AP vs Dual Enrollment

ucbalumnus
Tue, 30 Jul 2019 00:45:57 +0000

In most cases, where the AP and DE course cover similar material, AP is more universally recognized. However, there are a few cases (e.g. physics) where the AP acceptance is less common than typical. Some of the most selective colleges are not very accepting of AP scores in general, beyond perhaps advanced placement in math and foreign language.

But you can look up AP acceptance for each college on its web site. You can also see if the target college has an articulation agreement to accept transfer credit from the college that your high school has a DE agreement with.

Obviously, if the DE course covers more advanced material than AP level (e.g. multivariable calculus, linear algebra), then that is the only option. Conversely, DE courses covering lower level material (remedial in a college context, like any math lower than calculus) would not be viewed as high level (in a high school context) like AP courses would.