<p>Does Penn allow incoming freshmen to get credit for AP scores as well as college classes? I would love to hear from students or parents who have some experience with this.</p>
<p>Also, do students always take 5 classes a semester? I see a sample schedule of the major that is of interest to my son, and it shows 5 classes each semester. If students transfer in classes (if that's possible) or get AP credit, is it possible to take 4 classes a semester and still graduate in 4 years?</p>
<p>It’s the engineers that have 5 classes each semester. Frankly it looks daunting and over the top. I’ve seen a talk by the Dean of Engineering there and he seemed to take pride in the sadism and told the students to take pride in their masochism. (Not a quote, but that’s what I heard). The whole attitude turned off our entire family. </p>
<p>It is definitely possible to take five classes a semester, especially if you have a balanced schedule. I chose not to junior and senior year since I already was very far into my major (I sub matriculated), was taking two grad classes a semester, and doing 15 hours of research a week. I know a lot of people who took more than that, but I don’t recommend that since even if you do well grade wise, you may not necessarily learn as much as you could.</p>
<p>@ClassicRockerDad, an engineer would have to take the equivalent of five classes at any school they attended, that’s just how engineering is. However, it is manageable, many engineers I know had very vibrant social lives while they were at Penn. </p>
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<p>That just isn’t so. Most of the schools D2 looked at did not require that every semester. </p>
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<p>That may very well be. The question is whether they could have both vibrant social lives and also do well. It seems more stressful than it needs to be. </p>
<p>Assuming the college classes did not fulfill a high school requirement, yes it is possible to get credit. Penn also gives credit for most AP tests with a score of 5. Further details:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/apply/freshman-admission/ap-ib-and-pre-college-credit”>http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/apply/freshman-admission/ap-ib-and-pre-college-credit</a></p>
<p>Thank you to all of you who responded. These were all very helpful answers and gave us some things to think about.</p>
<p>@ClassicRockerDad, which schools did you and your daughter look at that only required four classes a semester? I suppose that could be true, But five classes is a normal load for a STEM major at most places from what I have heard. Even if you could get by with four classes for a semester, most students would always take anyway.</p>
<p>Penn is no more intense than most of the top engineering schools. Actually I would think that it is less intense than places like Cornell, MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, etc. </p>
<p>I was not an engineer, but majored in one of the physical sciences which is known to be one of the most difficult at Penn. I also know a few people getting dual degrees in chemistry/physics and an engineering discipline and some students in VIPER.</p>
<p>Actually, a normal courseload at MIT is 4 classes a semester, and my son took 3 classes each semester this past year, but then, he brought in a lot of transfer units and he’s not a particularly academically driven student right now, choosing to expend more of his energy in non-academic endeavors.</p>
<p>Well it also depends on the difficulty of each class as I said before. It’s very important to take a balanced schedule in college.</p>
<p>The point that I was trying to make though is that Penn engineering is not more intense than other engineering schools @ClassicRockerDad’s daughter is most likely looking at and I don’t get where he got that impression. College is about managing your time, so yes, I do know several engineers who had great social lives and also excelled academically. Many were also very involved on campus.</p>
<p>I would actually say the opposite, Penn’s engineers are probably less intense than at other schools and less interested in traditional engineering careers/grad school. </p>