This year: AP US and English Language.
Next year: AP Calc BC, US Gov and Politics, Chemistry, and Italian
@cooldude234 At this point I would focus on your test scores and get them up. No sense in worrying about whether you are going to receive college credit on your AP classes at this point. Just do the best you can and let the chips fall. I assume “AP Calc BC” is business calculus? if that is the case it won’t count toward your engineering degree unless of course you get the required score on the AP test. You have to take Engineering calculus. It is a 4 Credit Hour class and is very challenging. @Thelma2 is correct about the duel credit and placing out of college classes. The down side for earning college credit in HS is if you are on the bubble for full admit to a school like TAMU and are offered an alternative that includes junior college co-enrollment, you may run out of classes at the junior college level and end up taking classes that do not count toward your degree.
@trinley BC Calc is just the Calc after AB, as it is just a lot harder. It isn’t business Calc.
@cooldude234 I never said your 4.0 is the same as a 2.0, I was just giving an example that a 4.0 at one school could be the same as a 2.0 somewhere else; for example, a 4.0 at the top-ranked HS in the country is going to be harder to get than a 4.0 at some random weak school. That’s the only point I was trying to make, that there is a discrepancy between your grades and your sat score, which makes your school seem easy. i know for sure that you still have a good shot, I’m not saying anything against that, but for engineering, sat scores matter. my point is that if all other things were equal, the tamu admissions committee would choose a student with a 1550 sat score and a 3.0 gpa than a person with a 1200 and a 4.0.
and for ivy league schools you need way more than perfect scores and grades.
Good luck, im sure you will do great. hope you get in!
@yaleivyleague thanks, and I’m not really trying for Ivy League, but I’m going to try and raise my SAT score a bit. I’m not a good test taker.
@cooldude234
You Asked: “so basically what you’re saying is most likely I wouldn’t be asked to do co-enrollment if I have fulfilled the majority of the core classes and finished all my chemistry and calculus?”
If you fulfill most/all of the university core curriculum with AP classes, depending on how many credits you have, if Engineering Review doesn’t offer you full admissions to College Station, you may not be eligible for the academies admission offers.
Also, if you score 4 on the Calculuc BC AP exam, you can claim it for credit for Cal I and II, but they don’t like for you to. If you do, you will still be required to take two additional math courses to satisfy the ETAM requirements. AP Calculus is not near the same rigor as a top ranked engineering school and you will need to still prove your ability to do that caliber of math on campus.
I went through the AP classes you listed and you still require 5 classes to satisfy the university core curriculum that are not satisfied by your AP classes or the Engineering major itself. Two of the UCC classes must also satisfy the ICD requirement (International and Cultural Diversity). It is good to find one class that will satisfy both requirements.
Communications: 6 hours needed
If you score a 3, you can claim this credit. You will need one more that the engr major may satisfy
Language, Philosophy and Culture: 3 hours needed
You have 2 AP courses to chose from to satisfy this
You could use your World History AP to satisfy History 104 (TCCNS HIST 2322) but it doesn’t satisfy ICD, so you will have to take an additional class that does OR AP Italian can be claimed for Italian 201 and 202 only and you need a score of 4. This will satisfy the requirement and the ICD. Italian 101 and 102 do not satisfy the UCC.
Life and Physical Science: 9 hours needed
Your required general engineering curriculum will satisfy this requirement.
.For AP Chemistry, a 3 can be claimed for Chem 101/111 and a score of 4 for Chem both 101/111 & 102/112. These two classes replace 107/117
You will have to take physics 206 and 207 in addition.
Maths: 6 hours needed
Math 6 hours needed
General engineering curriculum will satisfy this. AP Calculus BC, you must score a 4 to claim math 151 and 152. If you claim these, which engineering discourages you from doing, you will be required to take two additional math classes on campus at A&M and will be 2 of the following MATH 2415 (MATH 253), MATH 2320 or MATH 2420 (MATH 308).
Creative Arts: 3 hours needed
You do not have an AP for this. This is a good category to find a class that satisfies the UCC and ICD.
American History: 6 Hours Needed
You will have to take these since you have no AP credit
Government: 6 hours needed
AP US Government credit can be claimed for Pols 206 if you score a 3.
You will have to take Tx State and Local Govt. Pols 207
Social and Behavior Sciences: 3 Hours Needed
You will have to take this since you have no AP credit
As stated above by Trinley, I wouldn’t worry so much about your AP’s and work on your math. It isn’t so much about getting in but staying in. The first year curriculum is very rigorous and more difficult than any AP class or test you will ever take.
@Thelma2 would I be taking further classes in my major if I completed most of the first years due to AP credit? And also do you recommend that I take math 151 and math 152 even if I have credit for BC Calc?
@Thelma2 and also wouldn’t I have credit for the American History if I score high enough on the AP US History exam?
@cooldude234 You really need to go read the engineering web pages. All of the info is there.
No, you would not take more classes towards you major with the classes you have with AP credit. You don’t get to take major classes until you satisfy the general engineering required classes and successfully apply to a major, which if you take AP credit for some of them, like Math or Chemistry, you will still be required to take the additional maths and science that first year on campus at A&M. You can’t get around that.
