Freshman with a Year of College Credit
 

My daughter will graduate from high school with an academic year's worth of college credit. For recruitment, particularly schools with an upperclass quota, will she be considered a freshman or sophomore in her first year, or does it depend on how she is classified by the university?

She is not set on graduating in three years. The credits she has earned give her flexibility to take a lighter load in semesters with difficult classes, change majors without adding a 5th year, or whatever else might happen. I loved college and there's no need to rush and enter the real world!

She should still be considered a freshman if it is her first year at the university, regardless of the number of credits she comes in with. Other GCers can chime in, but I don't think most schools look at number of credits when classifying PNMs for recruitment, right?

My daughter entered college last year with a full year of college credit, as well. She has chosen to graduate in three years, but was still considered a freshman when she went through recruitment last year, as it was her first year on campus and right out of high school.

Thank you, both!

My nephew's GF had over a year of college credit when she started school and had a successful rush (she's a KD now).

Several of my daughters started college with quite a bit of credit but so do a lot of other girls. I think that's why many recruitment applications have you choose from "first year student, second year student", etc. rather than "freshman, sophomore".

Some schools give the U's classification and accepted core GPA for all PNMs to all the chapters. Some don't. She should ask the Greek Adviser at her college.

I think it's very, very common for today's high achieving students to bring in AP, IB, and sometimes dual enrollment credits. This is a sea change that has occurred in the past 25 years or so. When I was in high school, AP didn't exist. In my experience as an advisor, professor, and mom of an active sorority member who was in the same situation, I honestly think this is a non-issue today. We've had two members who graduated in 3 years in the past couple of years, but other than that, what with major changes, etc. most students are still taking 4 years to graduate (or more, but they tend to go alum after 4 years).

She could ask the Greek advisor -- I'm guessing they've heard this question quite a few times.

This.

When I started at UCLA 15 years ago, it was very common for students to be "First year, sophomore standing", but almost everyone I knew took the full four years to graduate, and that's what the sororities care about.