In the sciences at Bluffton College, we grant "graduation credit" for
good scores on AP exams, but we never allow students to skip any of our
entry-level majors courses.
We have a laboratory experience that is extremely well integrated into
the course for both "freshman chemistry" and also for "calculus-based
physics." We cannot allow incoming students to opt out of this
integrated lecture/lab sequence.
Therefore we give 3 semester hours of credit in chemistry or physics or
biology for high AP scores, but the students still complete our full
major requirements. This does mean that the student gets
acknowledgement on the college transcript of the good AP score, and it
saves them 3 semester hours of tuition because these 3 hours do count
as part of the122 semester hours needed for graduation.
We believe this is the best of both worlds. The students get
acknowledgement and credit, but they still take our courses and don't
"miss" anything we think they need.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D. Phone/voice-mail: 419-358-3270
Professor of Chemistry & Physics FAX: 419-358-3323
Chairman, Science Department E-Mail edmiston@bluffton.edu
Bluffton College
280 West College Avenue
Bluffton, OH 45817