it may be better to take the intro classes. For the class after the into, the school expects you to know everything from THEIR version of the intro class. They build on each other.</p>
<p>^ kinda what I was going to weigh in with…
Esp in engineering, unless you are solid with your foundation in math and physics (and by ‘solid’, that would mean a 5 and poss 4 on AP exam tests, which presumably test what you should know for these college-level courses), I would not appeal to move on and skip these prereqs. I’m not sure there is any other objective way you can prove that you have these fundamentals. AP exams are only given on certain dates during the school year, and you need to register for these in advance. Yes, you might be able to take these at another school location, but that is not viable in OP’s case at this late stage. If OP wants son to take CLEP, the only applicable eng’g-related courses that might be able to be tested out of are MATH125 and CH101&CH102.<br>
This is why I was asking which courses OP wants to skip ahead in…if we know that, we can give better advice on this subject.</p>
<p>I found this on the English website at UA. Hope it helps.</p>
<p>EN 103 Advanced English Composition. 3 hours.</p>
<p>This is an accelerated freshman composition course that is open to students with minimum composite scores of 28 ACT or 1240 SAT, or minimum ACT English scores of 30 or SAT verbal scores of 720. With the appropriate qualifying scores and the completion of EN 103 with a grade of “C-“ or higher, placement credit is awarded for EN 101 and the general education requirement for freshman composition is completed. Expository writing. Topics to be determined by each instructor. Grades are reported as “A,” “B,” “C,” or “NC” (“No Credit”). A grade of “C-” is required as a prerequisite for advancing to another English course at The University of Alabama. EN 103 does not apply as credit to the English major or minor.</p>
<p>EN 104 Blount Freshman English. 3 hours.
Prerequisite: Admission to the Blount Undergraduate Initiative.</p>
<p>College-level expository writing, critical reading, and library research. Grades are reported as “A,” “B,” “C,” or “NC” (“No Credit”). This course substitutes for either EN 103 Advanced Composition or EN 101 Freshman Composition I. Students who qualify for EN 103 (a score of 28 or higher on the ACT or 1240 on the SAT) are awarded an additional 3 hours of composition credit with a grade of “pass” upon successful completion of EN 104. Other students receive the same credit if they earn a grade of “A-” or higher. Students who earn a grade lower than “A-” are required to take three additional hours of freshman composition, generally EN 102. Students who have credit for EN 101 and EN 102 either from another institution or through AP or IB placement do not take EN 104. EN 104 does not apply as credit to the English major or minor.</p>
<p>Sorry, would rather not go into specifics. I was really just wondering if anyone had found themselves in a similar situation and, if so, how they had resolved it.</p>
<p>And, @albclemom, you’re quite right, English is one subject for which AP credit is not needed! (Thank goodness for small favors! 
)</p>
<p>I just wanted to add one more thing, if I may. I know your son is not looking for credit by moving ahead, but instead just wants permission to enroll in a higher level class and skip the intros/pre-reqs. Depending on the class and the major, it is quite possible to kind of run out of classes, if you know what I mean? I’ll give you an example from HS: some parents talk w/ the department chair and get permission to enroll their very bright student in an advanced level class, let’s say Pre-Calc and/or Honors Chemistry as a HS Freshman…and the student can handle the work - that is not the point…but after a year or two, they find that there are no more classes to take in the math/science sequence, yet the HS (and often college) req is to take 4 years of math and 4 years of science. There are ways around this, of course - the HS student then enrolls in the local JC or does a university course online as a distance learner…and in college, this would the case where the student needs to take a Graduate level course, because he has run out of undergrad courses in his major. Just cautioning you, is all. Respectfully, make sure that you look well down-stream before asking permission to jump/skip ahead. Ignore this post if it is not applicable to your situation - my points might be valid to others who are reading, tho.</p>
<p>@aeromom - Oh, goodness no! Not trying to jump that far ahead.</p>
<p>I know this won’t help the OP, but for others reading this that are earlier in the process, you may take an AP test without having taken the official AP course. You may make arrangements with the College Board to take the test at a school that offers it. </p>
<p>Good point, @Vicarious1. The thing is, if your student hasn’t taken the AP version of a course, it may require some heavy prepping before taking the AP test, which a lot of kids just aren’t up for when they’re already very busy in their junior and senior years. My son (who took two years of Adv. Calculus in high school) had ZERO interest in studying for APs. Heck, I couldn’t even get him to prep for the SAT! </p>
<p>My understanding is that most kids taking the AP tests are doing so right after completing the class, so additional prep is unnecessary. Unless the student is motivated to try to place out of some of these introductory college courses, it’s a tough sell come spring for kids who are already overwhelmed with a lot of schoolwork and ECs at rigorous college prep schools where APs aren’t offered.</p>
<p>Assuming there are openings, it looks like my son can at least take EN 103 just based on his SAT scores if he wants to. So that’s something!</p>
<p>It definitely would be difficult. But if one is so motivated to skip the intro course, this would be the way to do it.</p>
<p>UA tends to want verification that a student has mastered the material taught in an introductory course. The Mathematics and Physics departments are the most well known for rapidly accelerating talented students; there are some first semester freshmen taking 400-level math courses.</p>
<p>Has your son looked into DSST (formerly DANTES) exams? They’re a lot like CLEP exams, but cover a wider range of topics. UA grants credit for these exams, but does not list required scores and UA course equivalents in the course catalog. Exams cost $80 plus a possible test administration fee as determined by the testing center.</p>
<p>Wow, @SEA_tide, aren’t you a wealth of information! I’ve never even heard of DSST (or DANTES) tests. I’ll go take a look . . .</p>
<p>I have a story and a question.</p>
<p>My D took AP Lit and AP Lang. The course catalog gives the following credits: EN 101, EN 102 & TRGS HU.</p>
<p>My D would like to ask if the “powers that be” would consider conferring Lit credit instead of the generic TRGS HU( a humanities credit). Other colleges give Lit credit in this situation.</p>
<p>Who would she contact? </p>
<p><a href=“http://courseleaf.ua.edu/”>http://courseleaf.ua.edu/</a></p>
<p>A lot of students are in a similar situation. Course equivalents for AP exams are standardized for all UA students and UA will not confer a Literature credit for the AP English exams. Up until a couple years ago, there was no TRGS HU credit should one take both AP English exams. This decision was made by the Department of English in collaboration with the Registrar’s Office and the various academic colleges.</p>
<p>Thanks, Sea_Tide! </p>
<p>Using myself as an example:</p>
<p>I have a fair amount of AP Credit, some college credit, and could take additional CLEP/acronym tests. </p>
<p>I’m not going to use much, if any of it. I talked to the Dean of the Honors College and his advice was to take the intro classes, especially being an OOS.</p>
<p>Best case scenario: Easy A
Worst case scenario: It’s a good review </p>