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Re: College Credit for AP Physics



George Spagna said that students coming to college with AP-B credit are
looking for general-education lab science credit (rather than intending
to take advanced physics courses).

Yes... that is also what we see, in all AP areas. Students with AP
credit in just about any field are trying to get some college credit for
their AP background, and getting general-education credit is typically
what they want.

But George also says his college doesn't have an algebra-trig physics
course. He seems to be saying his department uses these two pieces of
information to justify giving the students college credit for
calculus-based physics even though it was the AP-B test that they
passed.

I cannot see how this is justified. First, it's a lie... the transcript
implies credit for a level of physics that the student has not done.
The fact that it "only counts for gen-ed" does not make it less of a
lie. Second, there is an easy way around it. Just create a course
number for general-education physics credit and put that on the
transcript. This is exactly the truth. The college is giving college
credit for having learned enough physics at high enough level to justify
general-education lab science credit, and they are noting exactly this
on the transcript. That's what we do.

Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton College
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu