Advance Placement

Most issues regarding advance placement should be taken up with the Office of Advanced Placement and Transfer Credit, located in G-9 College Hall.

The School of Engineering and Applied Science accepts AP credit for BIOL 101 plus BIOL 123 in lieu of requirements for BIOL 121. Advance placement credits earned for BIOL 091 and CHEM 091 may be used as natural science, and, therefore, technical electives. In some curricula, BIOL 091 and CHEM 091 may substitute for BIOL 101 or CHEM 101, respectively, but only with departmental approval.

Note that students with AP credit who take the equivalent course at Penn forfeit the AP credit. This applies to CHEM 091, PHYS 093/094, and MATH 104/114.

Some Penn Engineering curricula require chemistry 101, 102 plus the labs. Generally AP credit is given only for the lecture parts of the courses (students must still enroll in Chem 53,54). However, the chemistry department will grant "waivers" if students present evidence of equivalent lab experience in high school. Penn Engineering accepts these waivers in lieu of the requirement for the chemistry labs. The waivers do not carry academic credit, and students typically have to make up the science credits by taking other courses.

Most Penn Engineering curricula require PHYS 150 and 151 which consist of lecture and lab sections. AP credit is given only for the lecture parts of the courses (students must still enroll in the physics labs – see http://dept.physics.upenn.edu/undergraduate/transcre.html#labreq for instructions on doing this). (You must take the C exam in Physics to receive credit for Physics 150/151.) Starting September, 2004, AP credit for Physics carries the notation PHYS 093 and 094. These are equivalent to the lecture portions of PHYS 150 and 151, respectively. If you receive AP credit in Physics, you may sign up for the lab only as PHYS 050 and 051. (In some cases, the physics department may grant 0.5 c.u. of credit for the physics labs if students present evidence of equivalent lab experience in high school. This increases the AP credit for physics courses to 1.5 cu per course, and will satisfy Penn Engineering requirements for physics.)