I was just admitted Engineering Undeclared as a James Scholar to U of I. I live in India, so I’ve only taken 2 APs exams (Calc AB and Microeconomics) with a score of 4 in both. I’m wondering what AP classes to take next in order to receive credit. Also, how much time and money will I save coming in with my current APs plus, lets say, Physics and chemistry?
Thanks guys 
You can go directly to their AP by exam page and it will tell you what you need on each to get the credit. For engineering they want mostly 5’s.
@srparent My question was which APs to take, not what scores to get. 4s work good for Engineering, I just want to know which subjects to take.
The following link is definitive on what AP courses/scores are used for degree credit at UIUC and also course placement.
http://admissions.illinois.edu/academics/placement_ap.html
If you received a 4 in AP Physics but still want to try to place out, you can also take a proficiency test at the beginning and end of the semester.
If you want credit in the physics courses that will actually save you time, then you do have to get a 5 on the AP Physics C exams. So…in your rather snippy comment, you displayed the relevance of the point being made by srparent.
You could get a 4 in AP Physics B and get credit for Physics 101 and 102, but this isn’t going to save you any time since engineering students and physics majors don’t take this physics sequence in the first place.
The only caveat I’ll mention when it comes to AP credit to place out of courses that are engineering core preparatory is that those courses at UIUC are intense, and they’re that way for a reason. A 5 likely means you’ve mastered the material, but some people have struggled afterward in some core courses. Some people are adamant that if you can place out of the course, take the credit, and move on. Others take the courses as a kind of refresher, bolster their GPA, and then hit the “core courses” ground running. My son ran into another problem with a lot of AP credit. He was basically a term ahead in wanting to take some core courses. The problem was that what he wanted to take in the Fall was only offered in the Spring and vice-versa. He ended up graduating in 4 years and is continuing with his masters now, but just be aware that it’s difficult to save that last term’s cost due to the way they structure the core course scheduling for your program. The professors teach one set of courses one term, and another set, the other term. Plot out your 4 year suggested curriculum, and you’ll see what I mean. The benefit AP gives you is that you can take a few more upper level courses, and really get into the material of a specialization within your program that interests you.
Getting into Engineering at a top engineering powerhouse like U of I is no small accomplishment. You’ll have plenty of time to enjoy extracurriculars if you learn to mange your time well. They do, however, expect a lot out of their engineering students. If they thought you wouldn’t be able to take the heat, you wouldn’t have been offered one of the very selective seats available. Good luck to all. My son’s finishing up his Masters in May, so I’ll be leaving the thread to someone experiencing U of I currently. See you all in the brave new world out there!
Believe me, an AP physics course is not going to be anywhere near as good as getting your introductory physics at UIUC. An AP high school physics teacher is often also teaching several other subjects, and may not have actually done work in physics at any point in their life. Professors at UIUC have built one of the top ranked physics programs in the country and are some of the brightest minds in their field.
One nice thing there is that it seems that they do allow you the opportunity to proficiency out of a lot of courses. Unfortunately, it sounds like you have to wait until the beginning of the term to do it which means taking different courses than most people might take in a sequence until you know if you get the credit or not.
Thank @comfortablycurt for reinforcing my comment about the AP Exams. I was only trying to help him/her by pointing out where he/she can find the information and see that in Engineering a 5 goes a lot further than a 4. Personally, if I could choose the best AP classes/tests for my son to take and get out of, it would be the GenEd ones because you only need 18 of those credits and the classes aren’t in the major. Of course, in his case, they’re not GenEds so he will have to take those courses at UIUC which he of course can’t stand.
@comfortablycurt I am still not sure what prompted your “snippy” comment. In my experience with the large Chicago suburban high schools, the physics teachers have a degree in physics if they are teaching AP classes. Most of the AP classes at my son’s HS were taught to a level beyond the actual AP test.
@kaustubh0328 If you have already been admitted, are you a senior in HS? If you asking about which AP tests to take later in the spring, it would be important to know in which classes you are currently enrolled in HS (or do you plan to self study for AP credit)? Since you are undeclared ENG, its hard to now exactly which core classes are most used later in the curriculum. As example, an ECE major may not use the PHYS 211 concepts as in depth as other ENG majors, but the PHYS 212 concepts are the foundation for many more ECE classes.
@srparent15 Its great to take plenty of AP classes in HS for gen ed credit, but I would think that many students were admitted to UIUC for engineering specifically because they were already challenging themselves with the most rigorous math and science AP classes at their HS, so the gen ed courses would be in addition to math and science.
Many ENG students enter UIUC with the possibility of 30-40 hours of AP credit and there are pros and cons to retaking classes to boost your GPA or trying to graduate in less than four years (or having the luxury of taking no more than four classes a semester), so its an individual decision.Your senior resume should still show all the UIUC courses passed for proficiency or AP credit. Entering first year with 30+ hours has advantages of priority when scheduling spring classes vs freshman students under 30 hours.
Specifically to your question about which AP classes to take, you need to review the gen ed and core requirements for the various ENG majors. AP classes that correlate to UIUC credit in RHET, ECON, PS, HIST and foreign language are good bets to get credit for the 18 hours of non-engineering classes and course sequences.
A solid foundation is absolutely ESSENTIAL for any subsequent learning. You will be building a castle of knowledge - any holes in the foundation are SURE to get you - sooner or later. I am an AP Physics C teacher and I can guarantee you that the mastery of content that gets you a 4 on the AP exam is not at par with the mastery that gets you a 5!!
