If your child went to a private school that does not offer AP classes, how did that affect their college outcomes?

[Anonymous]

For the poster who thinks private school kids without AP are at a disadvantage: i found the opposite. Many of my dd public school friends who had all AP and all A's are surprisingly struggling freshman year. So much grade inflation in hs and these kids are overwhelmed by the high level of rigor in college. There are a lot of bs AP courses around. Test retakes, etc. I know many kids who got A's in AP courses and then 2's in the AP tests. Applied test optional with 'perfect' and high weighted GPA's...many at top flagships and floundering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you all for taking the time to respond.

The main issue though is that how would these kids get college credit if they do not take the AP exam? You could be at a competitive private taking some very advanced calculus class, but if you do not take the AP, don't you have to start doing some basic intro to calculus class in college?

And if you do take the AP exam, now you have 2 separate curricula to study for. I get that the classes the privates are offering are very advanced, but I am sure there are differences in what is being taught and students wanting to take the AP exam, have to study on top of the already rigorous class curriculum. It seems like a lot!

No selective colleges accept AP credit anymore. As for placement, some have placement tests and some go off of transcripts.

False.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you all for taking the time to respond.

The main issue though is that how would these kids get college credit if they do not take the AP exam? You could be at a competitive private taking some very advanced calculus class, but if you do not take the AP, don't you have to start doing some basic intro to calculus class in college?

And if you do take the AP exam, now you have 2 separate curricula to study for. I get that the classes the privates are offering are very advanced, but I am sure there are differences in what is being taught and students wanting to take the AP exam, have to study on top of the already rigorous class curriculum. It seems like a lot!

No selective colleges accept AP credit anymore. As for placement, some have placement tests and some go off of transcripts.

False.

Care to elaborate? My daughter and all her friends just went through this as new freshmen and I found this true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For a selective private school, the lack of APs will not matter at all. In fact, admissions officers know that selective private schools often have much harder curriculums than public schools with AP. From my own personal perspective, my kids just switched from an elite private school to a very well regarded public due to a family move and are taking all AP classes, and the AP classes are infinitely easier than what they were taking in the private school.

Really, AP classes are “infinitely easier”? Please, enough with the exaggerations. Pick a class and explain how the AP version is infinitely easier. I guarantee that for STEM classes like Calculus BC the difference is “infinitely small” lol. Everyone can look at the private school class catalogues and see that the syllabus content is the same.

If the private high school is well known then there’s some assessment about rigor. At less known privates students still need to demonstrate rigor or take the risk of being rejected and AP is one of the ways to show it. It’s the same with test optional, it’s risky to apply without scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you all for taking the time to respond.

The main issue though is that how would these kids get college credit if they do not take the AP exam? You could be at a competitive private taking some very advanced calculus class, but if you do not take the AP, don't you have to start doing some basic intro to calculus class in college?

And if you do take the AP exam, now you have 2 separate curricula to study for. I get that the classes the privates are offering are very advanced, but I am sure there are differences in what is being taught and students wanting to take the AP exam, have to study on top of the already rigorous class curriculum. It seems like a lot!

No selective colleges accept AP credit anymore. As for placement, some have placement tests and some go off of transcripts.

False.

You’re completely clueless. MIT and Stanford take AP credits. Unless you don’t consider them selective enough for your elevated taste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you all for taking the time to respond.

The main issue though is that how would these kids get college credit if they do not take the AP exam? You could be at a competitive private taking some very advanced calculus class, but if you do not take the AP, don't you have to start doing some basic intro to calculus class in college?

And if you do take the AP exam, now you have 2 separate curricula to study for. I get that the classes the privates are offering are very advanced, but I am sure there are differences in what is being taught and students wanting to take the AP exam, have to study on top of the already rigorous class curriculum. It seems like a lot!

OP, don't get hang up with 2 separate curriculum, it is mostly one and the same with tons of overlap.

The premise of quality classes offered by top private school is that there is no / minimal of AP exam studying needed. Same in public magnet schools with their own specialized STEM classes. It is offered at a level that cover AP material. Most of the private / public magnet students who have done well do no / minimal prep for AP exams, and still do very well (4 or 5).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you all for taking the time to respond.

The main issue though is that how would these kids get college credit if they do not take the AP exam? You could be at a competitive private taking some very advanced calculus class, but if you do not take the AP, don't you have to start doing some basic intro to calculus class in college?

And if you do take the AP exam, now you have 2 separate curricula to study for. I get that the classes the privates are offering are very advanced, but I am sure there are differences in what is being taught and students wanting to take the AP exam, have to study on top of the already rigorous class curriculum. It seems like a lot!

