<p>ok so i took an admissions tour and campus tour recently, and this is what happened</p>
<p>the tour guide said that the engineering department which she is in only accepts ap scores of 4’s or 5’s</p>
<p>this was strange because the college’s website said that they accept all scores 3 and higher. </p>
<p>who is correct?</p>
<p>Probably the website, unless they recently changed their policy and it hasn’t been updated or something. You could email them and ask.</p>
<p>It might be the difference between granting you credit, and letting you take a higher level course. At my university, 3’s let you bypass lower level courses to take higher level courses, but 4’s and 5’s granted you credit for the lower level courses. If you needed the lower level course for your degree, you could skip it with a 3, but you’d still have to take it at some point.</p>
<p>Probably the website, but it depends on the tour guide - was it a student or an admissions director?</p>
<p>It is possible that a 3 may be accepted for credit units, but a 4 is needed for subject credit and/or placement into a higher level course.</p>
<p>For example, a school might give you 4 credit units for a 3 on calculus AB, but require you to score a 4 to skip first semester frosh calculus.</p>
<p>Here’s how it works at my son’s school (he’s in engineering). You have to get a 3 on AP Calc in order to get into Calc 1. If you don’t get a 3, then you have to take precalc first. If you get a 4 or 5, then you test out of Calc 1 and go into Calc 2. However, they recommend everyone take calc 1 because it’s a higher degree of difficulty than AP Calc is.</p>
<p>I suspect they are both right. It sounds to me like the college in general accepts a 3 for credit, but the Engineering department sets its own bar a little higher and will count only a 4 or 5 for fulfillment of the department’s requirements for graduation.</p>
<p>^^What terinzak said. That is what we’ve heard too. My son plans to take calc 1 even though he would not be required to since they say it is more difficult. His thought is it is better to be ahead in calc 1 than behind in calc 2.</p>
<p>^^^Exactly!</p>