How is the elimination of APs going for your DC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am parent to a rising 8th grader who is considering private for high school. This is the first I've heard about schools eliminating AP courses.

Could posters please share which schools are doing this, or have already done it?

Has anyone heard of this happening at the public high schools in Northern Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland?

Is this mostly happening at IB schools or schools where a significant number of students enroll in credit-bearing college courses while still in high school?

Landon, NCS, St Albans, Sidwell, Potomac. Not SAES, or flint hill or SSSAS. Others can offer more.

GDS, Holton, Maret.

No public or Catholic schools are dropping APs.

And no, these schools are not switching to IB or dual enrollment programs. The schools are simply proceeding with no option for the kids to take courses for college credit while in high school.

This is not really true. They can take the Advanced courses at these schools and then still sit for the AP exams. Most of these schools still actually give the exams at school for any kids who want to take them. They simply have dropped the AP designation from the course titles and replaced them with Advanced or some similar title. Some of the courses , like Calc or science courses are still very similar to the AP curriculum. Other courses, like history or English courses may differ more greatly from the AP curriculum. If taking a lot of AP courses is what is most important to you, then I would advise saving your money and going to public school. That is not the focus or reason for sending your kids to independent schools

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public high school counselor here- why are some privates doing away with APs? I don’t understand.
Other than the fact that college board is making a killing with all of the test administrations.

Private schools need to be able to say they are offering something more or more rigorous than high achieving publics. Privates want to tout the freedom to create deeper curricula when it freed from the AP label, and while that may be true, the need to distinguish is what drives those decisions. Why pay $30k+ to take the same classes and matriculate to the same colleges as a public school student. As noted by a PP, APs are still coin of the realm in college admissions. Having a full suite of those course offerings was not hurting private school kids’ options any more than those courses being described as honors would now.

This is partly true, however a really top notch private school with small classes of highly motivated students and teachers with advanced degrees in the subject area can certainly offer classes that more closely resemble the courses taught at the college level. Particularly in the humanities, AP courses do not give students a true seminar, college-level experience. Independent schools can instead offer Advanced courses that are described to colleges on their school profiles.

You can also do that with a course approved as AP. So that's not the answer to why some schools dropped it.

Perhaps the company that runs AP is trash and has no business controlling high school education?

I too think college board is awful. But that’s not why privates are dropping them. I would take several tests at least anyway if it were my kid. If your kid can’t score 4 in a few APs like US or world history after a 100k investment you really didn’t get your moneys worth unless some learning disabilities involved.

Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.

That's silly.

Actually quite accurate. My kid and their friends have only received 5s if they took an overlapping course. One 4 occurred after just 2 days of studying and no class.

That’s lovely for your children and their friends. But the comment was not about your children and their friends. The comment was that “Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.” That claim is inconsistent with the Phillips Exeter school profile, https://exeter.edu/app/uploads/2024/10/2024-25_PEA_College_Profile.pdf, which states that a quarter of students who attempt APs have an average score of 3 or less. (I trust we can all agree that Phillips Exeter is “at least semi-decent.”)

Why look at broad data directly from the source when you can make a poor generalization based on a handful of examples though?

I'm going to strongly agree that it would be surprising for students at a decent private school to get less than a 5 on APs if they took the course.

Ah, but the point is that the private schools don’t teach AP courses. So the kids who take the exams and do well get all the credit, while the kids who take the exams and do poorly have a ready-made excuse.

It would be like taking an AP Econ exam without taking an Economics class.

Kids at decent private schools get 5s when the coursework is there.

One example is my kid took the AP physics exam without a corresponding physics course and scored a 5. Usually kids can score at least a 3 without taking a related class.

This is pretty strong evidence that AP is a worthless program.

This is one anonymous comment on the internet. It’s not evidence of anything.

Your local public school is the crime scene if you want more evidence.

Lol another comment that makes no sense.

Some of you need to be attending school in place of your kids.

The worthlessness of the AP program is on display at public high schools across the country. It appeals to low achieving and low effort people.

