<p>Here is my situation: I have 4 AP tests I have signed up for, but as of now, I am sure to do poorly on them (I'm in a special program at my school that let out of my classes by third term, so I missed out on a bit of material). However, if I bothered to study in the limited time I have, I am confident to get all 5's, which are required if I want these courses to count towards my MIT credits. However, I am wondering if I should bother to do so (I have better stuff to do like doing research/writing paper). The money wasted is not my concern.</p>
<p>The 4 tests I will be taking are biology, us history, psych, and french language. Biology AP isn't accepted at MIT so that's not a problem. But the other 3 do count towards the HASS requirements, right? Does that mean I can take 3 less HASS courses out of the 8 (?) required? What I'm wondering about is whether it will be really worth it to be able to take three less courses. Right now, I feel optimistic and want to say it will be interesting to take all these courses, but also I'm thinking when I actually get there, I'm gonna wish I didn't have to take them. Please offer some advice, thanks~</p>
<p>I think you should take them. Maybe not Bio? Considering it’s not accepted at MIT but the others you should take them. It’ll take the load of you for the freshmen classes they accept AP credit for too.
Hope I helped? Lol :)</p>
<p>They do not help with HASS! No matter what, you will have to take 8 HASS classes, two of which are communications intensive, while at MIT.</p>
<p>You get 9 elective credits (a typical MIT class is 12) per every 5 on a humanities test. This is basically useless unless you are interested in early sophomore status by your 2nd semester. I think you need 45 credits through AP, along with doing 4/6 science-core GIRs (easy if you get credit for AP Calc and then take 18.02, 8.01, and chem/bio) and getting a Communications Intensive Humanities class for your HASS 1st semester.</p>
<p>Early sophomore has the benefit of declaring your major earlier (thus getting your major advisor earlier) and, rarely (if I understand correctly), preference for that department’s UROPs. The main con to this, however, is that you sacrifice A/B/C/NR and can actually fail classes now.</p>
<p>MIT gives no credit for Chemistry, Biology, Environmental Science, and Statistics.</p>
<p>oh, and sophomore status removes the credit limit in the 2nd semester (you can take more than 57 credits, or 4 and 3/4 classes)</p>
<p>Ah thank you for the information. A few more questions though:
What are the elective credit requirements for graduation? If I obtain early sophomore status, does that mean I will be able to graduate 1 year early?</p>
<p>Actually, the reason I didn’t include early graduation is because it usually doesn’t work that way. You won’t get what I would call “useful” AP credit beyond Calculus BC and Physics C (and anything you ASE). That elective stuff will help you get to the credit min for graduation, but b/c you aren’t getting out of useful classes (GIRs, HASS, and definitely not major classes), unless you take a crazy course-load (like 5 or 6 classes every semester) odds are you won’t graduate early. I mean, anything is possible, but overloading yourself (especially in some of the harder/stricter engineering majors) is dangerous and not advisable.</p>
<p>As an example, consider Course 8 Physics - Focused. Usually, fall semester juniors take Quantum Mechanics 2, Junior Lab, HASS, and an elective (probably another physics class, or math). Now, Junior Lab is notoriously difficult (the 12 hours a week probably end up being more like 20-30 from what I’ve been told), so adding a 5th class would be difficult, and a 6th would be suicide. Obviously, wise students that don’t want to overload themselves will take the bare minimum that semester to avoid getting super hosed (they’re already hosed by just taking Jr. Lab). And, by taking 4 classes that semester, it can, in most cases, derail any plans to graduate early.</p>
<p>Anyways, MIT, which is known for it’s rigor, is probably not the best place to graduate early if you don’t want to overwork yourself excessively (you’re at MIT, that means by definition you have a lot of hard work, why make that even worse?). At least, it’s this way for normal people (as I would consider myself). There are definitely super-geniuses that can get away with these things.</p>
<p>Ah alright. I don’t think I’m going to bother with APs. I was only in it for getting out of humanities classes, but as you say since AP tests go towards elective credits, and elective credits can be earned through math classes of which I am very in interested in taking many, there is no point. Thanks again~</p>
<p>I actually am in favor of getting AP credit for humanities courses, just because it gives you a cushion of credit in case you ever drop a class. My husband, for example, dropped a class one semester, and would have needed to take an additional class later on if he hadn’t come in with humanities AP credit. That can be tremendously useful.</p>
<p>Mollie, do students usually take the minimum number of classes needed to graduate, or do students usually end up after 4 years having more credits than they need? I ask this because I’ve thought most students usually already have a little bit of cushion of credits in case of dropping classes, but given your husband’s account I’m not sure anymore. Thanks~</p>
<p>That is major dependent to some degree. Most students graduate with a reasonable cushion, but in some departments it can be tricky. For example, if you drop a 9-credit humanities subject in almost any department, you should be fine. If however, you need to drop a 24-unit class like 7.13 Experimental Microbial Genetics, then things could be a bit trickier.</p>
<p>Most people I know have a little bit of cushion, but coming in with AP credit (whether it be passing out of classes or getting elective credit) is usually part of the cushion.</p>
<p>Unless you have a financial difficulty, I’d just take the exams. It can’t hurt.</p>
<p>(As for Mikalye’s example - yeah, if you drop 7.13 or something, you can’t make up for that with elective credit. However, having elective credit gives you flexibility to retake 7.13 later on.)</p>
<p>Lastly, MIT won’t rescind me for not taking these tests even though I indicated on the application that I will be taking them, right?</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses guys~</p>