Only once you Apply to a specific major, which the first opportunity is in April of your freshman year, and you are accepted into a major that you are deemed qualified for by the department to be accepted, will you be allowed to take classes towards the major.
How many AP’s you have is meaningless. You will still have 2 sciences, 2 maths, and the 2 engineering classes that you will have to take on campus freshman year. Which ones, is to be determined. Your AP’s will not help you get into engineering. They only show what rigor you have taken in school. No one sees the test scores in admissions. T
Also, if you don’t place high enough on the math placement exam at your New Student Conference, you may not be allowed to take the credit, and placed in a lower math class than 151, to get you up to speed.
@Thelma2 ok thanks, I have done a lot of research but most sites including the tamu engineering one doesn’t really give me the information I need.
@cooldude234
Have you looked a major course sheet for Civil Engineering?
What I am gathering by this whole thread is that you are under the impression that in college, you take a year or two of “basics”, in other words, the classes you are taking AP tests for, and when those are completed, you move into your major classes. That is not how it works.
At A&M, you are not admitted directly to your major in engineering. You are admitted to general engineering where you take the required engineering curriculum and maybe one university core curriculum class. If you had every UCC class satisfied though AP tests, great. It matters not for the engineering curriculum, because even if you could claim AP credit for Cal I and Cal II, you still will be required to take 2 other math courses at A&M during freshman year in order to satisfy what the general engineering program requires before you will be eligible to undergo the Entry To A Major (ETAM) process.
Standardized tests, like the SAT and ACT are designed to not test your knowledge of a subject, but to test your college readiness. There is a lot more to them than total score and sub scores. There are a lot of other breakdowns within the two sections. This gives a university an idea, depending on where all of the cross test scores align in your readiness for a basic college class, not to mention a rigorous one in a rigorous major.
Not being good at standardized tests show that you have weaknesses in certain areas. It is not about being a good test taker or not. They are not measuring your knowledge of a subject, like a class test, but specific criteria in reasoning, words in context, command of evidence, and a lot more. Your SAT is accompanied by a report of the breakdowns of each criteria measured. You can then identify where your weaknesses are and SAT study/prep can help strengthen these areas.
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@Thelma2 yes I knew all of that about the engineering curriculum and I have looked at all of that and the core classes I need to take. For Engineering do they focus on the SAT as a whole or do you think if my math score is like 730+ and my English is a bit lower I will be okay? What I’m trying to ask is if they focus more on the math section of the test?
Your math readiness is strongly considered. As a review applicant, admission to CS chance declines, and a Galveston first year more likely, so you best shoot for academic admit.
@Thelma2 would visiting campus, having a relative that went, and attending a civil engineering camp there during the summer help?
@cooldude234
Not if the math and physics readiness isn’t there.
@Thelma2 I will definetly have the math readiness. I won’t be able to take AP Physics by the end of high school but I am currently taking regular physics and I have had a high 90’s average all year. Will that look really bad still?
@cooldude234 I can’t give you that answer. If they offered AP physics and there is a reason you can’t take it beyond your control, that would be different than you choosing not to take it. I don’t know how they would look at it. It may depend on your overall complete application file when they look at everything.
My son was on the AP track through sophomore year. He changed to IB for Junior year. In order to do so, he had to have physics and it would not fit into his IB schedule. He was already single blocking band as a section leader. He had to take it in summer school to get it to fit in the graduation thingy and they did not offer AP physics in summer.
At the end of Jr year, was chosen for an engineering internship. He was told he needed to take AP physics if he were going to apply to college engineering programs. Being in a college engineering program was conditional on keeping the internship. Due to the internship, he had to leave the IB Program and go back to AP.
There was not an AP physics class at his high school at a time that fit his schedule. He ended up going to another high school for AP physics on A days and then to his internship.
@Thelma2 wow that’s an interesting situation. At my school it’s 2 periods a day, which wouldn’t have allowed me to take all the engineering electives that I wanted to take. Otherwise I wanted to take it, but I had to sacrifice that one thing for something that would’ve helped my understanding a lot more in the long run. But I do regret not taking the class.
@Thelma2 I just made my schedule for senior year, and I am taking AP Physics C and AP BC Calc… Do you think this will look good in terms of math and physics readiness on my application? I thought since I didn’t take AP Physics I should take Physics C because I have been told it’s more in depth and better for engineering.
@cooldude234 I really appreciate your good questions and persistence. The full admits to TAMU engineering from OOS would generally be either academic admits with a bunch of AP credits, ESPECIALLY lots of math and science, or absolute drop dead very, very high scoring or so, it seems to me. If you are in the top quarter of your class with SAT of 1360 (always subject to change) and appropriate minimum subscores, you have a shot. But A&M is notorious about not giving money to the vast majority of OOS students and not much generally otherwise. You are to be commended for looking ahead. If you prepare for the SAT/ACT, you could probably pick up significantly more points. Plenty of students do this. You, in NY if my skimming skills aren’t failing me, also have Cornell, RPI, Carnegie Mellon nearby, etc., all arguably in a slightly higher tier. Please check around widely, too. I like the way you sound. All advanced math and science will help you now and in college when you see some of the material again. Take as much as humanly possible. I salute you. Carry on.