<p>My son came into his state public university with 26 hours of AP credit and 3 hours of Clep credit. This has worked perfectly for him, as he is an Economics major, and this pretty much finishes off most of his GEP requirements. He did all his social sciences, English, all his science, his math, and some of his history. He also did the beginning Economics course. For his major … it works beautifully. With being in the honors program (for full priority class scheduling) and these hours, he could graduate in 3 years. However, he’s chosen, at least at this point, to do an accelerated M.S. in Economics with the Economics B.A., which he should be able to complete in four years. Law School is his ultimate goal. With my daugher, a high school junior, we are encouraging her to also hit the histories, english, social sciences, etc … to complete GEP requirements. As far as the AP Calc, AP Bio and AP chem she’s taken, we’re encouraging her to retake the classes when she hits college and not use her credit. She’s either going pharmacy or Med, and she’s taking the AP classes to give her more exposure to these sciences before hitting college, as well as showing rigor of class schedule for admissions. Two different plans with two different kids as they are very different in their career paths … and it seems to be working well. So far she’s scored 5’s on all her AP exams, so we hope she’s getting a good foundation for college work.</p>
<p>zebes, does your son go to UCF? My son has a couple friends over there in the honors program and they are very happy. This past weekend, another friend and H went over for a concert and were very impressed with the campus. Their heads were turned- they are now encouraging their son who was a diehard UF fan to look into it. I’ve heard amazing things about UCF.</p>
<p>Finally! A topic I know something about! Son didn’t have AP credit, but did have college credit. He took AP Calc A/B as a junior. Since that was all our high school offered, he took Calc I and Calc II at a local LAC. When he registered for class at Univ of Michigan (engineering), he decided to re-take Calc II. This gave him a good foundation for college, and a slightly easier first semester. Especially since he is also taking Organic Chemistry.</p>
<p>I got credits for my APs, but decided not to take Sophomore standing as I didn’t want to declare a major. When I got to grad school they gave me graduate school credit for any courses I needed over the minimum to graduate as an undergrad as long as they were grad level courses. Since I’d taken the entire grad school architectural history sequence, I ended up with a whole semester’s worth of credit in grad school even though I didn’t graduate early. What most of my friends who did take sophomore standing at Harvard did, was stay for the fourth year and get a Master’s as well as a BA. They graduated with the rest of their original class.</p>
<p>I’ll chime in here…as I am a student who is reperating 2 courses for which I had AP credit. In HS, I took the AP Calc BC exam and received a 5 as well as the AP Chem exam and received a 4. In my case I could have been exempted from 2 semesters each of chemistry and calculus. The kicker though…I am a chemistry major as well as pre-med. So I would have had to take upper level classes for med school. And since I’m taking 18 credits this semester I really did not want to put myself under even more pressure. Also, (and I’m not going to lie) I’m repeating the class in hope of getting an easy A. Since GPA is a very important factor in the med school applications, I would love to have something to help my grade. This may or may not work out in the end, but I think it was the right decision at this moment to retake the classes.</p>
<p>I agree with many of the posters here that student might consider taking AP credit for everything except Calc. Unlike many other classes, students cannot be successful in advanced calculus unless they have a thorough understanding of intro calculus.</p>
<p>Our son’s college sent him a lengthy problem set a few months before fall classes to help them determine if they were adequately prepared to take college credit for Calc 1 and Calc 2. Based on this he took credit in Calc 1 but enrolled in Calc 2. A wise choice because he got a B in the course but then got A’s in his next three maths.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine taking organic chem as a first chem college class. There is an assumption that students are familiar with college chem labs by that point … and while some high schools may truly prepare students for this, I imagine many (most?) do not. D’s friend is taking organic at U of MI this semester as a freshman … 5 hours in a row … I am interested in talking to her around the holidays to see how it’s going.</p>
<p>S’s friend took organic chem at MIT in his freshman year. He did so well he was asked to be Course Assistant in his sophomore year. I think all he’d had prior to MIT was AP-Chem.</p>
<p>My DS signed up for HONORS Organic Chemistry at Rice, as a freshman. :eek: He got a 5 on the AP exam/800 SAT chem test, but I’m sure his high school did not do the labs like colleges do. Not to mention, he took chem as a high school junior (so no chem for a year) and is planning to major in Chem Engineering. It would seem like an EXCELLENT idea to retake General Chemistry, or even take honors Gen Chemistry, but no… I hope he made a good decision! He also decided to take his Calc AP credit, and he signed up for Diff Equations. :eek:</p>
<p>Here’s our story…S1 took Calc.AB as a h.s jr. scored a 4. When he got to state u. orientation he had already been placed in Calc.2 due to score. I encouraged him to go back to Calc.1 and re-take since it had been awhile since he had it, thought it would be a good review for Calc.2. Ooops…Calc 1 teacher turned out to be a grad. student with an foreign accent so thick S1 couldn’t understand a word. He failed the first 2 tests and was advised by two different advisors to drop the class as it would be silly to end up with a low grade in a class he really already had credit for.</p>
<p>S1 drops the class and decides to go ahead give Calc. 2 a try in the Spring. He got a very good doctoral candidate teacher this time. The class was hard for him but he went to office hours every week and the teacher was very willing to help him. He came out with a “B” and was very happy and glad he skipped on to Calc.2.<br>
S1 is not an engineering major but was required to take the engineering Calc. classes. Calc. 2 was the endpoint for his math requirements.</p>
<p>They have to drag me kicking and screaming into a class that I’d already earned credit for thanks to AP. I’m not wasting my time or money on something I worked so hard for in high school.</p>