Not Every College Awards Advanced Placement Credits

One benefit of Advanced Placement (AP) classes and exams has been the ability to earn college credits, while still in high school, for an exam score of 3-5 on a 5 point scale.  However, before assuming EVERY college will provide the college credits and the college credits for the SUBJECT in which the test was taken, AP students and their parents would be smart to check out the AP credit policy at potential colleges for application.  Not every college awards AP credit using the same criteria or with the same results. For example, Dartmouth College recently stopped granting college credits for any AP exams, regardless of score or subject, joining Amherst College, Boston College, Colby College, and Williams College among others.  Also, some colleges, like California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) and  Harvey Mudd College utilized AP exam scores as placement tests, although not for college credit.  Another variation can be colleges, like Stanford, that only grant AP credit for a score of 4-5, and not for General Education requirements, except Foreign Language.  The moral of the story: check the AP credit granting policy at each college.