I wonder how different APs are from A-levels in the UK. Same standardization, but they certainly don’t draw comments like this.

I wonder how the big UK schools require APs if APs are so worthless.

The UK hasn’t mattered for a very long time.

You sound dumb.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking

Here is a ranking that actually matters: ranking for number of billionaire alumni. UK is nowhere to be seen.

https://money.com/where-billionaires-went-to-college/?amp=true

You actually ARE dumb.

Oxford and Cambridge are irrelevant, like the rest of the UK.

Resorting to insults is a sign of low IQ, however I suspect you lack the self awareness to comprehend what I am saying here.

Every time you type, you confirm your stupidity further.

Oxford (which is in the UK), is #4 on your list.

Oxford is not on the list. Check the billionaire producing college list again.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public high school counselor here- why are some privates doing away with APs? I don’t understand.
Other than the fact that college board is making a killing with all of the test administrations.

Private schools need to be able to say they are offering something more or more rigorous than high achieving publics. Privates want to tout the freedom to create deeper curricula when it freed from the AP label, and while that may be true, the need to distinguish is what drives those decisions. Why pay $30k+ to take the same classes and matriculate to the same colleges as a public school student. As noted by a PP, APs are still coin of the realm in college admissions. Having a full suite of those course offerings was not hurting private school kids’ options any more than those courses being described as honors would now.

This is partly true, however a really top notch private school with small classes of highly motivated students and teachers with advanced degrees in the subject area can certainly offer classes that more closely resemble the courses taught at the college level. Particularly in the humanities, AP courses do not give students a true seminar, college-level experience. Independent schools can instead offer Advanced courses that are described to colleges on their school profiles.

You can also do that with a course approved as AP. So that's not the answer to why some schools dropped it.

Perhaps the company that runs AP is trash and has no business controlling high school education?

I too think college board is awful. But that’s not why privates are dropping them. I would take several tests at least anyway if it were my kid. If your kid can’t score 4 in a few APs like US or world history after a 100k investment you really didn’t get your moneys worth unless some learning disabilities involved.

Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.

That's silly.

Actually quite accurate. My kid and their friends have only received 5s if they took an overlapping course. One 4 occurred after just 2 days of studying and no class.

That’s lovely for your children and their friends. But the comment was not about your children and their friends. The comment was that “Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.” That claim is inconsistent with the Phillips Exeter school profile, https://exeter.edu/app/uploads/2024/10/2024-25_PEA_College_Profile.pdf, which states that a quarter of students who attempt APs have an average score of 3 or less. (I trust we can all agree that Phillips Exeter is “at least semi-decent.”)

Why look at broad data directly from the source when you can make a poor generalization based on a handful of examples though?

I'm going to strongly agree that it would be surprising for students at a decent private school to get less than a 5 on APs if they took the course.

Ah, but the point is that the private schools don’t teach AP courses. So the kids who take the exams and do well get all the credit, while the kids who take the exams and do poorly have a ready-made excuse.

It would be like taking an AP Econ exam without taking an Economics class.

Kids at decent private schools get 5s when the coursework is there.

One example is my kid took the AP physics exam without a corresponding physics course and scored a 5. Usually kids can score at least a 3 without taking a related class.

This is pretty strong evidence that AP is a worthless program.

This is one anonymous comment on the internet. It’s not evidence of anything.

Your local public school is the crime scene if you want more evidence.

Lol another comment that makes no sense.

Some of you need to be attending school in place of your kids.

The worthlessness of the AP program is on display at public high schools across the country. It appeals to low achieving and low effort people.

I wonder how different APs are from A-levels in the UK. Same standardization, but they certainly don’t draw comments like this.

I wonder how the big UK schools require APs if APs are so worthless.

The UK hasn’t mattered for a very long time.

You sound dumb.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking

Here is a ranking that actually matters: ranking for number of billionaire alumni. UK is nowhere to be seen.

https://money.com/where-billionaires-went-to-college/?amp=true

30% of all billionaires don’t have a college degree.

