I am asking specifically about private schools like CMU and Rice because they are very cryptic in the amount of credits I can get. For UC/CSU, is there a cap?
For UC and CSU, at most 70 semester or 105 quarter credit units from lower division courses can be transferred in. However, all transferable courses will count for subject credit.
In some colleges, the effective maximum is determined by the minimum number of credits or terms one must complete before graduating from the college. Of course, most colleges also require sufficient upper division credits in your major, and most credits earned while in high school are lower division (all community college and AP credit is lower division).
(Lower division = frosh/soph level)
Every school sets their own limits. AFAIK, Rice doesn’t have a limit, but they don’t give credit for all subjects (iirc, Human Geo is one that they don’t give credit for). Most schools require you to get a given mark to get credit (usually a 4 or 5).
There are indirect limits also: every school has graduation requirements, specifying the number of upper-level classes you have to take to graduate. Depending on the school, you could get ‘credit’ for some APs, but it wouldn’t matter b/c there are still other credits that you have to take at your degree-granting school.
If the goal is to use AP credits to graduate early that tends to be easier at public unis than private ones.
I am not at all au fait with the UC system, but there are some great posters who are!
@ucbalumnus So that would mean if I had 40-50 credits from my local community college, plus around 30 credits from AP Exams, I could either graduate earlier? Or maybe pursue simultaneous degrees if offered without having to add an extra semester?
It depends on the school and your degree. My D started college as a second semester sophomore (1 class shy of being considered a junior) but will not be able to graduate early because of course sequencing for her major. It allowed her to place out of almost all her general ed requirements though and be able to take the courses she was really interested in. By next year she’ll be able to carry the minimum course load as well to have more time for research and or add a concentration or minor.
@Alamere It really depends a lot on the school and the course of study. As indicated above, each school has it’s own rules about what scores you need, what courses it subs for, etc. You can’t just say X degree is 120 credits minus the 80 credits I have earned. Yes, you should be able to graduate earlier but how much is dependent on a lot of factors.
Have you narrowed down which specific schools you are interested in? If so, I would look at their AP credit guide and cross-check it with the required coursework for your intended degree program. This is what we did for my daughter who earned 56 credits in AP and dual-enrollment courses. In the end she only can count 36 towards her degree. The school will say they are all “transferrable” but if they don’t reduce courses necessary for the degree then it’s really not useful. AP credits can look good on your transcript and show depth etc so all is not wasted.
My D20 didn’t get credit for Human Geo either in her CS program (but she might have in a different program, but then maybe no credit for Science or math courses). You might get the most “bang for your buck” using each of the credits for two somewhat different degrees (Engineering and PolySCi, for example), but there is no one size fits all guide for transference. Contact your Admissions rep for each school and go from there…
About my graduating early or double majoring… that was more a UC/CSU thing where I know they accept 70 credits. If I were to say do Physics and Economics simultaneously or Physics and Chemistry at a UC would all the credits allow that to happen in the same timeframe as most student’s single degrees?
Would also depend on your major. It’s not necessarily about total units. It’s about the units and requirements for a particular major at a particular school.
You can typically find the course requirements for a major on a school’s website. The specific classes for a specific major.
I had three attend a UC in different majors: engineering, biology and econ. While they received “credit”, for many classes. Those credits didn’t necessarily fulfill a specific degree requirement. Some credits were just extra units.
but in terms of GE requirements, like the IGETC stuff (core requirements in bio, humanities, econ, polisci, etc), I should be able to take some side interest stuff (or second major) where I would normally be taking intro to humanities or core biology, I could now take courses pertaining to a certain second major…
Also I do plan on staying in L&S or Arts and Sciences or whatever the name of the college is which means there is a universal breadth requirement for all majors as per my understanding.
You might. It depends on whether your major(s) have voluminous requirements or sequences of requirements that your previously taken college courses and AP credit do not fulfill.
For example, UCLA gives lots of credit units for AP scores, but many of them end up being generic departmental credit, rather than credit that will fulfill a requirement or prerequisite of a specified course: http://www.admission.ucla.edu/Prospect/APCreditLS.htm (where there is no course number listed, it is considered generic departmental credit). Also, note that if you do take a college course covering similar material as the AP credit, you may lose the AP credit.
Many high school students taking AP exams or college courses while in high school do not choose them optimally for the purpose of fulfilling college requirements to graduate early or add another major without needing extra time, because they are not thinking about that, and do not know what college they will attend anyway. Also, the AP exams mostly cover only college-frosh-level material, so their usability to get more advanced than that is limited.
In terms of college courses, I am completing enough credits to fulfill transfer requirements (I still apply as a freshman to college, just that I get an A.S. and high school diploma at the same time) and an A.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies, Science and Math. So should I be able to clear the majority of breadth courses at the university level?
“For example, UCLA gives lots of credit units for AP scores, but many of them end up being generic departmental credit, rather than credit that will fulfill a requirement or prerequisite of a specified course“
And the UCs don’t allow you to count APs towards the breadth (General Ed) courses. So the main benefit is if you intend to take a short major (eg PoliSci) and use the extra unit credits to graduate early. My S had 60 credits from APs but won’t use any of them.
My D had a similar number at a college that allows for General Ed exemptions but is still only using a handful because most General Ed requirements are also covered by courses that are required for her majors.
However transferable community college courses may be treated differently.
Okay, thank you all! In all likelihood, I should be able to use almost all of my transfer credits for every UC except Berkeley (Berkeley I am applying to COE which has different breadth requirements).
I used assist.org for that information… so I hope it is reliable…
It depends on the specific courses you took and how they are accepted for subject credit against breadth courses at the university.
If you live in California, and complete the IGETC pattern at a community college, that can substitute for most or all of the lower division general education requirements at CSUs and most UCs (this assumes that you have the oral communication course for CSU and foreign language for UC; if you have only one of these, IGETC will only work for one of the university systems).
http://icas-ca.org/Websites/icasca/images/IGETC_STANDARDS_FINAL_VERSION_1.9.pdf
I am taking com studies for oral communication requirement. For a foreign language, my high school language stuff should suffice.
But did you finish all of the other IGETC areas?
AREA 1 - ENGLISH COMMUNICATION
1A: English Composition (one course - 3 semester or 4-5 quarter units)
1B: Critical Thinking - English Composition (one course - 3 semester or 4-5 quarter units)
1C: Oral Communication (CSU requirement only) (one course - 3 semester or 4-5 quarter units)
AREA 2A - MATHEMATICAL CONCEPTS & QUANTITATIVE REASONING (one course - 3 semester or 4-5 quarter units)
AREA 3 - ARTS AND HUMANITIES (3 courses, with one from the Arts and one from the Humanities. 9 semester or 12-15 quarter units)
3A: ARTS
3B: HUMANITIES AREA
4 - SOCIAL and BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES (3 courses from at least two academic disciplines. 9 semester or 12-15 quarter units)
AREA 5 - PHYSICAL and BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES (2 courses, with one from the Physical Science and one from the Biological Science, at least one of the two courses must include a laboratory. 7-9 semester units or 9-12 quarter units)
5A: PHYSICAL SCIENCE
5B: BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE
5C: Lab
AREA 6 - LANGUAGE OTHER THAN ENGLISH (UC Requirement Only) (Proficiency equivalent to two years of high school study in the same language.)
But also, check with the CC and the UCs and CSUs to see if frosh with college credit can use IGETC, since it is not specifically stated whether they can.
Yes for all. I have english 1B and 1C as well as a biological science left