<p>I was just wondering how much time you guys saved using extra credit from high school (or possibly other sources). You can factor in money saved, whatever you did with that extra time, and etc. here. I am curious.</p>
<p>46 credits; about a year of time saved which is about $20000</p>
<p>How many AP courses did you take for that many credits?</p>
<p>I have five usable AP test scores and nine dual-enrollment university courses (most of which will transfer, I think). I have a significant scholarship and I’ve always planned to stay for eight semesters no matter what, but this will allow me to take more advanced classes. Even with my extra credits I feel like I won’t be able to do everything I want to do. </p>
<p>I ended up with 24 units of AP credit, but because of the way my school’s general education requirements work, and the fact that all but one wasn’t applicable to my majors, it isn’t helping me graduate early. However, it has been very helpful with getting me better registration times because I bump up to the next priority level a quarter or two earlier than I would if I didn’t have the units. My AP Lit scores also exempted me from having to take a lower div English composition course (the only case where you can use AP credit for GEs at my school), so that gave me one more free class.</p>
<p>42 usable units of AP credits. 15 AP classes; 11 were usable. Still graduating on time (4 years) for law school admissions purposes. This gives me the chance to take more advanced courses, do research, have more free time, raise my GPA, etc.</p>
<p>I have 21 credits (7 AP classes, 6 got credit - 1 dual enrollment) - I’m about a semester and a half to a year ahead of schedule. My scholarship covers however many or few semesters I need in order to receive the full 120 credits needed for my degree. If I took the full load that my scholarship allows, which is 17 credits, each semester (typically students take between 15-17), I’d graduate a year early. However, I’m going to try to stay the entire four years - I see no point in overwhelming myself with tons of courses just so I can get out of school at 20 rather than 21, especially since I’m planning on law school which is a very GPA oriented admissions process. I figured I’d take lighter course loads each semester and schedule them in the morning (there are traditionally more available sections of my major courses in the morning, along with general eds) so that I can have time to work, maintain an internship, partake in clubs/activities available in my school/Boston, etc, not to mention time to study. </p>
<p>I have 29 credits from AP/DE but I doubt they’ll help me graduate early. I’m majoring in engineering, so it’s hard to graduate early because of long course sequences with a lot of prerequisites. The extra credits definitely will minimize the risk of a 5th year to complete my degree, though, and it’ll make a semester of studying abroad a lot more feasible. </p>
<p>I brought in 4 hours of AP credit and 27 hours of dual enrollment credit. What did that help with?</p>
<ol>
<li>A full year increase in class standing, meaning I got higher registration priority and more of the classes I wanted.</li>
<li>I got to skip a lot of GERs, taking classes I was more interested in and skipping weed-out intro classes.</li>
<li>I’m graduating a semester early because my financial circumstances changed, something I wouldn’t have been able to do without the credits.</li>
<li>I was able to drop classes with cray-cray professors freshman year without worrying about having too few credits.</li>
<li>I was able to complete a whole lot more that I would have been able to otherwise. I’m leaving with one joint major and a second major: econ & math, and sociology.</li>
<li>Particularly coming in with science and math credits, I was able to skip a lot of intro classes. If I had to take all those classes at once my freshman year, I probably never would have stayed with the majors I have.</li>
</ol>
<p>Benefits: Skip to Calculus III / DEs. Heck. I’d be stuck for more than four years if I had to work my way up the prerequisite chain from the bottom. I start my upper division next semester, while it would’ve been my third year or later if I didn’t have AP Calculus. I also get to skip to sophomore English which I’m taking this summer so I don’t have to write during the normal semester.</p>
<p>Priority registration: After the first semester, I get to register based off of how many units I have. It’s ridiculous at a California State University to get your classes as a freshman, but having senior standing helped me gain that edge to get all of the classes that I ever wanted. It would have made a 5+ year graduation if I had to wait out my turn to be able to register for the courses I need in a really long prerequisite chain.</p>
<p>General Education Swipe: Took about a year of GEs out–I have two more of them in the upper division to go, but they would be painfully getting in the way of my pure engineering schedule and slowing me down.</p>
<p>Money Saved: $16000 by cutting a 5-year engineering degree (only 2% can get out in 4 and they are probably the ones that have AP haha) to 3. </p>
<p>79 units on the 120 to graduate system with 71 from AP (My university is very generous) and 8 from my AP Econ teacher that had connections to get me A’s in Macro/Micro Econ at San Jose State University.</p>
<p>I only used 12 of these exams to get that many credits too. Calculus AB didn’t count, I failed my AP Lit/Spanish, and I stopped taking all the AP exams for the classes I had because they wouldn’t get rid of any more GEs.</p>
<p>I’m going in with around 24 semester credits (there are a couple that I’m not sure will transfer) through AP and dual enrollment. The credits aren’t getting me out early because of the way my major is set up, but I’m getting a few core requirements out of the way so I’m getting space to take more electives I’m interested in.</p>
<p>Took 11 (or was it 12 APs) + 2 college classes. I got credit for four of those classes and got to directly to multivariable calc. If I had submitted my college classes I might have been able to skip to DiffEq.</p>
<p>Given the credits I came in with plus the fact that I took above the average course load, I could have graduated in 3 years. Chose to graduate in 4. Besides letting me skip to multivariable calc, AP credit really had no effect on my college curriculum.</p>
<p>I came in with 26 units of credit, all of which applied to some degree requirement. Something that people don’t think about though, is that a lot of those gen ed classes get paired up with other, more difficult major classes throughout the years, since no one just takes only gen eds and gets them out of the way in a single swoop. These transfer credits will make it more difficult for me to be full time next year, do to the nature of the prerequisites for other classes. </p>
<p>That was my first year, securing all of the prerequisite courses to the more free upper division or else I’d be trapped with nowhere to go and can’t advance in my major.
The general education classes get the lovely boot to summertime because I feel it is harder to focus on engineering courses while having to write papers and fill my brain up with a bunch of facts and different types of readings. General eds won’t get my full attention when I have engineering courses to worry about and the grade will suffer.</p>
<p>Currently my 11 AP’s have netted me 60 credits, which gives me second quarter sophomore status right off the bat. That’s around 64k of tuition money, quite a bit! On the other hand, I have a guaranteed transfer to another school for next fall and there my AP’s barely cover a semester’s worth of classes. So it really depends on the institution and type of classes you’re taking (eg: a college is more likely to accept a 5 on Calc than Human Geography). If you’re looking to maximize your AP/IB credit, I’d recommend looking at your in-state publics as those seem to be pretty generous with credit.</p>
<p>I got 30 credit hours from taking 8 AP classes. That’s practically an entire year of time saved!</p>