I don't see why not. I have been connecting Cisco APs to my lab laptop for years (PC running VMWare for lab stuff)
Although, I don't use a USB dongle - I go straight into the back of the Lenovo laptop via a Cisco Ethernet power injector. Principle should be the same for a USB dongle since you are powering the AP externally.
In the old days (100Mbps) I used to have to use an Ethernet crossover cable (where the Tx/Rx were reversed on either end of the cable, because there was no switch involved) - but these days with 1GE interfaces it's not needed anymore - a straight through ethernet cable will work.
