Not at the Ivies. Everyone here who has gone to Yale, or lives with someone who does
, has explained that you do NOT get “course credit” for an AP course. You may place out of a requirement, but you still need to take 36 classes and you need to take them, with limited exceptions, *at* Yale.
I have seen no posts here from anyone who
actually attended Yale, or from someone with a close family member (such as spousal unit
who actually attended Yale, who says anything other than Yale) does *not* accept AP courses as course credit.
Not quite. Here's what I said above:
You can use AP credits to accelerate your graduation if you're planning to graduate in fewer than 8 semesters, but not to reduce the number of courses you take per semester. Your AP credits can be used to place into certain advanced courses instead of beginning with an introductory course, but they can't count toward your major requirements or any of the distributional requirements (the general education requirements that apply to all Yale undergraduates, regardless of major).
"Acceleration" is one of those quirky Yale-specific terms, so it may be causing a bit of confusion. If you have enough AP credits (generally with a score of 4 or 5 on the exam), once you've completed three semesters at Yale, you can declare that you'd like to graduate either one or two semesters early: you accelerate. You're free to change your mind later and decelerate, and take the full eight semesters after all. But then all those other rules start kicking in: you have to take your remaining courses at Yale (not transferring them from other institutions), you have to carry a full course load in each semester at Yale in order to earn enough credits to graduate, and so on.
And Yale is unusually restrictive in how those AP credits can accelerate your graduation. Basically, they reduce the number of electives you take, and the number of courses in your language requirement. If you use AP credits to accelerate, you end up with a more focused educational experience centered on your major and your distributional requirements. I'd be sorry if I hadn't taken some of the amazing electives I was able to choose...and since one of those electives launched me on my major and my career, my life would be very different!
Back to Nathan: Not that he wants or needs my advice, but I would counsel him not to accelerate. Take time off altogether to skate if he wants to, but take advantage of the fact that he is eligible to take absolutely any course at Yale for which he has satisfied the prereqs: an art history course that goes to Rome for spring break, a course on ancient civilizations that will send him into the basement of the art gallery to look at Babylonian artifacts, a philosophy course on happiness or on death, a seminar on bioethics that purposely draws together science and humanities majors, a Shakespeare course that will take him to the rare-books library to look at the only surviving copy of the good quarto of
Hamlet. If you're lucky enough to have the privilege of access to so many world-renowned experts teaching in their fields, backed up by such extraordinary resources, take full advantage of it!
I went to a top 10 private college and got AP English course credit, so you might be right about Yale, but you are not right in general. AP credits/test scores are also not considered for admissions, in general. And they are called credits for a reason--because they can be accepted as college credit. You also don't need APs to skip out of foreign language. I placed out of the language requirement based on the SAT achievement test and most schools offer their own placement tests.
Every school handles AP credits (and SAT/ACT tests, foreign language placement, etc.) differently. At Yale, AP scores can be used to place into a higher-level English course, or science course, or language course. But they don't exempt you from requirements altogether; even if you have a 5 (the maximum score) on an AP language test, you still have to complete one further course in that language, or to take another language through what is normally the second-semester level (i.e. to take two semesters of that language).
AP courses are taken into account in admissions decisions, in that having taken and succeeded in them is thought to show both academic ambition and the ability to do well in challenging college coursework.
That said, this is a discussion that has certainly run its course, and I apologize for contributing to it. I'm not a believer in "the last poster wins", so I will now bow out.
Not trying to pick a fight with you or anyone else,
el henry, and I totally agree that the winner is not she who shouts loudest or longest!
I'm not out to win or cause you or anyone else to lose, though my professorial instincts to clarify and correct can definitely run away with me.
I'll step back for a bit now too.
]) is that I received course credit for AP results.
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