My son is a freshman engineering major hoping to ETAM into electrical engineering this semester (application submitted earlier this month).

The overwhelming advice on AP credits at TAMU from all sources for the past year has been to 'not accept them until your advisor tells you to'. I understand the specific circumstance for engineering majors to not necessarily accept their Calculus AP credit since the rigor of Calc 1 and Calc 2 at A&M might be higher than high school AP. In hindsight, this was not the case and I think my son probably could have started with Calc 2 instead of Calc 1 but that ship has sailed (and probably helped with ETAM).

My question has to do with when to accept all the other AP classes like ENGL104 or other credits that might satisfy some of the University Core Curriculum requirements. I'm surprised (and a little frustrated) to hear from my son that, at his most recent advisor appointment before registering for fall classes, he was told he should 'never' accept any of his AP credit and should plan to take all the classes directly at A&M.

This seems ridiculous. I'd chalk it up to a green advisor or my son misinterpreting what was said but, I've heard enough individual stories recently about kids not graduating on time due to bad advising and/or not being able to get the class they need (i.e. specific elective only available in fall or spring), that I'd like for him to get well ahead of any confusion/misinformation. My son has 38 AP credits but I think only ~25 are applicable to his degree plan.

Does anyone have any recent experience with their kids at TAMU on when they actually accepted their AP credits?

I have one that graduated in December and one on the way there this fall. Just from what I've seen, my advice would be this:

1) once you know his exact plan of courses needed to graduate (ie results of ETAM, etc)
And
2) he's 100% sure he will not change majors (this is partly where having too many hours can burn you)

Then go tick thru that plan from #1 and accept the ones that make sense. If you want to be cautious, maybe put that together and run it past an advisor to make sure you aren't overlooking a curveball. Hopefully a different advisor. Unless any others serve as a pre-req, there's not really a rush to do it. Maybe a year from now.

Thanks! That sounds logical. I'm guessing the advisor was just being super conservative with concerns about the possibility of switching majors.

My main concern with waiting is finding out that one of the AP credits doesn't satisfy one of UCC requirements as expected. I suppose the only other real benefit of doing it sooner rather than later is if it pushes him over the next year's classification so he can order his ring early. But that's probably at least a year from now.

Yeah, if there are any particular questions or concerns about a specific credit, I would address getting that answer now.

There are 2 items where more hours can be helpful:

1) getting an earlier registration day. So perhaps late next fall/winter, you check it and the deadline to submit so he could have credit by registration time that spring (registering for fall 27). But again, being certain about what you are doing to not screw up your path is priority

2) as far as the ring goes, he will still need 45 hours from TAMU and 90 total. Nice to get it a bit on the early side, but IMO, getting it when at least some of your friends get theirs makes it more fun. This is one of those "your day will come, no need to get too carried away" items IMO

The higher classification is also nice for football ticket pull, but again, doing it next spring could have him set for Fall 26 And with the change in pull now, your group has to pull at the lowest classification in the group. So unless he thinks he'd hold his crew back because they are all juniors and he's only a sophomore, there's no reason to get too carried away for Fall 25

My daughter is class of 21 we basically did 1 or 2 classes per semester and if i recall at some point she had to use them all or lose them. I think it was going into her junior year.

Just claim those credits that are applicable to the core curriculum early in the fall semester after ETAM. You'll want the extra hours for ticket pull and registration going forward. Take as few core curriculum classes at A&M as possible. Take as many core AP credits as you can get. You don't need to be wasting valuable time taking those classes. (I am MEEN class of 27)

Thanks for the feedback folks!

How could taking all of the credits be bad?

Five specific reasons I've heard...all with various levels of validity/stupidity that can be debated:

1. As mentioned above...and, in my opinion, the only reason that should exist out of all of these: taking credit for Calculus/Physics and starting out at TAMU at a level too advanced to succeed (especially if wanting auto-admit for ETAM which pretty much requires straight As).

2. Don't want to have too many credits on record in case student decides to change majors. Anecdotally, my understanding is TAMU makes it difficult to change majors regardless of number of hours. Specific colleges/majors have an upper limit of hours you can have before they no longer allow transfer. I would think AP credits would be exempt from this but do not know for sure.

3. Don't want to have too many credits on record before graduation or else TAMU starts charging out of state tuition. I don't know all the details on this as my kid is only a sophomore. I believe I've read that AP/CLEP hours don't count towards this so it may be a non-issue.

4. Being a higher classification causes problems when registering (i.e. if you are a first-year student but classified as a sophomore, you need to be 'forced' into a freshman level class). If this is true, it is completely stupid. I get the idea that a freshman might need to be 'forced' into an upper level class...the idea that it is necessary to get 'forced' into a lower level class makes no sense to me. Maybe yet another symptom of too many students.

5. The newest crazy reason: all core curriculum should be taken at TAMU to be used as 'filler' when you can't get into the classes needed for your major to graduate. This is bunk...

All of these reasons except the first are stupid and senseless bureaucratic rules.

Why should credit hours affect changing your major? As long as you're paying for the credit hours you are enrolled in why does it matter how many you have already completed? How do they handle people getting a second degree, or returning to school later in life that already have credits?

TAMU bureaucracy is really dumb sometimes.

I'd add one more - with one kid in grad school and the other with grad school plans, for courses that are considered prerequisites by grad schools, many want to see that you took the real deal and how you performed in it when considering your application for admission vs. having AP'd out of it.

Also grad school related: if you are going to use some AP just to burn electives, oftentimes there are grad school pre-reqs that aren't in your degree plan and you need to leave some room to take.

Big picture, I think the most valid reasons are (1) where the real class will prep you better for difficult advanced classes in that area (2) the grad school reasons mentioned above and (3) the role it can play in limiting a major change

I have no experience with this, but it seems that if the AP credit is in something completely unrelated to your major, use it. If it's something related to your major, take the class at A&M.

I have a HS Sr that should graduate with 35-40 AP credits. She plans to study ANSC with the ultimate goal of Vet school.

We've suggested she take her science classes at A&M and use AP credit for the remainder (Engl, Psyc, etc). Sounds like we may be on the right track.