One of my friends who goes to UM got 5s on Macro and Micro but still had to take it in college. What’s the point of getting credit for the class if you are getting it either way by taking it in college?
Thanks.
i have had my own kids ask this.
We’ve seen that every college accepts the credits differently; and the more elite the college, usually the less AP credits they will accept. Some top schools don’t accept any AP credits.
Colleges that accept AP credits sometimes deny certain AP classes because they want students to learn that subject how they want it taught.
Eg: AP chemistry doesn’t come over for some STEM majors even with a 5 on the AP test;. AP Art history didn’t transfer over for my daughter’s architecture major no matter the score while some other AP credits did transfer.
you can google the names of colleges and “AP Credit transfer” and see if those colleges give AP credit; and what scores are needed. That too differs between colleges.
but here’s one point in trying for passing scores: potentially transferring colleges; because you never know when that AP credit might come in handy.
Which UM?
The AP credit charts for Massachusetts, Miami, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and Montana all indicate that 5 scores on AP economics exams give subject credit for some economics course.
However, a student may need or want to take a different or more advanced course for whatever reason.
Some students try to grade-grub by retaking their AP credit in hopes for an “easy A” if they are GPA focused (pre-med, pre-law, or competitive secondary admission to a popular major; such grade-grubbing is not always successful).
There are a lot of universities which could be abbreviated UM, including at least the ones that @ucbalumnus mentioned plus four more that I know of outside of the US.
What happens with AP credits will depend upon the university. It is likely to also depend upon the class. One daughter self-studied and got a 5 on an AP language class. She was given credit for the freshman year classes for that language – these are on her transcript as AP credit. It counts as if she had taken those classes at the university, but with no grade for the class. A friend of hers is a biology major who took AP biology in high school, but still needed to take freshman year “biology for biology majors” at the same university. My understanding is that both decisions actually made good sense, and that at least in this case freshman year “biology for biology majors” was significantly more rigorous than high school AP biology.
When you take an AP class in high school, I do not think that you know precisely what credit you will get in university until you get to the university and see what they do.
Had to take it or chose to take it? UMichigan provides credit for both Econ 101 and 102, but also says “ Student is eligible to enroll in Econ 101”. Many engineering students take Calc 1 even if they took AP Calc, especially if AB.
Much as College Board likes to say they are “college equivalent”, Calc AB just isn’t the same as Calc 1 at a T20 engineering college. My D took Freshman Calc 1 and Physics 1, after AP Calc BC and Physics C. Both were still challenging.
STEM students taking GenEd credit for AP English, History, Psych, etc., is very common. But it’s often suggested to consider taking college versions of STEM courses.
If the student was an Econ/business/similar major, it may be the same.
The value is typically in meeting general education objectives, or starting a course ahead in certain areas.
Some students/parents think that taking 5 or 10 APs will same them a semester or a year of tuition. This is rarely the case. Most majors have specific sequences of courses that need to be taken, that can only be met in the planned time.
AP courses can free up time for a minor, double major, more interesting electives, etc. But I suspect early graduation is not common.
Some colleges will give credit, some will give placement, some will give nothing. Some will only give credit or placement for certain scores. It totally depends on the college.
What’s the point of taking it? Depends on your end goal. If you want to go to Public U and they offer credit or placement for it, take it. If you want to go to Private U and they offer credit or placement, take it. If you want to challenge yourself, take it. If your school makes you take it, take it. If you want to rack up a bunch of AP scores, take it. If you don’t want to take it, or if your school doesn’t make you take it, don’t take it.
Alright, thanks, I think I will take note of this.
I mean Michigan, and yes, I believe both Econ exams give credit for the college, thanks.
I meant Michigan, sorry, but thank you.
Oh alright, thank you…
Yeah, I’m taking as many as I can mainly for the challenge and the foundation it sets me up for college, thanks.
With AP credit my S19 can graduate early, and though it may not be applied to his major , many of the GenED classes or electives were fulfilled. In many cases even if they have to take the class over again, they will still get elective/GenED credits at least for some AP. My other child did DE. similar. Some classes were just elective credits, while others were able to place her out of GenED/Freshman requirements. Will graduate 1/2 a semester early and could have graduated a year early if she had really pushed herself.
Take the APs to get ready for college. That to me is more important. Depending on what you are going into Michigan might or might not give you the credit. My son had Calc 3 in high school and got As and think a 4 but still had to take Calc 1-3 at Michigan. (it’s very tough no matter how good you think you are). He was going to fight it but he is glad he didn’t. They are known for the Calc curriculum and getting a solid foundation at the college level can be very important… For non engineering think they give the credit. But credits he did get gave him some room to minor and/or graduate a semester early. He also was able to do a certificate in a subject of his choice (3 classes /9 credits) that was related to his major.
This is going back (many) years, but the AP credit I had gave me a bit of a cushion. When I studied abroad I was able to take really interesting classes specific to the history of the country I was in, rather than trying to stay on track to graduate in my major.
@RichInPitt: “Most majors have specific sequences of courses that need to be taken, that can only be met in the planned time.”
Some majors. Many of the preprofessional ones like engineering, nursing, architecture, design, etc., true. But even most of the science ones don’t have a sequence of courses that stretch out for 4 years. That’s even more true for the humanities (other than maybe foreign languages) or social sciences. I can’t think of any non-foreign-language humanities/social science major at any school with a sequence that has to stretch out 4 years.
Way back in the day, AP credit allowed me to graduate from a top 5 LAC in 3 years. AP also prepared me well for the rigorous curriculum. My D goes to a state flagship and AP credit has allowed her to complete a business degree, foreign language degree, foreign language minor, and spend a semester abroad - all in 3 years. She will be a grad student during her fourth year. So AP worked out extremely well for both of us.
The sciences and math/statistics may have prerequisite sequences up to about six semesters, though students who start with advanced placement (e.g. math higher than calculus 1) may be able to reduce the longest prerequisite sequence by a semester or few.
However, they may also have a large volume of upper level courses that may require completing the fourth or so semester of the prerequisite sequence, so that a student without advanced placement cannot get a head start on the upper level courses like in some humanities and social studies majors. But foreign language literature majors are similar in this respect for students who start at the beginner course in the language (as opposed to those who start at a more advanced level due to previous knowledge of the language).