<p>My daughter is a senior and wants to take some dual credit courses along with 1 AP course. She would take this course at a large, state university in our town.</p>
<p>I am wondering for financial purposes, do colleges like Duke or Vanderbilt give credit for AP courses and the university courses? I'm just wondering if these courses save any money in planning for college expenses. I know that if my daughter went to a major state university, she WOULD get credit and probably graduate in 3 years thus a big financial savings including the lower cost of tuition.</p>
<p>Most of the more selective schools only grant AP credit for scores of 4 or 5 on the AP tests, if that. Many are moving toward just using those for placement. Dual credit classes are hit or miss at selective schools as well. Some take the credits, some do not.</p>
<p>As for graduating in 3 years at your major university, I wouldn’t count on that even. Having the credits often gives them a leg up on class registration, however, it is often very difficult to get all the classes you want in the proper sequence at major universities so while she probably won’t have to go 5 years, she still may need to go 4 years or take summer school classes.</p>
<p>When researching this for my D, I found pretty much no colleges that would accept dual enrollment courses for credit. If they are part of the high school curriculum or transcript, they don’t count for college credit except at the institution giving the course. There may be some colleges that do accept them for credit, but I didn’t find any. However, for admission, they do show rigor and academic seriousness. As far as AP credit, it can vary even by department within the same university. Some departments will accept them based on a score, some will count them as core requirements but not for the major, and some won’t accept them at all because they want all their majors on the same page with regard to foundational courses.</p>
<p>State universities are typically much more likely to give credit.</p>
<p>You mention Duke and Vanderbilt, which suggests to me that your daughter lives in the Southeast and is a very good student. Would she be interested in the University of Virginia or the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill? I have not checked, but I suspect that their policy on acceptance of AP or dual enrollment credits is more generous than that of private schools. Both are top-notch universities and difficult to get into from out of state, but a student who would be a realistic candidate for Duke would also be a realistic candidate for out-of-state admission to UVA or UNC.</p>
<p>Public universities are usually more generous with credit units for both AP credit and college credit in high school, since getting students to graduate faster by whatever means is a way of reducing the in-state tuition subsidy for the majority of their students. Private universities tend to be less generous, although AP credit and college credit in high school may be used for placement into more advanced courses.</p>
<p>Check each school’s web site for AP and transfer credit policies.</p>
<p>As far as graduating in fewer than 8 semesters goes, it does also depend on the length of the prerequisite sequence needed for the major. If a major has a 7 course prerequisite sequence, then it will take no fewer than 7 semesters to graduate unless the first course or two can be skipped with AP or transfer credit, or the student takes some of the courses during summer sessions and the following courses are available every semester.</p>
<p>My older son went to a college with a very generous AP credit policy, but he said that in his major (computer science) it was still impossible to graduate more quickly than four years because of the sequence of courses he needed to take.</p>
<p>Same as above, daughter who is going to a state university received 19 credits for AP work (providing relief for a couple of core courses, Calc I and elective credits), but nothing for the science courses related to her area of study Chem/premed (essentially has to start from the beginning). She will need 8 semesters to complete her Chem degree/and pre-med track. The AP credits do mean she can take a lighter load some semesters…and hopefully have more time to study. For her, it was worth the $$ for the AP tests.</p>
<p>We found many privates set limits on how many AP credits could be awarded (I seem to recall many of the top LACS set limits equivalent to one semester’s worth of work and they were all choosy about which ones/scores they would take). </p>
<p>In the end, admissions wants the to see high schoolers challenge themselves, so dual credit and AP courses are the way to go (and AP scores are weighted higher in GPAs at some high schools which helps with class rank). All of this could help with merit awards…a sure way to keep costs down.</p>
<p>Smaller schools may have another problem when it comes to attempting to graduate early – many upper division courses may be offered only once every two years. A student at such a school may need to plan at least four semesters after becoming ready to take all of the required or desired upper division courses. And if the courses in question are sequenced, even being a semester ahead may not help if the first course in the sequence is not offered the semester the student is ready to take it.</p>
<p>Depending on the college and the program, AP credit may also open up the opportunity to take some grad level courses as an undergrad, or to move more quickly into a 5 year bachelors/masters program.</p>
<h2>In PA., most selective private colleges will not give college credit for dual enrollment classes taken inside a high school. Public in-state colleges will accept the credit. </h2>
<p>In answer to a question above, UVa has an AP policy similar to many selective private colleges. You need 4s in most subjects, and 5s in some to get credit. UVa doesn’t give AP credit for science labs in most cases. Unlike some other colleges, there is no max. on how much total AP credit you can earn (as of last year at least when I checked).</p>
<p>For pre-meds and persons taking intense science curriculum at a selective college, many people recommend that you do not take the AP credit for chm or bio, because you will be overwhelmed starting at sophomore level classes. UVa has a system where students can keep the AP chem credit while also taking a more intensive first year chem sequence that is oriented towards science majors.</p>
<p>Many people say that med schools want students to take all prerequisites on campus, so many people don’t use their AP credits. However, they do have a much easier time handling the science classes if they covered the material before.</p>
<p>Here is another public university example for AP credit: UCLA is generous with credit units (note, these are quarter units, each of which is 2/3 the value of a semester unit), but only a few of them are creditable against specific UCLA courses (as given by actual course numbers in the tables):</p>
<p>Vanderbilt does seem to be very generous, especially for a private university. It even gives credit for IB SL exams, which is not that common (usually, credit for IB is given only for HL exams).</p>
<p>My kids got credit for AP and Dual Enrollment classes at our big (NC) state u’s.
S1 had enough AP credit that he could have graduated early except that he was in NROTC which added extra classes to his courseload each semester and required four years.</p>
<p>It links to very detailed sheets with what grades in what AP courses will receive credit and as what, and the dual enrollment/college course one is really specific too.</p>
<p>S has 3 APs and a dual credit coming into college and that’s almost a full semester at his school. What he’ll probably do with it is take one less class this first semester and save the other 3 as options for similar later, or he could graduate early.</p>
<p>I think the duals and APs are worth it even if your D’s school won’t give credit.</p>
<p>Note that in Vandy’s description, the majority of students must be college students, not high schoolers in a dual enrollment class. (Doesn’t matter to OP, but just noting for others that such clauses tend to eliminate a lot of DE credits for top private colleges.)</p>
<p>I remember agonizing over this with my kids and then finding out that when all was said and done it didn’t much matter. With my last child, he took the classes that were challenging and interesting and got credit for some of them, but not all. It really doesn’t pay (IMHO) to take a class just for potential credit somewhere.</p>
<p>If I was the student with the AP credits and/or dual enrollment courses, I am not sure I would tell Duke or Vanderbilt that my goal was to graduate early. At least not while applying. I don’t know, but I get the feeling they would like students to stay for 4 years, and I don’t think it’s just about the money but rather the experience. At Vanderbilt, it is my understanding that most students live on campus all 4 years even though it is in a residential area of a medium-large city, and I am sure that housing could be found off campus if desired. I think there is something about the community that might discourage an early graduation, but I don’t really know for sure. Does anyone know from personal experience?</p>
<p>One advantage to having a lot of AP credit might be to double major or possibly even to get a BA and MA degree at the same time – not sure this is possible at the schools you are asking about, but it is something my husband was able to do at BU in 4 years with a year’s worth of AP credit through BU’s BA/MA program.</p>