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.