I’ve been helping my daughter (incoming Freshman in the fall) play with Degree Works and departmental flowcharts, looking at various majors, course options, AP credits, etc. I’ve stumbled on to a surprise in Computer Science.
Dd is taking AP Comp Sci this year, and the AP credit guidelines http://www.ua.edu/catalogs/catalog10/500401.html list three courses that she’d get credit for. (Current course is the “A” course.) – CS 150, 160, and 250 (5 credits total)
However, just today, I noticed that the degree works has updated to include the brand spanking new CS foundation series: 100, 101, 200, 201. The old course numbers appear to be defunct, as they are not used in the various degree flowcharts for the majors we were looking at today (Electrical Eng with Comp. Eng option . . . and Comp. Sci major with Software Eng concentration).
So, I’m wondering . . . Will the AP exam exempt her from any of those (new) courses? None? Give her elective or departmental credit, but no courses?
What’s the easiest way to find this out now?
(I’m a data person . . . and I like to plan . . . It’s really not a huge big deal either way, as dd will have plenty of credits and plenty of time to take classes . . . But, neither of us is a big fan of repeating material in general, so if the (excellent) AP class she is taking now covers it and exempts her from a class, she’ll be generally inclined to move on to the next level. So, I just want to know what the new policy will be. I’m sure someone knows!)
Thanks for any tips on how to get this question answered!
You’re also looking at the 2010 catalog. There will be a 2015-2016 catalog, though the 2014-2015 is the most current one available online. UA will update the new catalog to reflect the changes, though note that the AP credit may give credit for classes which have different numbers than courses being taught at UA, but are equivalent. For example, many schools teach introductory accounting as a yearlong course. UA teaches it during a single semester. Students transferring credit get credit for AC 201 and AC 202, which together are considered equivalent to AC 210 which is taught at UA.
Have your daughter email the department and ask. They or the registrar’s office should have an idea of what changes are going to be made for those who took the AP exam.
@mmom99 This is a really good question. This new track is brand new this semester and I guess they haven’t gotten around to posting all the pertinent info. Unfortunately I don’t know the answer to your question, but my daughter is a TA for this class, so if you don’t get an answer right away or if you would like further info on what the class covers in order to compare it to the AP credit your daughter will be receiving, let me know and I can check with my daughter. She didn’t believe in taking classes that she already had AP credit for either, so skipped Calc 1, etc. Her school didn’t offer AP CS, so that wasn’t a decision she had to make. Let me know if you have any specific questions and I’ll be happy to pass them along to my daughter for some first-hand experience answers
Anyone able to get this query answered? I’d really appreciate any help. My daughter and I have sent queries to the CS Dept as well as a CS professor (both weeks ago), and we haven’t heard anything. I’d rather not get a reputation as a nag over something so simple, but I’d really like to know the answer to this, as it will impact my daughter’s schedule quite a bit. Thanks much to anyone who can try to track down an answer!
FYI, I already heard back from Dr. Cordes, and he tells me that the AP Credit will be given for CS100, the first (3 credit) course in the new sequence. He didn’t mention what score will be needed to get credit (It was a 4 under the old rules for the old classes), but I did write back and inquire if he knew what score will be needed. At least we now know what class to register for (101) assuming a good AP score. Thanks for the name @mom2collegekids!!
I know this doesn’t actually answer your question but as a student who took CS 150 I can tell you the reason for this confusion is that they are overhauling the CS program entirely and renaming/replacing many old classes. They will probably have more complete information by the fall.
Thanks, all! I heard back (again, so promptly, on a Saturday!) that the qualifying score will remain a 4.
So, kids taking the AP exam this spring (and presumably in subsequent years) need a score of 4 or 5 to get credit, and would get 4 credits – for CS100, the first course in the new 4-course sequence.
(I was mistaken above when I said it is a 3 credit course. It is a 4 credit course. That was my error, not Dr. Cordes’s, as he didn’t mention the number of credits, just said she’s get credit for CS100.)
ps., FWIW, to any other families with entering Freshmen coming out of AP Comp Sci and planning on skipping CS100. My daughter has been in communication with a (wonderful) CS professor at UA, and he advised her to learn “C” programming over the summer, since the new CS foundation is using C (instead of Java, which is used in AP Comp Sci) as the first programming language. We haven’t yet been told which variant of C is being used, so I’ll leave that to others to figure out (post here if you do learn any more details), but, for now, my daughter is planning on learning C over the summer using various online resources and/or a book.
