Which AP exams should I take? [CS major / international]

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
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More specifically, **which AP exams would allow me to earn credit/b if I major in CS? I plan to make full use of my time (by graduating early or taking grad school courses to utilize the 8 semesters of scholarship).

[img alt=“http://image.prntscr.com/image/3e9c6c274f374f2888f076073d1e28c9.png”]http://image.prntscr.com/image/3e9c6c274f374f2888f076073d1e28c9.png[/img]
Computer Science Principles is not available in my country (India). Neither are the Studio Arts exams.

I’m leaning towards Calculus AB or BC, in addition to Computer Science A. Not sure about Statistics or Physics.

Are there any general education requirements that can be skipped?

AP exams are only available in May (in India). But I will graduate from high school in March. So I have more than a month to prepare specially for the AP exams. Besides, the Indian HS curriculum is much more rigorous than the American. So I already have much of the preparation. I haven’t looked into the specifics of what is asked on AP tho.

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AP Calc AB or BC
AP Comp Sci
AP Physics

If you can also take:
AP English Comp and/or Lit
AP US History or World or Euro
AP Psych
AP Chem

Those will go towards Gen Ed/Core Req’ts.

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@mom2collegekids
AP Calculus and Computer Science will be done.

Is AP Physics equivalent required for CS major or for general education? If so, which one? My school course covers material for all of them.

I can take AP Chemistry (not sure how it is “general” education). I’ll look into AP English.

The info here is a little vague: https://catalog.ua.edu/undergraduate/about/academic-regulations/curriculum/core-curriculum-general-education-requirements/

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Most schools require some type of natural science as part of their gen ed requirements so that is where the chem would fit in. If you can get that out of the way it would be helpful.

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@shelleyr25
Bama requires this:

My question here is, what exactly is “semester hour”? Is it the same as “credit” mentioned here: https://catalog.ua.edu/undergraduate/about/academic-regulations/policies/credit-by-examination/

Most AP courses earn 4 credits each. AP Calculus BC will take care of MATH 125 and MATH 126 for a total of 8 credits. One of the AP Physics exams will give me 4 credits. This should total 12 credits. Is that the same as 12 “semester hours”? If so, I will not need to take AP Chemistry.

Not sure about the lab requirements tho.

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Anyone? // bump

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Credits are usually the same as hours, in this instance.

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“Twelve semester hours of mathematics (MA) AND natural sciences (N) area courses, to include two hours of laboratory. Mathematics must be at the MATH 125 Calculus I level or higher.”

My ds is currently a CS major at Alabama and came in with 55 hours of AP credit, so I will try to help.

The AND means you need 12 hours of mathematics and 12 hours of science credits. Semester hours and credits are the same thing, so 3 semester hours=3 credits. So taking the Calculus BC exam and scoring a 3 or above will give you credit for MA 125 and 126 for a total of 8 credits for math.

For science you need 12 credits, with 8 of those credits being in a sequence. You can take Chemistry, and if you get a 3 or a 4 you get 4 credits, but a 5 would give you 8 credits and count as your sequence. If you take Biology and get a 3, that would give you 3 credits, but a score of 4 or 5 gives you 8 credits which would count as your science sequence.

Each physics exams gives you 4 credits if you score a 3 or above, but only choose one type of exam (either the algebra based Physics 1 and 2 OR calculus based Physics C exams). They will not give you credit for the algebra based exams and the calculus based exams (at least they did not for my ds). So if you can take both the physics C exams and do well, that would give you a science sequence.

If you think you could a least get a 4 on the Chemistry and Biology exams that would give you 12 credits with a sequence in Biology and you would be done with your science credits.

Like others have said, earning at least a 4 on the English Literature OR English Language exam would give you credit for EN 101 and EN 102 (required courses) and worth 6 credits. If you can take this and do well, it is a big help!

General education requirements also require 9 credits taken from humanities (HU), literature(LIT), OR fine arts (FA). Another 9 credits are required from history (HI) OR social/behavioral sciences (SB). You must also have a sequence of 6 credits in ONE of the categories: either HU/LIT/FA OR HI/SA. Ds took the AP Latin exam and scored a 4, so he received 9 credits which means he got all of the credist out of the way for the HU/LIT/FA category and his sequence is done. Now he just has 9 credits HI/SB to complete.

So, take a look at the languages and see if there is anything you can do well on.

Scoring a 3 or more on the psychology exam would give you 3 SB credits, and Human Geography would also give you 3 SB credits if you score a 3. Scoring a 4 on World History or US History would give you 6 HI credits each.

I will post a link the CS flowchart in case you have not seen it yet:

http://cs.ua.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/12/CS-Flowchart-2015.pdf

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Also when looking at which APs to take check the testing dates and times for each exam and make sure it doesn’t conflict with another exam.