If this is your metric then you shouldn’t attend college at all.

Sure, but many dropped out of a top college or just realized they didn’t need it. The value of a college degree is more for finding entry level employment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public high school counselor here- why are some privates doing away with APs? I don’t understand.
Other than the fact that college board is making a killing with all of the test administrations.

Private schools need to be able to say they are offering something more or more rigorous than high achieving publics. Privates want to tout the freedom to create deeper curricula when it freed from the AP label, and while that may be true, the need to distinguish is what drives those decisions. Why pay $30k+ to take the same classes and matriculate to the same colleges as a public school student. As noted by a PP, APs are still coin of the realm in college admissions. Having a full suite of those course offerings was not hurting private school kids’ options any more than those courses being described as honors would now.

This is partly true, however a really top notch private school with small classes of highly motivated students and teachers with advanced degrees in the subject area can certainly offer classes that more closely resemble the courses taught at the college level. Particularly in the humanities, AP courses do not give students a true seminar, college-level experience. Independent schools can instead offer Advanced courses that are described to colleges on their school profiles.

You can also do that with a course approved as AP. So that's not the answer to why some schools dropped it.

Perhaps the company that runs AP is trash and has no business controlling high school education?

I too think college board is awful. But that’s not why privates are dropping them. I would take several tests at least anyway if it were my kid. If your kid can’t score 4 in a few APs like US or world history after a 100k investment you really didn’t get your moneys worth unless some learning disabilities involved.

Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.

That's silly.

Actually quite accurate. My kid and their friends have only received 5s if they took an overlapping course. One 4 occurred after just 2 days of studying and no class.

That’s lovely for your children and their friends. But the comment was not about your children and their friends. The comment was that “Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.” That claim is inconsistent with the Phillips Exeter school profile, https://exeter.edu/app/uploads/2024/10/2024-25_PEA_College_Profile.pdf, which states that a quarter of students who attempt APs have an average score of 3 or less. (I trust we can all agree that Phillips Exeter is “at least semi-decent.”)

Why look at broad data directly from the source when you can make a poor generalization based on a handful of examples though?

I'm going to strongly agree that it would be surprising for students at a decent private school to get less than a 5 on APs if they took the course.

Ah, but the point is that the private schools don’t teach AP courses. So the kids who take the exams and do well get all the credit, while the kids who take the exams and do poorly have a ready-made excuse.

It would be like taking an AP Econ exam without taking an Economics class.

Kids at decent private schools get 5s when the coursework is there.

One example is my kid took the AP physics exam without a corresponding physics course and scored a 5. Usually kids can score at least a 3 without taking a related class.

This is pretty strong evidence that AP is a worthless program.

This is one anonymous comment on the internet. It’s not evidence of anything.

Your local public school is the crime scene if you want more evidence.

Lol another comment that makes no sense.

Some of you need to be attending school in place of your kids.

The worthlessness of the AP program is on display at public high schools across the country. It appeals to low achieving and low effort people.

I wonder how different APs are from A-levels in the UK. Same standardization, but they certainly don’t draw comments like this.

I wonder how the big UK schools require APs if APs are so worthless.

The UK hasn’t mattered for a very long time.

You sound dumb.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking

Here is a ranking that actually matters: ranking for number of billionaire alumni. UK is nowhere to be seen.

https://money.com/where-billionaires-went-to-college/?amp=true

30% of all billionaires don’t have a college degree.

If this is your metric then you shouldn’t attend college at all.

Sure, but many dropped out of a top college or just realized they didn’t need it. The value of a college degree is more for finding entry level employment.

So your list is meaningless. Thanks. Very helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am parent to a rising 8th grader who is considering private for high school. This is the first I've heard about schools eliminating AP courses.

Could posters please share which schools are doing this, or have already done it?

Has anyone heard of this happening at the public high schools in Northern Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland?

Is this mostly happening at IB schools or schools where a significant number of students enroll in credit-bearing college courses while still in high school?

