Anyone else think it's ridiculous for kids to take AP classes?

[Anonymous]

If a student is interested in taking APs and is equipped to handle the extra workload, what is the problem? I had a friend in college who graduated a full year early because she had so many AP credits that she almost qualified as a sophomore when she started as a freshman. That is a huge amount of money to save, and its even more important now when college is so outrageously expensive.

Sure, let kids be kids, but I think that mentality needs to change somewhat given the dire state of our higher education system in this country. College should be seen more as a means to getting an education than a right of passage "experience" that it has been for the privileged class in this country.

[Anonymous]

OP, like you I took AP classes as a senior in a MoCo public decades ago. As a parent I used that experience to guide my approval of course selection for my children. When their counselors pushed for more APs I would say,"Did you take AP classes in high school because I did and unless you did I'm going to rely on my own experience to guide them." I knew that the flip-side was that the counselors were speaking from their knowledge re: the competitiveness needed for top colleges. In the end, for both kids, college acceptances turned out well.

[Anonymous]

My kids will take the most rigorous course in the subjects that interest him in HS. Currently they happen to be AP.

[Anonymous]

My DC is still to young to say but I took maximum amount of APs in HS. In retrospect, I should have chosen ones that were of interest and applicable to my future plans. I was a Humanities major in college and do nothing related to hard science in my career - killing myself in AP Physics in HS was a complete waste; taking Honors would have been just fine. Of course, kids who were more strategic in taking APs had artificially better HS GPAs.

All the kids I went to college with took lots of APs. No one got credit for them. If it’s top tier, then don’t count on saving money in college credit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't care, but my kid's high school offers them and colleges expect them. Most colleges don't give you any credit for them, with a few exceptions. The only time one of my kids received college credit was when he/she did HISCIP and took two classes at Georgetown senior year. Both classes (6 credits) were transferable.

This is false. Most colleges do give credit. The very top tier do not.

+1 And although the private school educated on this forum may look down their nose at APs, because they had bold faced names write their recommendations to college and didn't need to bother with something as mundane as test scores, the fact remains that for public school kids who don't have advantages of being the child of a major donor or legacy, APs are a good way to show that you can compete with the top tier of students.

[Anonymous]

Hell no. I finished college in 3 years because of them, and some work between summers after junior and senior years. It was by far the most effective thing I could do at that age to bring down the cost. Graduated with no debt.

[Anonymous]

OP you need to decide whether it is beneficial for your child to take AP classes (if he is planning to apply to a top 50 college they will consider whether he took the most rigorous classes possible). Having said that, I am not sure it is necessary to take more than 6 or so to send this signal.
You also have to consider his other options. Is the peer group in honors English 11 going to be markedly different from the peer group in AP English Language? Would he prefer to take a Philosophy honors course over say AP Psychology or an Entomology elective over AP biology.
It isn’t all or nothing. If your child is a high achieving student who wants to get into a good college he should probably aim to take two AP classes per year starting in 10th grade That is manageable for most good students and still allows you to take interesting electives etc.

the kids who take 4 or 5 each year fall into two camps. Some carry this heavy load because they feel they have to and some because their academic peers and the best teachers are in AP classes or they don’t have an option- if you are on the highest Math or foreign language track you run out of honors classes and have to take 2 or 3 math/stats APs and 2 Foreign language APs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are not doing it to cut the cost of college for our kids, we are using APs as a signalling device to the colleges about how academically strong our student is.

Yikes @ how narcissistic this sounds.

No. Not narcissistic. Just pragmatic and strategic. Our kid is a high achiever who can easily take on the AP load. We really do not care what the parents of MCPS-average kids think. BTW, MCPS-average is slightly better than DCPS-average at least for now. In the next couple of years MCPS will be comparable to Prince George's Public School or DCPS.

I am referring to your use of the word “we.”

[Anonymous]

Grade inflation is so rampant that AP scores are the only way to tell what the students have actually learned in hs. I don’t care if you think your private school classes are more rigorous - show me the AP score and I will know.

[Anonymous]

My son's time was better spent graduating a year early from high school. Why put all the extra effort into AP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son's time was better spent graduating a year early from high school. Why put all the extra effort into AP?

Because it is a lot cheaper to pay for 1 AP exam than the equivalent college course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son's time was better spent graduating a year early from high school. Why put all the extra effort into AP?

Because it is a lot cheaper to pay for 1 AP exam than the equivalent college course.

Not for me. My son went to private high school. We saved one years tuition. Each university course in Canada is $1000 or less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son's time was better spent graduating a year early from high school. Why put all the extra effort into AP?

Because it is a lot cheaper to pay for 1 AP exam than the equivalent college course.

Including a year of dorm living?

[Anonymous]

AP teachers are the best!

Other teachers will harm your children's knowledge and ability to learn

If you want an educational worth the time of attending school you need to have AP teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I’m especially dismayed at the trend of 9th and 10th graders loading themselves with AP courses. I took 5 AP classes in high school. Only 1 felt like a true college level course as far as requiring and developing critical thinking. The rest were more about volume, not quality of the assignments. I repeated a couple of them my freshman year in college and the APs paled in comparison.

We are pressuring our kids too much. ES is the new middle school, middle school is now high school and high school is now college all because we are so afraid of our kids being left behind. The irony is that we aren't teaching them more or better. We're trying to put 10 pounds of flour in a 5 pound sack. Sure there are kids who are outliers who might need things at a higher level but most kids are normal. Kids aren't smarter today than we were, they are just driven harder. People confuse the possession of information with intelligence. We are not teaching them to think critically, we are not teaching them how to apply knowledge, we are simply jamming information down their throats. We're funneling them all to STEM even if that isn't their aptitude, like steerage passengers on the Titanic looking for a life boat, as if a STEM degree will make them safe. It won't. If they aren't passionate or good at STEM you will simply end up with someone who sucks at STEM much like all the computer programmers in the 90s. Follow your children's lead. Try to ensure that they can find joy in learning. Look for opportunities for them to deepen their understanding and apply their knowledge. There is no golden ticket.