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The normal Bachelor’s degree will take about 120+ college credit hours. Most courses are 3 credit hours, although a few are 4 or 2. But taking the average, you will have a minimum of 40 courses to take in order to get that degree, or 10 per semester over a four-year period. The problem is this: because of the requirements for general education courses and those for most major fields, the total number of courses usually totals more than 40, and many students end up spending more than 4 years in college – either by attending summer school or by going an extra semester. You can avoid this additional time and expense by getting college credit in high school during your last two years and entering college with as much as a full semester’s worth of college coursework already out of the way.

How to Get C​ollege Credit in High School

The courses are called “Advanced Placement” or “AP” for short. They are usually offered in all basic skills subjects (English, history, government, science and math) as well as in some elective areas such as psychology. In order for a school to offer advanced placement courses, they must have a teacher with at least a Master’s degree in the subject, and the text used must be one that is written for college level coursework.

You must be a good student in the subject areas in which you intend to take an AP course, and admission will be determined by your overall grades up to that point. However, if your grades have not been really great and you really want to earn college credit in high school, you can sometimes “talk you way in” on a trial basis. Just remember, you must get at least a “B” in the course, and the homework assignments and exams will be very tough.

Transferring the Credit to Your College

Once you have earned your “A” or “B” in your AP courses, the credits will automatically be granted to you based upon the following:

1. Usually, you will need to pay ½ of the normal tuition for those courses to count toward your Bachelor’s degree. The nice thing, however, is that you can spread those payments out over time.
2. Your high school transcript must designate them as approved AP courses, so be sure to check with an advisor sometime during your first semester in college, to ensure that you got all of the credits you were supposed to.
3. Each course that you take for college credit in high school will be granted 3 college credits.

Think about it. If you could get 5 AP courses out of the way before you ever enter college, you have cut your tuition costs for an entire semester by half and you have not even had to attend one class to get those credits. Getting as many AP classes as possible just makes sense!