Landon, NCS, St Albans, Sidwell, Potomac. Not SAES, or flint hill or SSSAS. Others can offer more.

GDS, Holton, Maret.

No public or Catholic schools are dropping APs.

And no, these schools are not switching to IB or dual enrollment programs. The schools are simply proceeding with no option for the kids to take courses for college credit while in high school.

This is not really true. They can take the Advanced courses at these schools and then still sit for the AP exams. Most of these schools still actually give the exams at school for any kids who want to take them. They simply have dropped the AP designation from the course titles and replaced them with Advanced or some similar title. Some of the courses , like Calc or science courses are still very similar to the AP curriculum. Other courses, like history or English courses may differ more greatly from the AP curriculum. If taking a lot of AP courses is what is most important to you, then I would advise saving your money and going to public school. That is not the focus or reason for sending your kids to independent schools

Or, you know, you could have it all by picking one of the many independent schools that still offers APs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public high school counselor here- why are some privates doing away with APs? I don’t understand.
Other than the fact that college board is making a killing with all of the test administrations.

Private schools need to be able to say they are offering something more or more rigorous than high achieving publics. Privates want to tout the freedom to create deeper curricula when it freed from the AP label, and while that may be true, the need to distinguish is what drives those decisions. Why pay $30k+ to take the same classes and matriculate to the same colleges as a public school student. As noted by a PP, APs are still coin of the realm in college admissions. Having a full suite of those course offerings was not hurting private school kids’ options any more than those courses being described as honors would now.

This is partly true, however a really top notch private school with small classes of highly motivated students and teachers with advanced degrees in the subject area can certainly offer classes that more closely resemble the courses taught at the college level. Particularly in the humanities, AP courses do not give students a true seminar, college-level experience. Independent schools can instead offer Advanced courses that are described to colleges on their school profiles.

You can also do that with a course approved as AP. So that's not the answer to why some schools dropped it.

Perhaps the company that runs AP is trash and has no business controlling high school education?

I too think college board is awful. But that’s not why privates are dropping them. I would take several tests at least anyway if it were my kid. If your kid can’t score 4 in a few APs like US or world history after a 100k investment you really didn’t get your moneys worth unless some learning disabilities involved.

Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.

That's silly.

Actually quite accurate. My kid and their friends have only received 5s if they took an overlapping course. One 4 occurred after just 2 days of studying and no class.

That’s lovely for your children and their friends. But the comment was not about your children and their friends. The comment was that “Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.” That claim is inconsistent with the Phillips Exeter school profile, https://exeter.edu/app/uploads/2024/10/2024-25_PEA_College_Profile.pdf, which states that a quarter of students who attempt APs have an average score of 3 or less. (I trust we can all agree that Phillips Exeter is “at least semi-decent.”)

Why look at broad data directly from the source when you can make a poor generalization based on a handful of examples though?

I'm going to strongly agree that it would be surprising for students at a decent private school to get less than a 5 on APs if they took the course.

Ah, but the point is that the private schools don’t teach AP courses. So the kids who take the exams and do well get all the credit, while the kids who take the exams and do poorly have a ready-made excuse.

It would be like taking an AP Econ exam without taking an Economics class.

Kids at decent private schools get 5s when the coursework is there.

One example is my kid took the AP physics exam without a corresponding physics course and scored a 5. Usually kids can score at least a 3 without taking a related class.

This is pretty strong evidence that AP is a worthless program.

This is one anonymous comment on the internet. It’s not evidence of anything.

Your local public school is the crime scene if you want more evidence.

Lol another comment that makes no sense.

Some of you need to be attending school in place of your kids.

The worthlessness of the AP program is on display at public high schools across the country. It appeals to low achieving and low effort people.

I wonder how different APs are from A-levels in the UK. Same standardization, but they certainly don’t draw comments like this.

I wonder how the big UK schools require APs if APs are so worthless.

The UK hasn’t mattered for a very long time.

You sound dumb.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking

Here is a ranking that actually matters: ranking for number of billionaire alumni. UK is nowhere to be seen.

https://money.com/where-billionaires-went-to-college/?amp=true

30% of all billionaires don’t have a college degree.

