AP Credit
AP Credit Policies by College
What 153 colleges do with AP scores. 103 accept a 3 on at least one common exam. 10 use AP for placement only: Amherst, Brown, California Institute of Technology, Claremont McKenna, Colby College, Harvard University, Harvey Mudd, Middlebury, Princeton, Williams.
By exam
- Calculus AB
- Calculus BC
- English Language and Composition
- English Literature and Composition
- United States History
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Physics C: Mechanics
- Computer Science A
- Statistics
- Psychology
- Spanish Language and Culture
By college
| College | Lowest score | Limit on AP credit |
|---|---|---|
| Amherst | Placement only | |
| Arizona | 3 | 60 units from all credit by exam combined |
| Arizona State University Campus Immersion | 3 | 60 hours of credit by examination |
| Arkansas | 3 | |
| Auburn University | 3 | |
| Barnard College | 4 | 16 points of degree credit |
| Bates | 3 | 4.0 non-Bates credits, including AP credit |
| Baylor | 3 | |
| Binghamton | 3 | |
| Boston College | 4 | |
| Boston University | 4 | |
| Bowdoin | 4 | Four course credits toward the 32 required, shared with IB, other international exams and pre-matriculation college credit |
| Brandeis | 3 | 16 credits toward the 128 required for graduation |
| Brown | Placement only | |
| Buffalo | 3 | |
| California Institute of Technology | Placement only | |
| California State University-Long Beach | 3 | 6 semester units per AP exam |
| Carleton | 3 | 18 credits from AP, IB and other pre- or post-matriculation sources combined |
| Carnegie Mellon University | 4 | |
| Case Western | 4 | |
| Cincinnati | 3 | |
| Claremont McKenna | Placement only | |
| Clemson | 3 | |
| Colby College | Placement only | |
| Colgate | 4 | 6 transfer course credits, including AP, IB and other pre-matriculation credit |
| College of William & Mary | 3 | |
| Colorado State University-Fort Collins | 3 | |
| Columbia | 4 | 16 points |
| Cornell | 4 | |
| CU Boulder | 3 | |
| Dartmouth | 4 | 9 prematriculation credits, combined with transfer credit |
| Davidson | 3 | 4 course credits from AP, IB and joint enrollment combined |
| Delaware | 3 | |
| Denver | 3 | 45 quarter hours for all AP and IB credit |
| DePaul University | 3 | |
| Drexel | 4 | |
| Duke | 4 | Only two AP credits count toward the 34 needed to graduate |
| Emory | 4 | 12 credit hours, at 3 per accepted exam |
| Florida | 3 | 45 credits, combined with IB, AICE, CLEP, and similar exams |
| Florida Atlantic University | 3 | |
| Florida International University | 3 | 45 credits for all exams combined |
| Florida State University | 3 | |
| George Mason | 3 | |
| George Washington | 4 | 24 credits from AP, A-Level and IB exams combined |
| Georgetown University | 4 | |
| Georgia Tech | 4 | |
| Gonzaga | 4 | |
| Grinnell College | 3 | 24 pre- and post-matriculation credits (AP, IB, A-level, CAPE, college credits) for first-time first-year students |
| Hamilton | 4 | |
| Harvard University | Placement only | |
| Harvey Mudd | Placement only | |
| Hofstra | 3 | |
| Houston | 3 | |
| Howard | 4 | |
| Indiana University-Bloomington | 3 | |
| Iowa | 4 | Up to 30 hours of credit in some academic areas through AP, CLEP, IB and Cambridge exams combined |
| Iowa State | 3 | No more than 32 credits from credit by exam |
| James Madison | 3 | |
| Johns Hopkins | 3 | |
| Kansas | 3 | |
| Kentucky | 3 | |
| Lehigh | 4 | |
| Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College | 3 | |
| Loyola Chicago | 4 | 36 semester hours combined AP, IB, CLEP and transfer credit for new first-time freshmen |
| Marquette | 3 | |
| Miami | 3 | |
| Miami University-Oxford | 3 | |
| Michigan | 3 | |
| Michigan State | 2 | |
| Middlebury | Placement only | |
| Mississippi State University | 3 | Not more than 25 percent of any curriculum from AP, CLEP, military service, tutorial and extension credit combined |
| MIT | 5 | |
| NC State | 3 | |
| New Hampshire | 3 | 64 semester hours for all credit by exam and advanced placement testing |
| North Texas | 3 | |
| Northeastern | 4 | 32 semester hours |
| Northwestern | 4 | |
