<p>A few super-elite science and engineering schools have nearly all students entering having taken some calculus. They then make everyone relearn calculus with extra theory.</p>
<p>But most schools, including those with good reputations for engineering, structure engineering programs with the assumption that the student will begin with calculus in freshman year. However, the schedule can be rather right, as there can be some rather long chains of prerequisites to take. For example, there is a UC Berkeley electrical engineering course that is at the end of a 7 (semester) course long prerequisite chain. Students who have credit for freshman calculus and understood the material well* can effectively shorten these long prerequisite chains by starting a semester or two ahead in math and a semester ahead in physics and get some “breathing room” in their schedule.</p>
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<li>Some schools suggest that students with AP calculus scores less than 5 may want to consider starting over the calculus sequence, even if credit is given for scores of 4 or 3.</li>
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