I entered college with the equivalent of a full semester already completed thanks to the AP classes I was able to take MANY years ago back in the dark ages. That was such a gift to me, both in the college credit and also in the challenging and interesting course work I was able to take in high school thanks to having those classes as an option.
None of that early credit resulted in me graduating early - I had a basic idea of what I wanted to do when I entered college, changed my mind a few times, also had a few semesters (in a very tough engineering school) where I just needed (mentally!) a lighter load than a full 18 hours. The early head start on credits gave me some room to relax and feel like I could take my time, explore other areas of interest etc. Ultimately I doubt that I would have graduated any sooner or later regardless of how much credit I had going into college - I needed an extra year just to get to know myself and what I wanted out of life and a career, and to be honest, it wouldn't have mattered a flip how inspiring or non-inspiring my professors were, I had to find myself.
One thing that I was really really appreciative though of my AP credits was that I was in a different tract automatically out the gate the first semester of college than the majority of the incoming freshman who were all tracked together for the courses that were required of all freshman that first year.
polarbear
