Cuca

Okay, so at CPW people were always telling me that MIT doesn't charge you per credit, so you can take as many classes/credits as you can handle per semester for the exact same price.

Given this, does getting "General Elective Credit" for 5's on most AP and 7's on most IB exams really save you any money?

And am I right in assuming that it can save you some time? But seriously, as a prefrosh, I'm completely looking forward to MIT and couldn't imagining trying to get out in only 3 or 3.5 years (one less IAP!). On the contrary, I think I'll be the kinda to try and stick around longer...

LauraN

No, they don't save you credit- but they will save you time. Also, they are a nice cushion. Even if you don't want to graduate in less than four years, you never know when something is going to go wrong- when life happens and you have to drop a class unexpectedly or...*gasp* you fail something, it's nice to know that all that came out of it was that you lost your head start, rather than falling behind.

It also just gives you more time to do things you want to do that might not directly contribute to your major- like take some other classes, or only take 3 classes and do some really cool activity.

rainynightstarz

With credit for like GIRs you can also start taking classes in your major earlier and more opportunity to explore classes in other majors for fun.
Sure there is no price/ credit, but there are only so many credits you can take a term and still sleep.
And.. well, it can't hurt you.

molliebatmit

It won't directly save you money, no.

But I second Laura's "cushion" comment -- it gives you room to have a semester where you drop a class or two and still remain on track to graduate on time. My husband was able to have two such semesters thanks to his AP credit.

But even if you come in with a ton of general elective credit, you don't have to graduate in 3 or 3.5 years if you don't want to. Nobody's going to kick you out after you accumulate 180 units outside the GIRs.