AP/College credit

Centurion210

Centurion210

5-Year Member
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May 23, 2014
Messages
14
Hi everybody!
I have six AP classes under my belt. I scored high enough to get credit in all of them. Additionally, I will have taken Calc II and III by the end of my senior year. Credit for those courses is given by a local college. My question is, how does the Academy deal with this credit? Are there basic classes that I wouldn't need to take?
Thank you!
 
Depends on the course at USAFA and which department offers the course. For math, you must validate out of courses by passing a test for each course. Validation tests are given during BCT 1. If you validate Calc 1 then you will have the opportunity to take the test for Calc 2 and so in. I think the Chemistry department also using testing for course validation. Some other courses like English can be validated by AP or college credit. Validating courses at USAFA will not shorten your time there or lower your semester course load. It may allow you to have some flexibility in your junior/senior year on taking more interesting courses.
 
Just an extra tidbit. Even if you validate courses, that doesn't mean what it does in a civilian school. It simply means you'll be able to take "Other" classes. I.e. You can walk into the academy with a Bachelor's degree already under your belt. (Some people have done this). You're still going to take 4 years of academics with an average of 140 credit hours. Those AP and College courses simply improve your academic score during the selection process vs your competition; and it allows you to bypass some prerequisite classes at the academy and allows you to take other courses in it's place.
 
Just a note from sons' experience: if you validate Calc I, but really were on the cusp, I might strongly recommend you go ahead and take the Calc I (or whatever class) at USAFA. It will probably be more rigorous than the class you took at community college, and at least in the beginning, your grades might actually be good since you know (presumably) what you are doing. An edge up there, as it were. But, for most cadets, the pride thing of "I validated XXX" does tend to get in the way.

Above posters are correct... you still must go to USAFA for four full years, and I am pretty sure some of those advanced Physics courses are a lot tougher to score A's in than Calc I.
 
This is definitely a great question. I went to college for a year before even joining the military.

Yes, the Academy will let you use transfer credit, but as it was stated before, you'll still be required to take a full load of classes.

I had taken quite a few classes in college, Calc I and II, English 100 and 200, Philosophy of Ethics, Philosophy of Logic, Psych 100, and Microeconomics to name a few.

In every situation, getting the transfer credit was a proactive process on my part. I needed to personally coordinate with the registrar and each separate academic department on each class. I opted to retake Calc I (during my Prep school year) and Calc II (during my freshman year). I thought that both were easier than they had been in civilian college, but that's probably only because I was seeing the material for a second time. The strong foundation in math really payed dividends once I got to Calc III.

Also, the Academy might not allow you to transfer all of those credits. Some of the courses at USAFA are specifically geared to meet other military leadership learning outcomes. For instance, you can't transfer credit to validate the 200 level English course. My Philosophy of Ethics course (equivalent to the Academy's 300 level core philo course) was also not accepted because it didn't focus enough on just war theory.

Finally, when you are talking with the departments they may only take your credit if you scored a 4-5 or, in some cases, only if you scored a 5 on the AP exams.

Good luck and take care!
 
My DD has not had less than 19 hrs/semester in her first 3 years and she validated several courses upon entering the Academy.
 
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