1
2 years ago
Admissions Advice
[edited]

Am I able to double major and minor if I go to college with already 25 OR 31 credits due to IB and AP?

I want to Double Major and Minor in college but I don't know how that works, so if anyone knows, please help me!

collegelife
11th
12th
2022
Admission
2023
college
1
1

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2 years ago

When you go to college, depending on the college, your options are a.) to get 2 degrees in concurrently, b.) to double major, or c.) to major in one concentration, and get another minor in a different concentration. So that's the landscape of degrees/concentrations.

When you apply to college, depending on the college, your AP or IB credits may or may not apply toward your college curriculum. For example, if you apply to Brown University of William College, none of your IB or AP credits will be replace your graduation requirements however, you will be either placed in higher coursework or assigned a certain class by the department head. See Williams IB policy in this link:

https://registrar.williams.edu/course-registration/placement-information/ib-placement-guide/

And here is Williams placement guide for APs:

https://registrar.williams.edu/course-registration/placement-information/ap-placement-guide/

At other top colleges including Ivy's, Elites and Top Liberal Arts Colleges, you will get some random cap of how many IBs or APs can be transferable as college credits toward your degree. You can either look each colleges AP/IB policy on their websites or use the CollegeBoard AP tool to figure that out.

At Vassar College, the cap is 2 APs course if you get a 4 or better.

https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/getting-credit-placement/search-policies/college/760

At Brown, you get ZERO

https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/getting-credit-placement/search-policies/college/3746

At Colgate, the cap is a total of 6 college credits for APs or IBs

https://www.colgate.edu/about/campus-services-and-resources/transfer-and-pre-matriculation-credit#prematric

At Wesleyan, you get more credit for APs , than IBs

https://catalog.wesleyan.edu/academic-regulations/ap-ib-prematric-credit/

At Tufts, you need a 4 or a 5 to get AP credit and the max. is 8 credits.

https://admissions.tufts.edu/discover-tufts/academics/pre-matriculation-credits/

In general, I think you get more credit if you apply to State Colleges than Private Colleges because the mandates are different. State colleges are trying to graduate as many people as possible as fast as possible.

Out of the 3 paths I mentioned, I know that getting 2 concurrent degrees would be the most demanding and you might need close to 200 credits to get 2 separate degrees. Graduating with a double major would be the next demanding and depending on the program, you might need an additional 25-45 credits for a 2nd major. And minoring in something is the easiest. That might only require 6-12 more credits.

The bottom line is that there is no hard and fast rule on how colleges accept AP or IB credits toward their dual, double major or major/minor programs. They all do it differently so it will require you to create a spreadsheet of your APs/IBs and cross reference it with your college list of schools. This will result in perhaps a readjustment of your college list if you want to maximize your AP/IB credits and graduate early or get full credit for them.

These days, in the hyper-competitive college admissions environment, there are many applicants who care less about whether their APs or IBs are transferable. They care more about actually getting into their top choices and only expect their APs/IBs to show evidence of course rigor, and nothing more.

Good luck.

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