I’ve been interested for some time now to graduate college in 3 years. I was hoping to find a school which had generous AP credit policies so I could minimize the amount of classes I’d have to take.
So far here are some that seem to have good AP credit policies (many college websites are difficult to understand so I could be wrong):
UMich
Northeastern
Cornell
Tufts
I was wondering if anyone has experience with AP credits with any of these colleges and any other that you feel are also generous with AP credit.
Tufts places a limit on the number of AP credits you can earn.
Rice is a top school with a generous AP policy.
However, having generous AP credit may not help you graduate early as some colleges don’t count AP credit toward gen ed requirements or major requirements.
It will almost certainly depend on your major. Many (most? all?) colleges post their major requirements online. Once you find some colleges you like and can afford, you can search for their major requirements and see if you can graduate in 3 years.
In a different, but related, vein – some colleges will let you work towards a master’s that you can complete concurrently with your undergraduate degree, or with a 9th semester.
Look at the 4 year plan of study for your intended major. You may also need to reach out to the department to ask about when courses are offered as well. Smaller majors may not offer all the courses required every single semester.
I see wanting to go to a T30 and wanting to graduate early using AP credits as inconsistent statements. Generally someone that wants to go to a top University sees differentiating value to an elite education. Someone using AP credits to fulfill a year, evaluates them as equal. I guess a pure prestige hunter doesn’t care and it works for them.
State schools seemed more generous than private schools when we compared.
Depends on how many AP’s you can take at your school. I’d say 10 or more and you have a chance at 3 years.
Depends on school/AP class. Georgia Tech didn’t give credit for AP stats.
Some schools give more credits for a 5 on an AP test vs a 3 or 4.
Some give credits for a 3 while others only for 4 or 5. Florida State gives credit for 3’s.
S20 had 10+ AP classes. He also took a couple of summer classes at our local CC. Nothing better to do with Covid. He will most likely graduate in 3 years from Georgia Tech.
That’s the case across the board, generally speaking. Among the privates, the more rigorous colleges tend to offer fewer AP credits, as one might expect.
Credit units toward the number needed for graduation.
Subject credit to fulfill major or general education requirements.
Advanced placement.
An AP score may give some subset of the above at one college and a different subset of the above at some other college. A higher AP score on the same AP test may change some, all, or none of the above at the same college.
For example, here is UCLA L&S AP credit listing: https://admission.ucla.edu/admitted-students/ap-credit-the-college . An example to consider is AP calculus BC. While a score of 3 or higher gives 8 quarter units of credit, the subject credit (and implied advanced placement beyond the listed courses) varies by score. A score of 3 gives only generic “calculus” subject credit, a score of 4 gives MATH 31A credit, and a score of 5 gives MATH 31A and 31B credit. Note also that this page says that “AP credit does not satisfy General Education requirements.”
Because state schools subsidize their in-state students (which is most of their students), they have a financial incentive to get students graduated as quickly as possible. On the other hand, private schools may have a business model which depends on getting enough net tuition out of each student, so a student who graduates early hurts the school’s finances.
However, the above mostly applies to trends regarding credit units for AP scores. Subject credit and advanced placement have other considerations that matter, such as whether the departments observe that students with a given AP score in a given AP test do well in the subsequent course after skipping the introductory course with the AP score.
It appears to me that OP is interested in getting college credits (or satisfying some curriculum requirements), rather than for the purpose of placing into higher level courses.
In any event, OP should just google “{name of the college} AP credits” for the specific college(s) s/he is interested in for the college’s most up-to-date AP credit policy, which can change from year to year.
Yes. Even lower ranked privates weren’t generous. Understandable. They wanted students there for 4 years. They had a path and methodology for developing breadth of learning. I’m sure money was also a factor.
Most state schools just want to graduate their students as quickly as possible. Again, completely understandable. Different mission.
The simplest thing for OP is to find a few schools, look at AP transfer rules and then load-up on only those AP credits that transfer.
That said, if you’re looking at engineering and only get a 3 or 4 on Calc AB/BC I would reconsider exempting out of college calculus.
Agree. You have to watch which AP classes fulfill gen ed requirements vs electives. If you want to graduate early you need to fulfill as many gen ed requirements as possible.
Check out University of Florida. Up to 45 credits from AP allowed. And most AP tests map to state core requirements in FL, making it easy to graduate in 3 years if you plan well.