Why are we sacrificing the high school years to save on a semester in college?

[Anonymous]

I thought AP classes were a good idea, until I started investigating the costs and benefits. I understand wanting to have a competitive college application, but at what cost. Most colleges are giving students credit, but not allowing them to use the AP classes to waive the general education requirements. Is it worth the cost?

[Anonymous]

What cost? Aren't AP classes free?

[Anonymous]

Not sure why you think AP classes are a sacrifice?

One benefit is that your tuition dollars would going toward higher level seminar classes rather than the intro level survey courses if you have passed out of a couple of those through AP.

[Anonymous]

The writing skills my students learn in AP English give the students a marked advantage in college, and not just in English classes. Each year, at least one of my former students emails to tell me just this.

[Anonymous]

I dont understand the question. AP classes are free. You are saving money on college. Your student is being challenged more in high school than the average student. What is being sacrificed in HS? I liked feeling challenged and more focused in HS rather than bored and the AP classes helped me get into the college of my choice as they strengthened my college application.

[Anonymous]

What's so great about high school? I'd rather take more interesting courses and have time to study abroad in college.

[Anonymous]

What cost? The tests? A kid can make an informed choice, at least senior year, if it's worth taking the exam based on what their chosen college offers by way of credit/waiving intro classes. That's what I did nearly 20 years ago as my college only gave general credit in that department, but if you took a class in the department you lost the credit anyway. I figured I'd be taking a math, English, etc. class at some point so opted out and used sat IIs to waive into higher level classes.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure what your question is either. What are you sacrificing? I going to take a guess that you are saying why is it worth the extra work if you still need to take the classes again (and pay for them) in college.

I was in a high school program where I earned college credits and I still needed to do all (or most) of the gen ed requirements. When I was a freshman, the biggest advantage for me is that because I had college credits before I actually started college, I became a sophomore (in terms of credits) after my first semester. Class registration was done by seniority with seniors getting first priority. More often than not, I got the classes I need/wanted and actually graduated faster because of it.

[Anonymous]

My DC took 10 APs (this was in MCPS) and got credit for all of them (over a year of credit). He started in mostly 200 level classes as a freshman. Plus he had a better sense of what he might be interested in because he had taken a range of high level classes already. The AP classes he took in HS were good classes with engaged students and great teachers. What's not to like about that? They were challenging but not overly so. He did take all the tests so that was about $800 in fees over 4 years but if he decides to graduate a semester early that saves more than $30,000. Even if he doesn't graduate early the $800 in fees was worth it.

I know the College Board offers reduced prices for the tests at certain income levels, and some schools offer financial support for testing fees if the test costs are really an issue.

[Anonymous]

I hope the quality of AP courses has changed in the 15 years since I took them because they were in no way equivalent to college level coursework.

[Anonymous]

When I tool them they were boring. Not nearly as interesting as hs honors. aP are just a business - most colleges aren't even accepting them.anymore..love it op. Start a movement, please.

[Anonymous]

Please define 'most.' That's not consistent with what I am seeing in my high schooler's college search.

[Anonymous]

OP here. The cost to which I am referring is the stress and countless hours of work required by AP classes. Graduating college early is commendable and would save on costs, but how many people really do that? If AP classes are really preparing the students for college, why are the 4 year graduation rates so low,between 19-36%?

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/12/01/report-too-much-freedom-hurts-college-graduation-rates

And colleges seem to be moving to the 6 year graduation metric.

"The overall national six-year completion rate for the fall 2009 cohort was 52.9 percent...after six years, fully one-third of the starting cohort had left higher education without earning a degree or certificate."

https://nscresearchcenter.org/signaturereport10/#Discussion

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]OP here. The cost to which I am referring is the stress and countless hours of work required by AP classes. Graduating college early is commendable and would save on costs, but how many people really do that? If AP classes are really preparing the students for college, why are the 4 year graduation rates so low,between 19-36%?

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/12/01/report-too-much-freedom-hurts-college-graduation-rates

And colleges seem to be moving to the 6 year graduation metric.

"The overall national six-year completion rate for the fall 2009 cohort was 52.9 percent...after six years, fully one-third of the starting cohort had left higher education without earning a degree or certificate."

https://nscresearchcenter.org/signaturereport10/#Discussion[/quote]

By and large, the college students not graduating in four years were not AP students in high school.

[Anonymous]

AP classes were nothing but busy work at my school, little to no critical thinking involved.