STOP....the answer is yes.....but it does take some qualification.
I'll use myself as an example. When I started college in North Carolina, I already had a private pilot certificate. Now, since was a "Career Pilot Technology" major, one of the required courses at the college was "Private Pilot Flight Theory" (Ground School, as a college course), and another was "Private Pilot Flight - Practical" (Flying). And yet another was Air Navigation (advanced ground material - for cross country, etc).In order to pass the theory and navigation courses, you had to physically go to the class, 3 times per week, and study....just like algebra, philosophy, etc. In order to pass Private Pilot Flight, you actually had to complete your Private certificate.
Now, since I already had my private certificate, I automatically recieved credit (similar to transfer credit) for Private pilot flight, Private pilot flight theory, and Air navigation. This was called "Credit by examination". By virtue of the fact that I passed the checkride on the first try, I recieved credit for that course. As far as the other two academic courses, my advisor had to acertain whether or not I had the requisite knowledge to recieve credit for those courses. Most colleges will give a short written test, or an oral exam, and some will use your certificate as proof enough (it can vary at one college from one person to another, so never take one person's answer. Ask Everyone there!!!).
Sometimes having alot of flying done before you start school can come back to bite you in the A*s!! I'll use myself as an example again. After going to school in North Carolina, I transfered to a 4-year University here in MIddle Tennessee (can you guess which school???
). When I decided that I wanted to be a Pro-Pilot major, I was told, "No, you have too much flying experience". Hmmm...so strange. Oh, well, I just changed my major to "Aerospace - Flight Scheduling & Dispatch". Now I'll just have my Dispatcher cert. after I graduate.
The most important thing that you can do is get the catalogs at the schools that you are considering and find out what they say. I was all pumped up to go to University Of North Dakota for a while, until I found out that they would give me credit for my Private Cert ONLY after taking their "Private Pilot Checkride Prep Lab", which is about 12 hours of flight time in their very nice, very new, very expensive aircraft. Same with my instrument, commercial, etc. READ THE FINE PRINT!!!!!