AP Calculus

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rms85

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Hi Everyone -

I'm going back to school after working full time for 3 years, and I'm starting my pre-reqs now but need some advice. I know certain programs require a math. I took AP Calculus back in my senior year of high school (2004) and got a 3 on it. The only math I took in college was a statistics for behavioral sciences. Does anyone know if colleges will accept an AP Calc from what will probably be 10 years ago by the time I'm ready to apply? Should I re-take a math?

Thanks for your help.

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This is probably not the answer you are looking for, but it varies by the program you want to attend and the institution you are taking your prerequisites at. Most schools I applied to required statistics and not necessarily Calculus. So look into programs you may be interested in applying to and see their prerequisites. Also most programs require trig based physics instead of calculus based. My undergraduate institution didn't give me credit for the 3 I got on the Calculus AP, so I had to take it again for my major at the time.
 
most won't take a high school level class for a pre req equivalent. if you go on PTCAS, you can look at the requirements for each PTCAS school and it will say if APs count or not i believe, but i'm pretty sure you need to at least take them at a comm college if not at a 4-year institution.
 
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I doubt it would count. You have to enter it on PTCAS (assuming you apply using PTCAS), and I don't think you can do that there. If your university has an equivalent course and they accepted it, you may be able to, however there are other issues. A lot of schools require that you've completed all your pre-reqs within a certain amount of years (probably 5, but I never paid attention to it as it didn't pertain to me).

A decent number of schools do require math which is at least at the precalculus level, but it's not every program that requires it. Taking a calculus course would certainly cover all schools though.
 
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There are also a lot of schools that don't require that the classes were taken in the last 5 years. There are some that want classes in the last 10 years and some that don't care when you look them. I took most of my pre-reqs from 1999-2003. Also, I used my AP Biology credit for my general bio classes. I had transferred them to my undergrad university. It gives you the option to list them as AP credit in PTCAS. It probably helped that I had a ton of upper level bio classes (I was a bio major) to prove that I would have done well in general bio. I agree though, it all depends on the school and what they are willing to accept, if they even require calc.
 
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