OP, don't get hang up with 2 separate curriculum, it is mostly one and the same with tons of overlap.

The premise of quality classes offered by top private school is that there is no / minimal of AP exam studying needed. Same in public magnet schools with their own specialized STEM classes. It is offered at a level that cover AP material. Most of the private / public magnet students who have done well do no / minimal prep for AP exams, and still do very well (4 or 5).

The curriculum is very close for stem classes but may be different for humanities. The testing style may also be different, with multiple choice and calculator use for AP.

In general I found the AP exam questions to be very well made and quite exhaustive at testing in depth the course material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the poster who thinks private school kids without AP are at a disadvantage: i found the opposite. Many of my dd public school friends who had all AP and all A's are surprisingly struggling freshman year. So much grade inflation in hs and these kids are overwhelmed by the high level of rigor in college. There are a lot of bs AP courses around. Test retakes, etc. I know many kids who got A's in AP courses and then 2's in the AP tests. Applied test optional with 'perfect' and high weighted GPA's...many at top flagships and floundering.

OP is asking if not taking the AP tests is a disadvantage, not about kids that get A in class and 2 at exam.

To use gaming parlance, the meta for applying to college shifted to submitting standardized scores, SAT, ACT and AP. For sure kids applying to University of California campuses without AP scores will be at a disadvantage because they are considered according to their common data set.

[Anonymous]

No AP courses and no AP exams for my private school kid. Kid is a freshman at an ivy. The only possible ap credit their college accepts is calc bc. Other ap used for placement only. So no big benefit to having ap. In contrast, public universities and less selective colleges will give a lots of credits for ap coursework if you reach certain AP test score threasholds - some schools want 4/5 and for some they accept a 3. It varies by school.

[Anonymous]

There are two kinds of privates that don't offer APs--good ones that have alternative coursework with good rigor and crappy ones that PRETEND they are in the former category. Beware of the second group.

[Anonymous]

You are only held to what your school offers. No APs? Fine. Take the highest rigor offered at your school. AOs know what is offered (either because they are very familiar with your school or they dig deep in the profile) and expect you to exceed within those parameters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are only held to what your school offers. No APs? Fine. Take the highest rigor offered at your school. AOs know what is offered (either because they are very familiar with your school or they dig deep in the profile) and expect you to exceed within those parameters.

It’s true, if the AOs are familiar with the school and have admitted students before, ie the school is a feeder, they have an idea about what an A means.

If the school is not well known, then it’s on the student to show that an A means something and the AP exam is one way to do it.

Either way, there’s zero downside to signing up and taking the AP exam. Presumably the material is the same, and one can get credit or clear prerequisites.

[Anonymous]

I hate threads like this for two primary reasons.

One, nobody knows what they're talking about.

Two, posters always post crazy shit like "my kid's public school friends are all struggling in college and they took APs and my kid didn't" and I think (a) are you stalking your kid's friends? How do you know their grades?? and (b) nobody "struggles" in college anymore -- the average GPA is like a 3.3.

Anywhere, here's the real answer: college admissions officers judge an application within the context of the high school's particular profile. Every high school includes the school profile with the student's transcript. It will say point blank that the school doesn't offer APs, and it will identify what the advanced classes are in their place. It will describe the grading scale, and when there's no class rank it will typically provide the grading distribution. It will report the average SAT and ACT scores for the class. And typically it will say what percentage of the class goes to a four year college a provide a matriculation list.

The bottom line: you're fine.

[Anonymous]

It did not affect the outcome at all. His first choice was a top 25 school. He got in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate threads like this for two primary reasons.

One, nobody knows what they're talking about.

Two, posters always post crazy shit like "my kid's public school friends are all struggling in college and they took APs and my kid didn't" and I think (a) are you stalking your kid's friends? How do you know their grades?? and (b) nobody "struggles" in college anymore -- the average GPA is like a 3.3.

Anywhere, here's the real answer: college admissions officers judge an application within the context of the high school's particular profile. Every high school includes the school profile with the student's transcript. It will say point blank that the school doesn't offer APs, and it will identify what the advanced classes are in their place. It will describe the grading scale, and when there's no class rank it will typically provide the grading distribution. It will report the average SAT and ACT scores for the class. And typically it will say what percentage of the class goes to a four year college a provide a matriculation list.

The bottom line: you're fine.

Mostly agree with a caveat. If your school rarely sends kids to top schools and generally the students body doesn’t do that well on standardized testing, it’s better to take the AP exam if aiming at a top college.