General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: How Did College Education Become So Ridiculously Expensive? [View all]exboyfil
(17,862 posts)One piece of advice I would give to students is to do absolutely everything you can in terms of credits before going off to college. All three state schools offer online classes (Iowa State offers several sophomore and junior level engineering and science courses for example). The community colleges have strong articulation agreements with the state schools. Community college online courses are also available.
Before you take an AP classes determine how it will apply for your major. Many AP classes are useless at the public universities in Iowa. For example AP Biology cannot be used at Iowa or Iowa State. AP Chemistry only gets you out of one semester at Iowa (and that is with a 5 on the test) and you have to go through a review at Iowa State. AP Language is useless at Iowa or Iowa State.
Also consider CLEP credit. CLEPs are more convenient since they can be taken at any time. Make sure they actually help towards your desired degree though.