| Notre Dame | 4 | |
| NYU | 4 | 32 advanced standing credits |
| Oberlin | 3 | |
| Ohio State | 3 | |
| Ole Miss | 3 | No more than half of the total hours required for the degree through all credit by examination |
| Oregon State University | 3 | |
| Penn | 5 | |
| Penn State | 3 | |
| Pitt | 3 | |
| Princeton | Placement only | |
| Purdue | 3 | |
| Rice | 4 | |
| Rochester | 3 | 16 credits from AP examinations |
| RPI | 4 | |
| Rutgers University-New Brunswick | 4 | |
| San Diego State | 3 | |
| San Jose State University | 3 | |
| Santa Clara | 3 | At most one-half of the quarter units required to graduate can be transferred in (all transfer and exam credit) |
| Seton Hall University | 4 | 30 credits through examination |
| Southern Methodist University | 3 | |
| Stanford University | 4 | 45 quarter units, combined with transfer credit |
| Stony Brook | 3 | 30 credits by examination |
| Swarthmore | 4 | |
| Syracuse University | 3 | 30 semester hours from Syracuse advanced credit exams and other credit such as AP exams combined |
| Temple | 3 | |
| Texas A&M University-College Station | 3 | |
| Texas Christian University | 3 | Credit by examination only within the first 66 semester hours of college credit |
| Texas Tech | 3 | |
| The University of Alabama | 3 | |
| The University of Tennessee-Knoxville | 3 | |
| The University of Texas at Dallas | 3 | |
| Tufts | 3 | 5 pre-matriculation course equivalencies for Arts and Sciences BA/BS students |
| Tulane | 3 | |
| UC Berkeley | 3 | |
| UC Davis | 3 | |
| UC Irvine | 3 | |
| UC San Diego | 3 | |
| UC Santa Barbara | 3 | |
| UC Santa Cruz | 3 | |
| UCLA | 3 | |
| UConn | 3 | |
| UGA | 3 | |
| UIC | 3 | |
| UIUC | 3 | |
| UNC Chapel Hill | 3 | |
| University at Albany | 3 | A maximum of 90 transfer credits (AP credit is awarded as transfer credit) |
| University of California-Merced | 3 | |
| University of California-Riverside | 3 | |
| University of Central Florida | 3 | 45 credit hours combined across AP, IB, CLEP, extension, correspondence, military and credit by examination |
| University of Chicago | 4 | No limit, but 3,800 of the 4,200 units for the degree must come from courses |
| University of Maryland-College Park | 3 | 60 credits, combined with all other prior learning credit |
| University of Massachusetts-Amherst | 4 | |
| University of Minnesota-Twin Cities | 3 | |
| University of Missouri-Columbia | 3 | |
| University of Nebraska-Lincoln | 3 | |
| University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus | 3 | |
| University of South Carolina-Columbia | 3 | |
| University of South Florida | 3 | 45 semester hours of credit by exam toward the bachelor's degree |
| USC | 4 | 32 elective units, combined with college courses taken in high school |
| UT Austin | 3 | |
| Utah | 3 | |
| UVA | 3 | |
| UW | 3 | AP counts within the 90-credit limit on lower-division transfer credit |
| UW-Madison | 3 | |
| Vanderbilt | 3 | 18 credit hours in the College of Arts and Science |
| Vermont | 3 | |
| Villanova | 4 | |
| Virginia Commonwealth University | 3 | |
| Virginia Tech | 3 | 38 hours |
| Wake Forest | 3 | |
| Washington State University | 3 | |
| WashU | 4 | 15 units in the College of Arts & Sciences |
| Wellesley | 4 | 4 units total, and no more than 2 units in a single department |
| West Virginia | 3 | |
| Williams | Placement only | |
| Yale University | 4 |
A blank limit means the college’s page states none.
Frequently asked questions
Do all colleges accept AP credit?
No. Of the 153 colleges here, 10 use AP scores for placement only and award no credit toward the degree. Others cap the credit or accept only a 4 or 5.
Is a 3 on an AP exam enough for college credit?
It depends on the college and the exam. 103 of the 153 colleges here accept a 3 on at least one of the common exams we list. The most selective private colleges usually ask for a 4 or 5.
Each row was read from the college's own registrar, catalog, or admissions page. Exams a page does not name are left out. Last checked 2026-10-08. Language exams are left out of the lowest-score column because several colleges treat them separately.