If this is your metric then you shouldn’t attend college at all.

Sure, but many dropped out of a top college or just realized they didn’t need it. The value of a college degree is more for finding entry level employment.

So your list is meaningless. Thanks. Very helpful.

Nope, these top schools are helpful for networking and finding successful peers. The degree itself is an entry level job requirement.

The schools that produce the most billionaires have something special.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am parent to a rising 8th grader who is considering private for high school. This is the first I've heard about schools eliminating AP courses.

Could posters please share which schools are doing this, or have already done it?

Has anyone heard of this happening at the public high schools in Northern Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland?

Is this mostly happening at IB schools or schools where a significant number of students enroll in credit-bearing college courses while still in high school?

Landon, NCS, St Albans, Sidwell, Potomac. Not SAES, or flint hill or SSSAS. Others can offer more.

GDS, Holton, Maret.

No public or Catholic schools are dropping APs.

And no, these schools are not switching to IB or dual enrollment programs. The schools are simply proceeding with no option for the kids to take courses for college credit while in high school.

This is not really true. They can take the Advanced courses at these schools and then still sit for the AP exams. Most of these schools still actually give the exams at school for any kids who want to take them. They simply have dropped the AP designation from the course titles and replaced them with Advanced or some similar title. Some of the courses , like Calc or science courses are still very similar to the AP curriculum. Other courses, like history or English courses may differ more greatly from the AP curriculum. If taking a lot of AP courses is what is most important to you, then I would advise saving your money and going to public school. That is not the focus or reason for sending your kids to independent schools

Or, you know, you could have it all by picking one of the many independent schools that still offers APs.

This is what we did. The opting out seems a little limiting and for the price, why do that!

[Anonymous]

Just take the AP exams! My child attended a school that has eliminated most APs and he took the exams and ended up with 30 hours of college credit as a 2025 grad. We don't care about the credit per say but having it is allowing him to place out of 100 level classes. His high school classmates who do not have the AP credit are starting college in writing 101, math 101, etc. Colleges don't care if you went to "Big3 school" or not when they are doing course placement.

At these high schools, taking the on-level English and History classes will prepare kids to get a 5 of the correlating AP exams without studying.

[Anonymous]

Just avoid any school that both has no AP AND doesn't offer the tests.

I think only GDS around here falls into that category.

That way you always have the option to take the test if you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public high school counselor here- why are some privates doing away with APs? I don’t understand.
Other than the fact that college board is making a killing with all of the test administrations.

Private schools need to be able to say they are offering something more or more rigorous than high achieving publics. Privates want to tout the freedom to create deeper curricula when it freed from the AP label, and while that may be true, the need to distinguish is what drives those decisions. Why pay $30k+ to take the same classes and matriculate to the same colleges as a public school student. As noted by a PP, APs are still coin of the realm in college admissions. Having a full suite of those course offerings was not hurting private school kids’ options any more than those courses being described as honors would now.

This is partly true, however a really top notch private school with small classes of highly motivated students and teachers with advanced degrees in the subject area can certainly offer classes that more closely resemble the courses taught at the college level. Particularly in the humanities, AP courses do not give students a true seminar, college-level experience. Independent schools can instead offer Advanced courses that are described to colleges on their school profiles.

You can also do that with a course approved as AP. So that's not the answer to why some schools dropped it.

Perhaps the company that runs AP is trash and has no business controlling high school education?

I too think college board is awful. But that’s not why privates are dropping them. I would take several tests at least anyway if it were my kid. If your kid can’t score 4 in a few APs like US or world history after a 100k investment you really didn’t get your moneys worth unless some learning disabilities involved.

Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.

That's silly.

Actually quite accurate. My kid and their friends have only received 5s if they took an overlapping course. One 4 occurred after just 2 days of studying and no class.

