Is it possible for an engineering major to get a minor, for instance in Spanish and still finish in 4 years? From what I’ve read it looks like you can only credit out of two of the required core curriculum classes with AP credits . Is it recommended to skip beginning calculus, chemistry and physics classes if you have the AP credit to do so? Can you skip ahead to the next level with AP credit?
I’m going to start off by saying I’m certainly no expert. Our high school doesn’t offer AP classes but kids can take AP tests.
My son is a freshman at Pitt. He took the calculus AP tests and used those for Calc 1 and Calc 2 credit. His other math credits were transfer credits from college classes, plus he had transfer credit for the first chemistry class- again, classes he took at local colleges while in high school.
He’s a strong math student with a good grip on the required topics for engineering, so he won’t take any of the math classes at Pitt for engineering. He will take more math for a math minor because he can fit that in his schedule easily.
If your student feels like they have the subject down solidly then they could probably take the AP credit and move to the next level. If not, taking it again may be a good way to start with some solid As.
One thing to know about math at Pitt: the finals are given to all the sections of that math class at once. One of the professors will create the test, and hopefully that’s the professor your student has. Last terms Calc 1 final was apparently brutal for some. Math department policy states that your final grade cannot be more than one grade higher than what you get on the final. Son told me about a kid that maintained an A throughout the term but then got a D- on the final, so ended up with a C- for the class. Just something to keep in mind.
Remember that Calculus is a very important building block for the engineering curriculum. Your student wants to be really good at it because it helps with the rest of their classes - like physics
One last thing - he did skip the Chem 1 class and started the fall term with Chem 2. Chemistry instruction is pretty standard so he didn’t fee behind in that subject. There were several freshman engineering students that started with Chem 2, so I’d assume that some at least used AP credit.
@missbwith2boys Hi! Can you say more, either positive or negative, about your son’s experience with the math department? Is that policy true for all level classes, or just for more introductory classes that are taken by lots of students, even non-math majors, like calc 1 and 2? Is the one student’s experience an outlier, or is it common for students to end up with a much lower grade on the final after doing well all semester? I have read concerns about this policy before, but hadn’t heard about such an extreme example. My potential Pitt student is interested in math, and is a strong math student, but this policy seems a bit off-putting, at least to me as a parent.
If any other current students or parents of current students have thoughts about the math department, I’d welcome those insights as well.
Thanks in advance.
You can use AP credits for 2 of the 6 required elective classes, but you can use the other AP credits to pass into the higher levels of math, sciences. here is the text : “Students may receive credit for an unlimited number of math and science AP classes on the approved list, but no more than two of their humanities/social science elective classes may be satisfied through AP or IB”. And yes, you can fulfill many minors within 4 yrs with engineering - my ds graduated with a minor in chem, my dd will graduate this yr with bioe major, chem and korean minors