GDS just dropped AP testing

[Anonymous]

They had dropped the AP courses a few years ago (collusion case successfully brought by DOJ as a result of this as we all remember).

Now GDS just announced that they are dropping AP testing

"Over the last year, our team has been in conversation with dozens of college admissions offices from small liberal arts colleges to large flagship state institutions. In each of these conversations, we have confirmed what we shared with families when GDS moved away from AP courses: For college admissions, there is no advantage to taking AP tests if you attend a high school that does not offer that coursework."

Is this statement true? How about the increasing # of kids who have been applying and matriculating at UK/Ireland/Canadian schools? How about schools like NYU that actually take AP testing in lieu of SAT/ACT (optional of course).

Something about this decision sits wrong with me...they are making it even harder for the subset of students who dont want to go to SLACs.

Also what about the college credit that some schools - esp. state flagships still offer for AP tests 4+

How's that for GDS equity mission?

[Anonymous]

Ehh. Not a big deal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ehh. Not a big deal

why?

[Anonymous]

My DD13 is starting 8th grade and we need to apply for high schools in January. She will go to university overseas as we cannot afford the US system. I knew GDS had stopped offering AP courses but didn’t know they were still doing AP testing. What difference does dropping the testing part make?

[Anonymous]

Eh.

I think the college classes are better anyway.

[Anonymous]

The right thing to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The right thing to do.

Yes, any objective measure of the kids should be eliminated. Kids should only be judged by the adversity score of their essays.

[Anonymous]

GDS seems to be interested in maintaining its equity first, woke reputation at all costs. It’s shocking to me that parents pay to have their children indoctrinated there.

[Anonymous]

What did the UC system say?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD13 is starting 8th grade and we need to apply for high schools in January. She will go to university overseas as we cannot afford the US system. I knew GDS had stopped offering AP courses but didn’t know they were still doing AP testing. What difference does dropping the testing part make?

None because if you can't afford an American university, you can't afford GDS either

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GDS seems to be interested in maintaining its equity first, woke reputation at all costs. It’s shocking to me that parents pay to have their children indoctrinated there.

My 3rd kid has a few years left there. In the last 4-5 years, the quality of the administration has taken a notable downturn. The decisions are all made by one metric alone. None of this would not happen if Kevin Barr and others were still there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD13 is starting 8th grade and we need to apply for high schools in January. She will go to university overseas as we cannot afford the US system. I knew GDS had stopped offering AP courses but didn’t know they were still doing AP testing. What difference does dropping the testing part make?

None because if you can't afford an American university, you can't afford GDS either

Bollocks
GDS $40-45k. US university w/ housing etc 90k per year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They had dropped the AP courses a few years ago (collusion case successfully brought by DOJ as a result of this as we all remember).

Now GDS just announced that they are dropping AP testing

"Over the last year, our team has been in conversation with dozens of college admissions offices from small liberal arts colleges to large flagship state institutions. In each of these conversations, we have confirmed what we shared with families when GDS moved away from AP courses: For college admissions, there is no advantage to taking AP tests if you attend a high school that does not offer that coursework."

Is this statement true? How about the increasing # of kids who have been applying and matriculating at UK/Ireland/Canadian schools? How about schools like NYU that actually take AP testing in lieu of SAT/ACT (optional of course).

Something about this decision sits wrong with me...they are making it even harder for the subset of students who dont want to go to SLACs.

Also what about the college credit that some schools - esp. state flagships still offer for AP tests 4+

How's that for GDS equity mission?

It's inconvenient, but you can register and take AP tests elsewhere. Don't understand why GDS needs to make life difficult as I doubt anyone will change their AP approach...in other words, if you have bought their reasoning in the past, you weren't taking...but if you don't you will still figure out how to take.

The wording they use is strange. The vast majority of small liberal arts colleges accept like 70%+ of their applicants...same for 80% of large flagships. Are you supposed to assume they mean the Top 10 SLACS and flagships?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They had dropped the AP courses a few years ago (collusion case successfully brought by DOJ as a result of this as we all remember).

Now GDS just announced that they are dropping AP testing

"Over the last year, our team has been in conversation with dozens of college admissions offices from small liberal arts colleges to large flagship state institutions. In each of these conversations, we have confirmed what we shared with families when GDS moved away from AP courses: For college admissions, there is no advantage to taking AP tests if you attend a high school that does not offer that coursework."

Is this statement true? How about the increasing # of kids who have been applying and matriculating at UK/Ireland/Canadian schools? How about schools like NYU that actually take AP testing in lieu of SAT/ACT (optional of course).

Something about this decision sits wrong with me...they are making it even harder for the subset of students who dont want to go to SLACs.

Also what about the college credit that some schools - esp. state flagships still offer for AP tests 4+

How's that for GDS equity mission?

It's inconvenient, but you can register and take AP tests elsewhere. Don't understand why GDS needs to make life difficult as I doubt anyone will change their AP approach...in other words, if you have bought their reasoning in the past, you weren't taking...but if you don't you will still figure out how to take.

The wording they use is strange. The vast majority of small liberal arts colleges accept like 70%+ of their applicants...same for 80% of large flagships. Are you supposed to assume they mean the Top 10 SLACS and flagships?

spot on comment

Classic GDS: make a decision that you think its right but actually further inconveniences parents, everyone still keeps doing the thing and you come up with some bizarre justification as to why it's good for everyone. proctoring AP tests for the 100 kids a year who took them was so low cost. They could have easily kept this. Instead they virtue signal w/ BS logic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They had dropped the AP courses a few years ago (collusion case successfully brought by DOJ as a result of this as we all remember).

Now GDS just announced that they are dropping AP testing

"Over the last year, our team has been in conversation with dozens of college admissions offices from small liberal arts colleges to large flagship state institutions. In each of these conversations, we have confirmed what we shared with families when GDS moved away from AP courses: For college admissions, there is no advantage to taking AP tests if you attend a high school that does not offer that coursework."

Is this statement true? How about the increasing # of kids who have been applying and matriculating at UK/Ireland/Canadian schools? How about schools like NYU that actually take AP testing in lieu of SAT/ACT (optional of course).

Something about this decision sits wrong with me...they are making it even harder for the subset of students who dont want to go to SLACs.

Also what about the college credit that some schools - esp. state flagships still offer for AP tests 4+

How's that for GDS equity mission?

They don't address the FOMO element. If you know a bunch of kids at GDS are going off-campus to take the AP tests and applying to Ivy league schools, you will now be completely paranoid that you will have to do the same. Why? Because no administrative BS will dissuade you from the fear that the Ivy will wonder why does kid X have a 3.8 and no APs, while kid Y has a 3.8 and 10 APs. Same school, but seems like Kid Y showed more initiative and maybe Kid X thought they were going to score 2s on the tests.