That’s lovely for your children and their friends. But the comment was not about your children and their friends. The comment was that “Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.” That claim is inconsistent with the Phillips Exeter school profile, https://exeter.edu/app/uploads/2024/10/2024-25_PEA_College_Profile.pdf, which states that a quarter of students who attempt APs have an average score of 3 or less. (I trust we can all agree that Phillips Exeter is “at least semi-decent.”)

Why look at broad data directly from the source when you can make a poor generalization based on a handful of examples though?

I'm going to strongly agree that it would be surprising for students at a decent private school to get less than a 5 on APs if they took the course.

Ah, but the point is that the private schools don’t teach AP courses. So the kids who take the exams and do well get all the credit, while the kids who take the exams and do poorly have a ready-made excuse.

It would be like taking an AP Econ exam without taking an Economics class.

Kids at decent private schools get 5s when the coursework is there.

One example is my kid took the AP physics exam without a corresponding physics course and scored a 5. Usually kids can score at least a 3 without taking a related class.

This is pretty strong evidence that AP is a worthless program.

This is one anonymous comment on the internet. It’s not evidence of anything.

Your local public school is the crime scene if you want more evidence.

Lol another comment that makes no sense.

Some of you need to be attending school in place of your kids.

The worthlessness of the AP program is on display at public high schools across the country. It appeals to low achieving and low effort people.

I wonder how different APs are from A-levels in the UK. Same standardization, but they certainly don’t draw comments like this.

I wonder how the big UK schools require APs if APs are so worthless.

The UK hasn’t mattered for a very long time.

You sound dumb.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking

Here is a ranking that actually matters: ranking for number of billionaire alumni. UK is nowhere to be seen.

https://money.com/where-billionaires-went-to-college/?amp=true

30% of all billionaires don’t have a college degree.

If this is your metric then you shouldn’t attend college at all.

Sure, but many dropped out of a top college or just realized they didn’t need it. The value of a college degree is more for finding entry level employment.

So your list is meaningless. Thanks. Very helpful.

Nope, these top schools are helpful for networking and finding successful peers. The degree itself is an entry level job requirement.

The schools that produce the most billionaires have something special.

Yes, Oxford and Cambridge have such inferior alumni networks.

Mmm hmm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just take the AP exams! My child attended a school that has eliminated most APs and he took the exams and ended up with 30 hours of college credit as a 2025 grad. We don't care about the credit per say but having it is allowing him to place out of 100 level classes. His high school classmates who do not have the AP credit are starting college in writing 101, math 101, etc. Colleges don't care if you went to "Big3 school" or not when they are doing course placement.

At these high schools, taking the on-level English and History classes will prepare kids to get a 5 of the correlating AP exams without studying.

His classmates didn’t bother taking three hours out of their day to sit the exams? Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just take the AP exams! My child attended a school that has eliminated most APs and he took the exams and ended up with 30 hours of college credit as a 2025 grad. We don't care about the credit per say but having it is allowing him to place out of 100 level classes. His high school classmates who do not have the AP credit are starting college in writing 101, math 101, etc. Colleges don't care if you went to "Big3 school" or not when they are doing course placement.

At these high schools, taking the on-level English and History classes will prepare kids to get a 5 of the correlating AP exams without studying.

His classmates didn’t bother taking three hours out of their day to sit the exams? Why?

Many of the privates that have dropped APs discourage taking the exams or say it’s not necessary. It’s pretty hard, from a messaging point of view, to emphasize the value of AP exams while denigrating the value of AP courses—especially if you actually do want to discourage a recruited athlete or other hooked student from taking the exams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just take the AP exams! My child attended a school that has eliminated most APs and he took the exams and ended up with 30 hours of college credit as a 2025 grad. We don't care about the credit per say but having it is allowing him to place out of 100 level classes. His high school classmates who do not have the AP credit are starting college in writing 101, math 101, etc. Colleges don't care if you went to "Big3 school" or not when they are doing course placement.

At these high schools, taking the on-level English and History classes will prepare kids to get a 5 of the correlating AP exams without studying.

His classmates didn’t bother taking three hours out of their day to sit the exams? Why?

