Ahhh I found it- it's in the TEC : (a-1) Beginning with admissions for the 2011-2012 academic year, The University of Texas at Austin is not required to offer admission to applicants who qualify for automatic admission under Subsection (a) in excess of the number required to fill 75 percent of the university's enrollment capacity designated for first-time resident undergraduate students in an academic year. If the number of applicants who qualify for automatic admission to The University of Texas at Austin under Subsection (a) for an academic year exceeds 75 percent of the university's enrollment capacity designated for first-time resident undergraduate students for that academic year, the university may elect to offer admission to those applicants as provided by this subsection and not as otherwise required by Subsection (a). If the university elects to offer admission under this subsection, the university shall offer admission to those applicants by percentile rank according to high school graduating class standing based on grade point average, beginning with the top percentile rank, until the applicants qualified under Subsection (a) have been offered admission in the number estimated in good faith by the university as sufficient to fill 75 percent of the university's enrollment capacity designated for first-time resident undergraduate students, except that the university must offer admission to all applicants with the same percentile rank. After the applicants qualified for automatic admission under Subsection (a) have been offered admission under this subsection in the number estimated in good faith as sufficient to fill 75 percent of the designated enrollment capacity described by this subsection, the university shall consider any remaining applicants qualified for automatic admission under Subsection (a) in the same manner as other applicants for admission as first-time undergraduate students in accordance with Section 51.805.

Apparently UT doesn't follow the same auto admit guidelines as other schools in texas and I think I had read about that somewhere else. (I will try to find where and return to this post. ) on the other hand, Tech admission provided me with a form titled "Texas Private High School Certification Admission to a Texas Public University" TPHSC Form-3. (Edited: found the link for this form-- http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/reports/PDF/8997.PDF?CFID=74642329&CFTOKEN=35308719 I believe it's worth reading for Texas people. My children haven't decided where they want to attend but I'm keeping this handy as it applies, I believe after reading it, to the majority of universities.

We haven't used them yet either but are looking at them primarily for the courses we plan to CLEP

Thanks so much for this post! I'm glad someone can vouch for the teacher for sure as I'm looking at it as well

I sure wish there was a way to reveal this provider/teacher to all of us! I'd also like to know who your experience was with London. My younger child took a course that we ended up dropping bc the instructor was much like y'all are describing but it would be super frustrating if I signed up my oldest for a similar course that we were relying on for credit and then had such an experience. OP and London please send me a message with your instructor info bc I'd like to avoid it at all costs! Thanks!

Hmm..so maybe a mix? Macro w PAH and Micro on our own-maybe Thinkwell? His intended major will need both credits

Finishing up schedules for next year. Whew! Wondering if a lot of people take AP Macro through PAH but not Micro? And if so, if there is a reason. Or do you recommend taking both through PAH? If you do Micro on your own, is there a link to some ideas for which curriculum you use? And do you go through the process of getting it approved for AP or just take the test?

Yes thanks! I realize that you can do it with or without the AP course

Thanks Tsuga- yes I see it as a HUGE disadvantage being considered in the top 25%. I'd much rather they look at the courses he took and even interview him in order to give him a better shot. So at this point I'm viewing AP courses as being only advantageous in obtaining credit or prepping for the college level work.

We did Spanish that was very traditional for Span I, which means it resulted in a lot of knowledge about conjugating verbs and writing in Spanish but not a lot of speaking ability. We then switched to Homeschool Spanish Academy in order to master being able to converse in Spanish. It has been wonderful! I'll say there isn't a TON of writing but a good balance of homework assignments and practice for the 50 minute sessions of pure speaking. So, I think it depends on what your goal is for Spanish 3. Do you want traditional or do you want to focus on speaking?

To answer your question bctnln1059- the College I had spoken to that particular day was, in fact, Texas A&M College Station. The admissions officer I spoke to told me "since GPA doesn't matter (since your child is homeschooled) it won't matter if you have AP or CLEP credit." I then asked what exactly are they looking for/at. To which he responded, we look at homeschoolers as being in the top 25% (of their 'school/graduating class') and then look at SAT scores and extracurricular activities.

This part really hit home for me. Thanks for all your input.

AP Human Geo is a full year course.

I, too, would like my children to pursue merit aid. And I do feel that the APs prep them for the work ahead that they will find at the college level. I'm just super surprised that it would not make a difference in admission for a child who is applying to some of the bigger colleges in the state. No, they aren't applying to Harvard or Yale or anything of that sort, but intend to go to one of the bigger universities in our area.

I had full intention of packing on those AP courses to both of my children's schedule. However, the last few college admission counselors I have spoken to, are starting to make me question this. According to them, since we homeschool, they will consider the student in the top 25% and then look at their SAT and extracurricular activities. So, is it worth having them do the AP courses? Or would we be saving ourselves headache/stress by taking either the AP or CLEP exam after regular coursework. I'm just so flabbergasted that none of that matters. :confused1:

Is there quite a bit of essay writing involved in this course? Also, does it have required participation in the discussion board?