My son took Intro to ECE at Carnegie Mellon after his Junior year (he had already taken both AP Physics exams) - the entire 13-14 wk course and all labs condensed in 6 weeks - and when they were on the material at the very end (Karnaugh maps etc) was the ONLY time that he uttered the words ‘the struggle is real…’. People without the foundational Electricity and Magnetism knowledge had abysmal test scores (<< 50%).
One advice Lenny Pitt (CS Director of Undergraduate Studies) had that might work out well is to take a look at the final exams posted online for any course you want to place out of and judge for yourself.
I was referring to this comment by the OP: "My question was which APs to take, not what scores to get. 4s work good for Engineering, I just want to know which subjects to take. "
OP seems to be saying that this (incredibly relevant) advice about AP scores is irrelevant because it wasn’t directly an answer to the question being asked…and seemed very short in saying so, despite this being a piece of information that OP certainly needs to know given the circumstances.
@illinidad Yeah I’m a senior in high school, but I live in India so AP classes are not an option haha. But, I can self study for them because most of what the AP contains is all stuff we’ve done in 11th and 12th grade here in India, so self studying isn’t a problem. I was able to self study for microeconomics and Calculus so I think I can do it again. That being said, APs are SUPER expensive here (9000 INR a test which translates to about $145, but in terms of value it’s a lot more, people make 9K INR a month lol) so I have to choose really wisely. Would you suggest I take AP literature or something to get rid of the writing requirement?
@takanuva Since you’re a current teacher, can you tell me about Physics 1 and 2? (The new APs that were introduced). Should I consider taking these, and in general what level are they?
@comfortablycurt I meant no insult, please forgive me.
RHET 105 can be satisfied with a high enough English subscore on the ACT, so you might want to see whether you can get credit for it that way, and take another AP.
http://cte.illinois.edu/testing/pnp/cutoffs/cutoff09/rhet09.html
My point about the Gen Eds is that while my son hates those courses, he will have to take them anyway because if he liked them, he probably would’ve taken the AP tests. It would have been nice if he had taken them to get them out of the way, but yes of course, there’s a reason why all of his advanced courses are in Engineering related topics. As far as proficiency credit, it appears that he will get AP CS credit (just the hours because the equivalent course isn’t required for the CS majors) and one he took through a local University, with the opportunity to proficiency out of 2 more. As for Physics, the CS degree requires Physics 211 and 212 (Physics C) and he is in that now and it is taught unbelievably difficult in our school. Although not the best teacher, like other AP teachers in our school, they are very demanding and have high expectations and most are generally prepared well for the AP Exams. All the kids who took the AP Calc BC got 5’s last year, and again not the best teacher teaching it, but they do push the kids above and beyond so they succeed. He will also be able to proficiency out of Multivariate Calculus and Linear Algebra. Now of course, this does not mean he will, but between those and the AP credit he does have, he will be in great shape entering in and get his courses as well as take a lesser load if he would like.
I can understand self studying for the AP test, but I would think you lose the benefit of the material being taught to you by an actual teacher and sometimes that goes a long way.
Engineering students need 18 hours of general education credit any way you look at it. I wish my son had taken AP Econ at school because that would have satisfied 2 courses and you only needed a 4 on the AP test, whereas most of them a 5 gets you the credit.
As for the OP, if you look at the engineering requirements and even the general education requirements, you can take almost any AP course and meet one of your requirements. The gened wont’ have anything to do with your engineering courses, so my suggestion would be to actually take those since there’s really no sequence to them. In other words, you don’t need US History to be an engineer, so if you AP out of it, you don’t have to worry that you may have not been taught something that may come back to bite you later. I had suggested my son self study for some of them, but he has no interest. Don’t forget you also need 3 years of a foreign language as well in Engineering.
@srparent See the thing is, I’m not entirely self studying for the APs. All the basic concepts have already been taught to me in school, albeit in a different way.
So in general, what APs would you suggest I take to reduce the Gen Ed requirement. Sorry if I’m a little confused, I moved from the United States in 4th grade to India so I’m not too good with the requirements and stuff.
EDIT:
About physics C, I go to an IIT coaching school in India (IIT is basically India’s MIT, nearly 100,000 people write the entrance and the acceptance rate is <1%) where all we do is learn Physics chemistry and math at an IIT level (super duper hard), so I guess I would be able to do physics C on my own. I know a couple of guys that did do it and they did pretty well.
@Balthezar Thanks for that! I have a 33 on the English section so I get 5 hours of RHET 105 credit. Thanks for linking me that
@kaustubh0328
I would not recommend AP Physics 1 and 2. Many schools have no way of figuring out equivalency yet since it is so new - I would be very surprised if any decent Engineering school ever gives credit for those. Take AP Physics C - both exams and yes I know you have studied most of the content in school. Many of the questions are similar to IIT entrance levels - but nowhere near the content that is covered for IIT so you should have an easy time (I know I am giving away a lot - you can guess where I am from). You only need to master Mechanics (Kinematics till Oscillations) and Electricity and Magnetism (Coulomb’s law to Electromagnetic Induction) - no waves, optics, Thermal Physics or modern physics.
Any comments about Chemistry? How difficult will GenEd in chemistry be if my d did not take AP Chem in high school but took honors Chemistry in 10th grade?
@takanuva Haha it’s great meeting a fellow Indian here ( atleast I do hope you’re indian 
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Oh ok, thanks a lot. I’ll take Physics C then. Do you know anything about chemistry?
Rhet 105 is 4 hours, not 5, so you’d get the proficiency for that along with 4 hours of credit.
To determine what General Education credits you would be best taking, you should look at the AP page for UIUC as I suggested originally, and as someone else posted the link and see what’s available as well as what category of Gen Ed they represent.