Many of the privates that have dropped APs discourage taking the exams or say it’s not necessary. It’s pretty hard, from a messaging point of view, to emphasize the value of AP exams while denigrating the value of AP courses—especially if you actually do want to discourage a recruited athlete or other hooked student from taking the exams.

Why discourage taking the exams?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Public high school counselor here- why are some privates doing away with APs? I don’t understand.
Other than the fact that college board is making a killing with all of the test administrations.

Private schools need to be able to say they are offering something more or more rigorous than high achieving publics. Privates want to tout the freedom to create deeper curricula when it freed from the AP label, and while that may be true, the need to distinguish is what drives those decisions. Why pay $30k+ to take the same classes and matriculate to the same colleges as a public school student. As noted by a PP, APs are still coin of the realm in college admissions. Having a full suite of those course offerings was not hurting private school kids’ options any more than those courses being described as honors would now.

This is partly true, however a really top notch private school with small classes of highly motivated students and teachers with advanced degrees in the subject area can certainly offer classes that more closely resemble the courses taught at the college level. Particularly in the humanities, AP courses do not give students a true seminar, college-level experience. Independent schools can instead offer Advanced courses that are described to colleges on their school profiles.

You can also do that with a course approved as AP. So that's not the answer to why some schools dropped it.

Perhaps the company that runs AP is trash and has no business controlling high school education?

I too think college board is awful. But that’s not why privates are dropping them. I would take several tests at least anyway if it were my kid. If your kid can’t score 4 in a few APs like US or world history after a 100k investment you really didn’t get your moneys worth unless some learning disabilities involved.

Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.

That's silly.

Actually quite accurate. My kid and their friends have only received 5s if they took an overlapping course. One 4 occurred after just 2 days of studying and no class.

That’s lovely for your children and their friends. But the comment was not about your children and their friends. The comment was that “Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.” That claim is inconsistent with the Phillips Exeter school profile, https://exeter.edu/app/uploads/2024/10/2024-25_PEA_College_Profile.pdf, which states that a quarter of students who attempt APs have an average score of 3 or less. (I trust we can all agree that Phillips Exeter is “at least semi-decent.”)

Why look at broad data directly from the source when you can make a poor generalization based on a handful of examples though?

I'm going to strongly agree that it would be surprising for students at a decent private school to get less than a 5 on APs if they took the course.

Ah, but the point is that the private schools don’t teach AP courses. So the kids who take the exams and do well get all the credit, while the kids who take the exams and do poorly have a ready-made excuse.

It would be like taking an AP Econ exam without taking an Economics class.

Kids at decent private schools get 5s when the coursework is there.

One example is my kid took the AP physics exam without a corresponding physics course and scored a 5. Usually kids can score at least a 3 without taking a related class.

This is pretty strong evidence that AP is a worthless program.

This is one anonymous comment on the internet. It’s not evidence of anything.

Your local public school is the crime scene if you want more evidence.

Lol another comment that makes no sense.

Some of you need to be attending school in place of your kids.

The worthlessness of the AP program is on display at public high schools across the country. It appeals to low achieving and low effort people.

I wonder how different APs are from A-levels in the UK. Same standardization, but they certainly don’t draw comments like this.

I wonder how the big UK schools require APs if APs are so worthless.

The UK hasn’t mattered for a very long time.

You sound dumb.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking

Here is a ranking that actually matters: ranking for number of billionaire alumni. UK is nowhere to be seen.

https://money.com/where-billionaires-went-to-college/?amp=true

30% of all billionaires don’t have a college degree.

If this is your metric then you shouldn’t attend college at all.

Sure, but many dropped out of a top college or just realized they didn’t need it. The value of a college degree is more for finding entry level employment.

So your list is meaningless. Thanks. Very helpful.

Nope, these top schools are helpful for networking and finding successful peers. The degree itself is an entry level job requirement.

The schools that produce the most billionaires have something special.

Yes, Oxford and Cambridge have such inferior alumni networks.