I agree with both of you. I'll go out on a limb here and give a review of a PAH AP course, but it isn't one of the classes you have listed there. My ds is in the AP Human Geo course. When we signed him up we were well aware of the mixed and sometimes bad reviews. However, I took a chance and decided to enroll him regardless and just see how it was. (This was our first year to do online courses and I wasn't up for getting one pre-approved to teach it myself.) I'll start by saying your experience may vary, but my ds has really enjoyed the course. It is asynchronous. The instructor, I feel, tried to address some of the negative feedback about her not being active in the course by adding MP4 videos each week with her giving instructions for the week and discussing a bit of what the students would be doing that week. She has also been very quick to reply to any posts on the discussion board and even emails that my ds has sent to her. In this way, I do feel my ds has gotten to know his teacher and if he had an issue he could get in touch with her and feel comfortable doing so. The lessons each week have consisted of a chapter of reading along with either a multiple choice and short answer assignment or a chapter of reading with a map and data type activity. My ds has enjoyed the map activities even if he at first is dreading having to do them. Any feedback on problems he has missed has been thorough and helped my ds understand what he had misunderstood. He is just now getting to the part of the semester that is requiring the FRQs , and so I can't speak much on how the grading will be done on that. And of course, he hasn't taken the AP exam so I have no idea how he will do. I, of course, plan to have him study outside materials to prep for it but I feel like I would have him do that with any course he is taking. Cons: Yes, she did send the self-authored book and wanted us to pay her for it. Plus they were required to write a short response about how geography was related to the book (or something to that affect). Since this was the initial contact with her, it did strike me as something that I'd consider a negative. My ds read the book, he was okay with it, not thrilled but he just took it in stride. Other than that, we have not encountered any negatives with this course and perhaps it might be because the instructor is trying to address and fix some of the previous issues. My only wish is that classwork ended a bit sooner to give them time to really review the material before the test date.

RootAnn- thanks so much for this info. I had also read somewhere about labeling a course H if they passed their CLEP. I just am unsure how that would work grade -wise. I will update by saying I had ordered the REA review books for USHistory and I have to say they have a ton of info in them and I can see why some people use variance of prepping for the CLEP as part of their coursework. I would think after reading through this book, one would have quite a bit of knowledge inn uSHistory without the time consuming "busy" work some USHistory courses have.

After thinking about it and doing more research, I think we will just find the best courses (and teachers) to take and then follow up with an exam dependent on that course. I was reading through the website homeschoolingforcollegecredit and this struck me, and thus I think we will go that route: " Second, an entire semester or year of work is what constitutes high school credit, not one exam. High schools award credit based on hours, not competency. As such, estimate 60 hours = 1/2 high school credit, 120 hours = 1 high school credit. Ultimately, it’s your decision how CLEP exam results are handled as part of their high school grade, but my suggestion is to mirror the common practices used by high schools and colleges. As such, a CLEP score should represent 0% of the student’s high school grade. There is solid precedent to support my suggestion: Advanced Placement (AP) courses do not use AP exams as part of the student’s course grade. International Baccalaureate (IB) courses do not use IB exams as part of the student’s course grade. Colleges do not award letter grades for CLEP exams. CLEP exams scores never count toward a college student’s GPA or course grade. Only colleges award credit for CLEP scores, not high schools. High schools are not authorized to award college credit, only high school credit. " FROM homeschoolingforcollegecredit.com Thanks everyone for your feedback -- now back to the drawing board.

hopskipjump- Our reasoning behind doing CLEP vs AP is much the same as yours...to free up some time in our schedule to concentrate on the AP courses. I'm thinking if my children are already well-versed in History/Government then taking an AP course in these areas might be more like having "busy work" when they could use the time to focus on other subjects that they could use some more focus on. I have charted the AP, CLEP acceptance and what each course will count for at the top 4 universities he is interested in and made a list once it was compared to the core and department requirements for his intended major. So, at this point I do feel that I know what course would count for what if he did pass the AP or the CLEP. As far as the "impressed" part - I guess I was referring not so much to a WOW factor but (since we all work so hard to make sure our kids are taking legitimate courses and obviously if he is taking AP courses then I want to push him) I guess I was just worried it would seem like he couldn't have done the work of AP in this area...which is far from the case. I just want to free up time to focus on some other courses. History/Government are not going to be a part of his major so I wondered if it would matter much. Thanks everyone for your feedback. It's always so valuable.

I took this weekend to look at the colleges he is interested in and write down which AP and CLEP exams they accepted and compared it to his prospective major. For both History and Government they schools will accept either AP or CLEP credit. After making a list, I came up with 6 courses we plan on completing via AP with hopes to pass the exam and get credit and there are 7 others we thought he could pass that via CLEP. And a couple that he would need to do via Dual credit. So I guess I'm hoping to have a variety and get as much credit as he can. I was just concerned that CLEP might not be too impressive

My ds is strong in history and we are considering having him take the CLEP for both of these courses. I've noticed there isn't much discussion about CLEP for either Am Govt or US History. Would it be a mistake to go the route of CLEP instead of taking an AP class and the test knowing he most likely would be successful since it's his strong subject? I'm leaning toward CLEP due to the fact that it would save so much time.

NP

Oh thank you all. That puts my mind at ease. I didn't want to have to forego excellent teachers just because they weren't at an "accredited" school.

We have been taking online courses through different providers. Some AP (College Board approved) and others just through excellent teachers with some of the various online providers you find listed on this forum. I'm wondering how important it is (if at all) to take all your courses through an accredited provider? Has anyone had difficulty with their transcripts being accepted if the courses came from outside of an accredited school/provider?