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@3scoutsmom

I did check that. There is no overlap, per se. But the Physics C exams are on the same day, with just a 30 minute break between them.

@BlessedMom3
55 credits? Whoa. Did he skip like 2 years of college?

That flowchart was very helpful and I understand the structure better now.

I cannot take any HU/LIT/FA or HI/SA courses as I have no experience there. I also cannot take Biology.

I’ll have to choose between English Language and Literature (leaning towards the former). But getting a 4 is difficult, so it will give me only 3 credits, not 6. Similarly, getting a 5 on Chemistry is difficult.

Computer Science A (4)
Calculus BC (8)
Physics C: both (8)
Chemistry (4)
English (3)

^If I take these 6 exams, then I should have 27 credits. Almost enough to allow me to skip a year. While I will not save on tuition costs (Presidential Scholarship), I will save $15k on living costs. Definitely worth the ~$700 exam fee (one AP exam is ~$120 here).

I will lose 2 semesters of scholarship if I graduate early. So, I’m also thinking summer classes. I think I read something from @mom2collegekids on another thread.

Is it possible for an international student to get the $13k for study abroad?

(Not sure if I need a new thread for this)

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I’ve found some relevant information about study abroad and scholarships, after a LOT of searching.

Here’s what @siglio21 got from the Study Abroad department.

There seems to be a lot of confusion as to whether or not it will cover housing (if the tuition is less than the scholarship value).

[quote=lattelady] Bumping this thread and using it to clarify how a semester of scholarship gets used toward study abroad (at least for summer). My daughter is going to UA in Oxford this summer. The UA program cost is $6850 of which tuition is $2370. My hope was that the entire $6850 could be offset by a semester of scholarship but I've learned that only the $2370 would. We probably would have used a semester if we got $6850 for it but we will not use it just for $2370. (D will most likely do an internship one semester that would essentially free up a semester of scholarship).

[/quote]

Source:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1094470-studying-abroad.html
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1293994-study-abroad-ua-scholarships.html
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1040069-study-abroad-p2.html

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If at all possible, I would try to take the Statistics AP exam. Both of my kids took it, and received credits for different things for their majors. It turns out to be pretty valuable credit for multiple majors.

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@swim4school
I have very little experience in statistics (less than 25% of the AP syllabus). It’s just 3 credits. Even if I give it my best shot, I would not have the same level of experience that I would if I take the course in college. Besides, statistics is a pretty interesting subject in itself, and is an integral part of the CS-Math path.

The other APs will save me a year already, and I’m on Presidential Scholarship, so I will not benefit from one less course.

Thanks for the suggestion tho.

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@mundanewarrior, “55 credits? Whoa. Did he skip like 2 years of college?”
He came in with sophomore standing and will have junior standing at the end of this semester. He will likely only cut off a semester of school. He could cut off more, but he is also pursuing the STEM MBA program and he might earn his Masters in CS as well. His scholarship covers 5 years of tuition, plus he has stipends, so I think he will get as much for the scholarship money as he possibly can.

I can’t help you with study abroad because ds hasn’t done that yet. I would call the scholarship office to clarify.

Also, are you applying for the honors college? The requirements are a 28 on the ACT or 1310 new SAT and a 3.5 GPA (although your GPA may be calculated different). If you do not pass the AP English exam you take tale an honors Eng course (EN 103) that is one semester but counts for En 101 and 102, thus eliminating a semester of English.

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I don’t know if this has been mentioned yet, but I do not suggest taking Computer Science A or AB in hopes of exempting CS 100. While Alabama WILL allow you to exempt CS 100 with a 4 on the Computer Science AP exam, Computer Science A teaches Java while CS 100 teaches C++. So, if you did exempt CS 100 with AP credit, you would be most likely be behind or very confused in the following CS class.

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@BlessedMom3
I’ll wait for a formal scholarship offer (mid-March, they said) before asking them about the study abroad.

I have already been accepted into Honors College. EN 103 sounds like a course I want to take. I don’t think I’m going to take the AP exam. Is EN 103 worth 6 credits or just 3 (in which case I would need another elective in lieu of it). I read somewhere that EN 103 shows up as 3 credits of EN 101 and also counts as 3 credits towards UHP.

@ylee33
I have a lot of experience with Computer Science. An introductory course will not be teaching me anything new.
CS 100 is an introductory course. Teaching it in C++ won’t change that.
But I get it. I will refresh my C++ knowledge before I take any CS classes.

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@mundanewarrior, EN 103 is listed as 3 credits, but upon successful completion you would be awarded 6 credits for EN 101 and EN 102.