Mmm hmm.

Correct. These are the schools that produce billionaires. https://money.com/where-billionaires-went-to-college/?amp=true

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Public high school counselor here- why are some privates doing away with APs? I don’t understand.
Other than the fact that college board is making a killing with all of the test administrations.

Private schools need to be able to say they are offering something more or more rigorous than high achieving publics. Privates want to tout the freedom to create deeper curricula when it freed from the AP label, and while that may be true, the need to distinguish is what drives those decisions. Why pay $30k+ to take the same classes and matriculate to the same colleges as a public school student. As noted by a PP, APs are still coin of the realm in college admissions. Having a full suite of those course offerings was not hurting private school kids’ options any more than those courses being described as honors would now.

This is partly true, however a really top notch private school with small classes of highly motivated students and teachers with advanced degrees in the subject area can certainly offer classes that more closely resemble the courses taught at the college level. Particularly in the humanities, AP courses do not give students a true seminar, college-level experience. Independent schools can instead offer Advanced courses that are described to colleges on their school profiles.

You can also do that with a course approved as AP. So that's not the answer to why some schools dropped it.

Perhaps the company that runs AP is trash and has no business controlling high school education?

I too think college board is awful. But that’s not why privates are dropping them. I would take several tests at least anyway if it were my kid. If your kid can’t score 4 in a few APs like US or world history after a 100k investment you really didn’t get your moneys worth unless some learning disabilities involved.

Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.

That's silly.

Actually quite accurate. My kid and their friends have only received 5s if they took an overlapping course. One 4 occurred after just 2 days of studying and no class.

That’s lovely for your children and their friends. But the comment was not about your children and their friends. The comment was that “Anything less than a 5 would be surprising from at least a semi-decent private.” That claim is inconsistent with the Phillips Exeter school profile, https://exeter.edu/app/uploads/2024/10/2024-25_PEA_College_Profile.pdf, which states that a quarter of students who attempt APs have an average score of 3 or less. (I trust we can all agree that Phillips Exeter is “at least semi-decent.”)

Why look at broad data directly from the source when you can make a poor generalization based on a handful of examples though?

I'm going to strongly agree that it would be surprising for students at a decent private school to get less than a 5 on APs if they took the course.

Ah, but the point is that the private schools don’t teach AP courses. So the kids who take the exams and do well get all the credit, while the kids who take the exams and do poorly have a ready-made excuse.

It would be like taking an AP Econ exam without taking an Economics class.

Kids at decent private schools get 5s when the coursework is there.

One example is my kid took the AP physics exam without a corresponding physics course and scored a 5. Usually kids can score at least a 3 without taking a related class.

This is pretty strong evidence that AP is a worthless program.

This is one anonymous comment on the internet. It’s not evidence of anything.

Your local public school is the crime scene if you want more evidence.

Lol another comment that makes no sense.

Some of you need to be attending school in place of your kids.

The worthlessness of the AP program is on display at public high schools across the country. It appeals to low achieving and low effort people.

I wonder how different APs are from A-levels in the UK. Same standardization, but they certainly don’t draw comments like this.

I wonder how the big UK schools require APs if APs are so worthless.

The UK hasn’t mattered for a very long time.

You sound dumb.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking

Here is a ranking that actually matters: ranking for number of billionaire alumni. UK is nowhere to be seen.

https://money.com/where-billionaires-went-to-college/?amp=true

30% of all billionaires don’t have a college degree.

If this is your metric then you shouldn’t attend college at all.

Sure, but many dropped out of a top college or just realized they didn’t need it. The value of a college degree is more for finding entry level employment.

So your list is meaningless. Thanks. Very helpful.

Nope, these top schools are helpful for networking and finding successful peers. The degree itself is an entry level job requirement.

The schools that produce the most billionaires have something special.

Yes, Oxford and Cambridge have such inferior alumni networks.

Mmm hmm.

Correct. These are the schools that produce billionaires. https://money.com/where-billionaires-went-to-college/?amp=true

Keep trying, dude.