When Michaela Kron entered New York University in 2008, she already had a few college credits under her belt. She’d earned high marks on her Advanced Placement exams and tested out of nearly a year’s worth of classes at NYU.

“I realized that I could arrange my schedule so that if I took a couple of summer courses, I could graduate a year early and save a ton of money,” she says. That was especially helpful since her only aid was a small merit award, hardly enough to dent the more than $41,000 in tuition and fees that NYU charged in 2011-2012, the year she skipped.

Participating in classes and exams through AP — and other college equivalency programs — can do more than give bright high schoolers the chance to explore favorite school subjects, work with challenging teachers and stand out on college applications. Some high-achieving secondary students can test out of college credits, even graduating from college early and saving a semester or more of tuition money.

Here’s what to know.

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— Students can earn credit in several ways. After enrolling in AP or International Baccalaureate courses, which demand more rigor than traditional high school courses, students can earn college credit by taking a related exam in the spring.

The details of the programs vary. Students in the IB program can earn a special diploma, which may fast-track them to sophomore standing at some colleges, or certificates for taking individual exams. AP classes offer more of an a la carte approach. And students don’t always need to take the courses to sit for the exams.

Students may also explore dual enrollment at a local college in which they earn both postsecondary and high school credit and take a real college course. The credits earned from dual enrollment “tend to be more portable,” meaning that they translate more easily to college credit, says Kristin Klopfenstein, founding executive director of the University of Northern Colorado’s Education Innovation Institute.

[Read about the benefits and stress of AP courses for your student.]

— Transferring credits can be a challenge. “The earning of [college] credits is an entirely different conversation from the transferring of credits,” says Phil Trout, college counselor at Minnetonka High School in Minnesota and president-elect at the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

Credit transfer policies vary by university — and can even vary by department within a single school, says Klopfenstein. The College Board, which administers the AP exams, provides a credit policy search tool, but students may have to keep digging or consult with an adviser to get the full scoop. IB is launching a new similar tool this summer, says a spokeswoman. In the meantime, students can download an index of university policies.

And some universities have tamped down on accepting certain credits. Brown University doesn’t accept AP test scores for credit although some departments allow students to waive introductory courses. It does, however, accept IB scores for course credit under certain circumstances. Dartmouth College students can use AP scores for credit or to skip courses but not for graduation credit.

— Graduating early isn’t everything. The most straightforward way to monetize credits earned in high school is to use them to graduate early. Earning a diploma in four years or less helps students save money by avoiding an extra year of tuition, getting into the workforce faster and absorbing fewer tuition increases.

But racing through college isn’t best for every kind of student, say experts. “You’re not thinking about the real purpose of college,” says Denise Pope, senior lecturer at Stanford University and co-founder of Challenge Success, a nonprofit organization that works to improve student well-being and engagement with learning.

[Learn how high school classes can offer college benefits.]

She suggests that students take college credit-earning courses in subjects that interest them and with teachers they enjoy studying with, not just to pad their college applications or save money.

Some savings may be more incremental. Students who’ve earned two AP qualifying scores can save $2,000 by not paying for those credits, course books or supplies at a public college. And they could save $6,000 at a higher-cost private university, says Trevor Packer, senior vice president of AP and Instruction at College Board.

Other students may cash in on benefits with no monetary value. For example, they can skip that 200-person introductory seminar and dive into a more advanced course. They may take the time to study abroad or explore a different major.

That’s what Josh Ogundu, who’s graduating from Michigan State University this spring, ended up doing. He had taken two AP tests in high school and scored high enough to skip an introductory history course, political science class and arts and humanities course at MSU.

The extra credits didn’t help him graduate early — in fact, he’s taking five years — but he says that the AP credits gave him the “time to explore other pathways because (I) already had that credit.”

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