Starting this thread for rising Seniors as this may help with their school decision.
All the schools on the college tours will tell you they take IB and AP credit. After going through the process, I have found that is defiantly not always true. My kid got the IB diploma and a 5 on IB English exam, but her college wouldn’t accept it because she did not have a total IB score of 30. How her grade on Math and History tests are relevant to English credit is beyond me. So my 2 cents is:
A. Credit units to the number of credit units for graduation?
B. Subject credit against specific subject requirements (general education or major)?
C. Placement into more advanced courses?
Different students value each of the above differently.
In any case, looking up the AP/IB credit policies at each college (and sometimes the specific major or division at the college) would be needed if you want to find out how they apply.
But look at the fine print in that VCU chart. IB SL credit may not be worth too much. For example, IB math SL is credited for MATH 151, precalculus (presumably exempts the student from needing to take the placement test to get into calculus), and IB math studies SL is credited for MATH 141, algebra with applications.
But if credit units are what is desired, then VCU’s policy is more generous than most with respect to IB SL credit.
U minn was good, and the U of Utah is very good. Obviously people are not looking for a math credit from SL math for calc at uni, but the courses my oldest kid had got rid of a lot of gen eds and writing intensives, He didn’t look for credit with the major core classes. He did get credit for SLs as part of the whole diploma, but again, for gen eds, not core eng. U of Utah states it offers 30 credits and waives gen ed reqs with the right diploma make up.
While it adds extra work, this is why schools persist in doubling up on APs when a 4 at AP gives better credit than IB.It would be better IMO if US schools ensured better IBD scores. This is school and students though, because many of the kids have no hoots to give about their IBD score.
No they won’t. Each college is free to set their AP/IB credit policies as it sees fit. Some colleges are very generous with credit, while others give no credit at all. Public universities are usually more generous than private colleges and universities
Almost every college will have it’s pre-college credit policies posted on the website. For the few that don’t, a call/email to the registrar’s office will give you the info. Your daughter should not have been surprised, as Duquesne makes it very clear.
It also states: “Students who do not complete the IB diploma are able to receive advanced standing credit for IB Higher Level subjects with scores of 5, 6 or 7.” So she got the diploma, but not the credit she would have gotten if she had not gotten the diploma…
Also EVERY college tour guide we went on stated that they take IB/ AP credit, but there is always a big asterisk next to that statement. Just trying to help prospective students see that once you commit to the school, they may or may not take your credit depending on their convoluted rules.
This is very important! D16 is at OU and we asked about AP credits and were told they take unlimited AP credits and directed us to their web page that clearly lists which classes which AP’s with which scores will apply. No one mentioned that different departments with in the university may have other rules. We later found out the the meteorology program will only allow 32 credits to come from AP or other test based credit but would allow for up to 64 transfer credits from a CC. We had to quickly changed DD senior schedule and switch classes from AP to DE she still has several AP credits that apply to ‘class standing’ but can’t be used toward her degree.
Also some honors programs either don’t take introductory course AP credit or very strongly suggest the student re-take the honors intro course. UT Austin computer science, if I remember correctly, doesn’t want anyone to skip its intro CS course so it funnels students with AP CS credit to the honors intro course. Depending on the major, students may be either required or encouraged to take courses at the college even if they have AP credit.
I find more of what I’d consider “misleading marketing” comes from the high school and from College Board. I think every AP teacher I’ve heard at parent night touts how much credit students can get, though to be fair they usually focus on credit at Texas publics which are really great about awarding AP credit. And of course College Board falls all over itself talking up the credit to be gained through AP. For the colleges tours I’ve been on, the talk tracked pretty closely with the actual AP policy of the school. The MIT rep was clear that AP or similar rigor is expected in high school classes but AP credit is very limited. Tulsa’s rep described their AP credit policy as “generous” and it is. And so on.
@ucbalumnus, my frame of reference is mainly Texas publics because that’s where my son’s interest lies, but I wouldn’t call MIT’s credit policy “generous” by any means. Only 5s are considered, and only for a handful of exams. And the rep doing the presentation at MIT the day we toured made it very clear that there was only limited credit to be gained through AP, but MIT expects high school students to have taken a rigorous schedule including AP or IB classes if possible.
As a comparison, my son’s top choice school, UT Dallas, will award him 31 credit hours for the eight AP exams he’s taken so far (six scores of 5 and two scores of 4). At MIT for the same eight exams he will get nine unrestricted elective credits and he could place in a higher level introductory math. Perhaps MIT is generous relative to its peers, but I would not call it objectively generous at all, and MIT’s own rep said the credit was limited.
But she did complete the diploma, so the point is moot.
Which is impressive. So for that she deserves congrats, But if she did it with a score of less than 30, that means that one or more subjects was a 4 of below. Less impressive. Regardless, as I’ve said, colleges can set their own policies.
Qualities of tour guides vary, as does the accuracy of their information, for better or worse. Their have been many threads on this subject. The student should still trust the college website first and foremost.
For a private university of that tier, I would call it generous. In addition to giving credit for select math/science exams, they give credit for all Humanities and Social Science exams, although, like most colleges at the level, they cannot be used for gen ed credit. It’s certainly more generous than most others at that level.
To say it another way, I was using MIT as an example of one end of the AP credit spectrum. Regardless of what it does relative to its peers, it is still on the stingy end of the continuum. I’m not arguing that it SHOULD award more credit, merely pointing out that it does not offer much. I’m sure most elites will be on that end but I’ve only researched MIT because my son’s not planning to apply to any of those other elites. Not a knock against MIT in any way. In fact if you look back at my earlier post in this thread, I stated that the admissions rep who did the information session for my son’s tour did not in any way oversell MIT’s AP credit policy. I did not feel in any way misled by the info session when I later looked up the policy on the MIT website, because the rep advised that credit was limited. AND IT IS.
I guess if you want the stingy end, that would be Caltech. They give zero AP credit and basically no credit for courses at other colleges.
There are summer placement tests for math, physics, and writing along with testing out opportunities for math, physics, CS, and chemistry. There is a summer online course on “Transition to Mathematical Proofs” they are supposed to take as preparation for the proof-based math series everyone takes. They say: “Our evaluation of TMP shows that students who do not take TMP are two times more likely to get a C or lower in their first Math course at Caltech.” DS has probably tested out of the first CS course, and may be able to test out of others.
DS had 14 AP tests with 11 5s and 2 4s. Plus As in 6 UCSB math/CS/science courses (including one upper-division) and 6 community college classes. But, he’s happy to have gotten in!