Are Gen Eds in college useful or just a drag on finishing? (scholarship, GPA)

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by YorktownGal

He needed two quantitative reasoning courses to fill his general education requirements. The statistics and macroeconomics courses happened to fit into his schedule. In his senior year, one course was first semester and the other course was second semester.



My son was a history major and AP allowed him to skip American History and World History Survey courses required for his major.

This is also addressing someone else. It's unusual for colleges to give credit for or exempt students from classes in their majors.

That happened to each of my three kids who went to college (as well as countless kids I taught over the years), colleges want the student to do the whole range of classes for the major.

It's somewhat disheartening when a kid gets a 4/5 on an AP test only to find out it won't count. I got to the point as AP coordinator that I had the kids find out whether the test score would count before they decided to take the test. My personal children wouldn't take that advice.

[villageidiot1]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

This is also addressing someone else. It's unusual for colleges to give credit for or exempt students from classes in their majors.

That happened to each of my three kids who went to college (as well as countless kids I taught over the years), colleges want the student to do the whole range of classes for the major.

It's somewhat disheartening when a kid gets a 4/5 on an AP test only to find out it won't count. I got to the point as AP coordinator that I had the kids find out whether the test score would count before they decided to take the test. My personal children wouldn't take that advice.

My son took 7 AP classes in high school. He received six 5s and a 4. I paid for all of them. None counted in college. He tested out of his first biology class in college. He had gotten a 5 on the AP bio test. Testing out of Bio I was a mistake. He found he was behind the other students in his second biology class.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by villageidiot1

My son took 7 AP classes in high school. He received six 5s and a 4. I paid for all of them. None counted in college. He tested out of his first biology class in college. He had gotten a 5 on the AP bio test. Testing out of Bio I was a mistake. He found he was behind the other students in his second biology class.

The girls both got credit for their AP Lit and Lang courses but not AP Art 2-D for the oldest, although she did get credit for AP Euro History (Art major). The younger one didn't get credit for AP USH, World or Euro (and she now teaches the latter two, History major).

Son didn't get credit for AP Calc AB or BC or Physics (Engineering).

Their youngest brother did, however, graduate from high school.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by villageidiot1

My son took 7 AP classes in high school. He received six 5s and a 4. I paid for all of them. None counted in college. He tested out of his first biology class in college. He had gotten a 5 on the AP bio test. Testing out of Bio I was a mistake. He found he was behind the other students in his second biology class.

Why did he take 2 biology classes? (Or get credit for one, then actually enroll in another)? Was he planning to major in some kind of life sciences?

[villageidiot1]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Why did he take 2 biology classes? (Or get credit for one, then actually enroll in another)? Was he planning to major in some kind of life sciences?

He was a pre-med/biology major. He didn't get credit for AP biology. He had the option to test out for his first biology course and passed the test. He had to wait until second semester to take the second biology course. He found out he was behind by not taking the first biology course in college.

[tnff]

Originally Posted by mitsguy2001

Is that because the AP classes have become deficient in recent years? Even for students who got a 5 on the exam? Or do colleges not accept them because the AP class didn't have an exam at 10 PM the night before Thanksgiving (and even if they did, their parents' house doesn't close, unlike the dorms), didn't give a 0 for exams missed due to a funeral or hospitalization, and didn't give hours and hours of busy work as homework, so, in other words, they didn't weed people out well enough?

Nothing as nefarious as that. When we were doing the college thing, the story we got is pretty much this:

Originally Posted by villageidiot1

My son took 7 AP classes in high school. He received six 5s and a 4. I paid for all of them. None counted in college. He tested out of his first biology class in college. He had gotten a 5 on the AP bio test. Testing out of Bio I was a mistake. He found he was behind the other students in his second biology class.

Students who AP test out of the first in a sequence of courses find themselves behind in the follow-on courses. High school AP classes apparently don't provide an adequate background.

[mitsguy2001]

Originally Posted by tnff

Nothing as nefarious as that. When we were doing the college thing, the story we got is pretty much this:



Students who AP test out of the first in a sequence of courses find themselves behind in the follow-on courses. High school AP classes apparently don't provide an adequate background.

Maybe the college courses are intentionally including topics not in the AP courses just to prove a point.

[YorktownGal]

Originally Posted by mitsguy2001

Maybe the college courses are intentionally including topics not in the AP courses just to prove a point.

No. The college's first biology class covered more AP Biology did. With pre-med, college is a different world.

My son's AP credit was accepted for his major. It did him no harm. He is a ferocious reader of history.

Papers due the night before Thanksgiving are assigned early in the semester. On the first day, a syllabus handed out which lists the due dates for the entire semester. Students have two and half months before Thanksgiving to work on the paper.

[mitsguy2001]

Originally Posted by YorktownGal

No. The college's first biology class covered more AP Biology did. With pre-med, college is a different world.

My son's AP credit was accepted for his major. It did him no harm. He is a ferocious reader of history.

Papers due the night before Thanksgiving are assigned early in the semester. On the first day, a syllabus handed out which lists the due dates for the entire semester. Students have two and half months before Thanksgiving to work on the paper.

But professors often won’t allow you to hand a paper in early, and wont accept it until after the dorms close for Thanksgiving, and you have to hand it in in person, not online. Plus, they give an in person exam the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving after the dorms are closed, and give you a 0 if you miss it for any reason.

[tnff]

Originally Posted by mitsguy2001

Maybe the college courses are intentionally including topics not in the AP courses just to prove a point.

Why would they bother? If they want to weed out students, that's pretty easy to do. No need for them to create complex schemes to do it. Just add another couple impossible questions to the already impossible exam and another 20% of the class will change majors. If they wanted to eliminate students entirely, just require the same Intro to Physics class that physics majors take for all freshmen. Half will drop out or change colleges entirely.