Do all these APs really pay off/matter?

[Anonymous]

Of course the AP classes matter for both college admissions and getting credit, clearing prerequisites. They are mentioned on the profile the school sends to colleges, where they will list all AP classes offered, percentages of students that take, pass, get a certain score, policy on weighted GPA. It is used by colleges to evaluate rigor in the context of the high school besides “most demanding” checkbox.

Some colleges and majors expect certain classes for applicants, like Calculus for most stem majors. Many colleges require that all AP scores are reported as part of application. UC Berkeley mention in their common data set that AP scores are considered for admissions.

Probably GPA matters more, but in an age of grade inflation it’s hard to differentiate kids that way. SAT and APs are the benchmark.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid was just working on an honors college application (ASU Barrett) that wanted to know all the AP courses she had taken and for each one, whether she had taken the exam, and if so her score, and if not why not.

Honors college is fairly worthless.

As is your opinion. Honors Colleges are a great opportunity for smart kids at public universities.

Why? Early class registration?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course the AP classes matter for both college admissions and getting credit, clearing prerequisites. They are mentioned on the profile the school sends to colleges, where they will list all AP classes offered, percentages of students that take, pass, get a certain score, policy on weighted GPA. It is used by colleges to evaluate rigor in the context of the high school besides “most demanding” checkbox.

Some colleges and majors expect certain classes for applicants, like Calculus for most stem majors. Many colleges require that all AP scores are reported as part of application. UC Berkeley mention in their common data set that AP scores are considered for admissions.

Probably GPA matters more, but in an age of grade inflation it’s hard to differentiate kids that way. SAT and APs are the benchmark.

Good majors don’t allow students to test out of classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course the AP classes matter for both college admissions and getting credit, clearing prerequisites. They are mentioned on the profile the school sends to colleges, where they will list all AP classes offered, percentages of students that take, pass, get a certain score, policy on weighted GPA. It is used by colleges to evaluate rigor in the context of the high school besides “most demanding” checkbox.

Some colleges and majors expect certain classes for applicants, like Calculus for most stem majors. Many colleges require that all AP scores are reported as part of application. UC Berkeley mention in their common data set that AP scores are considered for admissions.

Probably GPA matters more, but in an age of grade inflation it’s hard to differentiate kids that way. SAT and APs are the benchmark.

Good majors don’t allow students to test out of classes.

lol, you really are clueless.

Tell that to MIT, that uses AP Calculus BC and Physics C to test out of their general requirements classes. Along with Stanford, Princeton and many others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is so much competition about taking max APs. Does it really matter?

It is not a competition. My kids took between 8-9 APs, in all 5 core subjects before they applied. And graduated with 11-12 APs.

Helped to boost GPA (helped with admissions and $$$ merit scholarship), earned enough college credits that they could have finished a semester early OR as my kids did, it allowed them to do a double major which opens up more employment opportunities for them - all of this was paid for by the college.

Allowed my kids to specialize in their own fields but also get a wonderful well-rounded education. It does not matter if the knowledge was gained in HS or college - my kids got to learn more and free up time in college to go for even more learning, exposure, skill building.

Using AP to save credits and to graduate earlier seem to be common now...particular for public schools students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is so much competition about taking max APs. Does it really matter?

It is not a competition. My kids took between 8-9 APs, in all 5 core subjects before they applied. And graduated with 11-12 APs.

Helped to boost GPA (helped with admissions and $$$ merit scholarship), earned enough college credits that they could have finished a semester early OR as my kids did, it allowed them to do a double major which opens up more employment opportunities for them - all of this was paid for by the college.

Allowed my kids to specialize in their own fields but also get a wonderful well-rounded education. It does not matter if the knowledge was gained in HS or college - my kids got to learn more and free up time in college to go for even more learning, exposure, skill building.

Using AP to save credits and to graduate earlier seem to be common now...particular for public schools students

Or lessen the work load if doing a double major.

[Anonymous]

People desperately want APs to count for admissions simply because it’s a counting stat. I took X APs and scored a 5 on this many of them.

I think the reality is far more complicated and chasing 10, 12 or 14 APs is just misguided.

Montgomery County kids take APUSH in 9th grade. Isn’t it possible that colleges devalue APs if 9th graders can excel in them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:2 AP classes in math, English, science, history. 1 AP in language. That is plenty and better than 1 in each core subject then a much of BS ones like psych, geography, economics, etc.

And your source for that is....your own useless opinion? There's nothing BS about psychology, geography or economics as subject areas.

DP. We are not talking about the subject areas as in majors. We are talking about AP courses. In particular, AP Human Geography and AP Psych have a reputation - among admissions officers at highly-selective schools - for being less rigorous APs compared to other ones.

And your source for this is what?

What's your deal?

Colleges don't share very much at all. It's all "holistic" so no you aren't going to get your cite

And AP HUG is one of the easier APs my STEM kid took

Your kid's opinion doesn't constitute a fact. Maybe your STEM kid can explain that to you.

You do have something going on don’t you?

I offered my kid's experience as anecdata

As I said in my post, no one has any "facts" for you. Do as you want, kid

No one taught me what anecdata was in my statistics class. Is it the same as "alternative facts"?

Sort of. It’s what people say that want to pretend that their individual anecdote is valuable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People desperately want APs to count for admissions simply because it’s a counting stat. I took X APs and scored a 5 on this many of them.

I think the reality is far more complicated and chasing 10, 12 or 14 APs is just misguided.

Montgomery County kids take APUSH in 9th grade. Isn’t it possible that colleges devalue APs if 9th graders can excel in them?

If the alternative is on level courses, then on level is even less value.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People desperately want APs to count for admissions simply because it’s a counting stat. I took X APs and scored a 5 on this many of them.

I think the reality is far more complicated and chasing 10, 12 or 14 APs is just misguided.

Montgomery County kids take APUSH in 9th grade. Isn’t it possible that colleges devalue APs if 9th graders can excel in them?

High schools aren't dumbing down in a vacuum. Colleges are dumbing down too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People desperately want APs to count for admissions simply because it’s a counting stat. I took X APs and scored a 5 on this many of them.

I think the reality is far more complicated and chasing 10, 12 or 14 APs is just misguided.

Montgomery County kids take APUSH in 9th grade. Isn’t it possible that colleges devalue APs if 9th graders can excel in them?

If the alternative is on level courses, then on level is even less value.

The alternative isn't on-level in the AP race. The alternative is taking electives or ECs to be well-rounded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People desperately want APs to count for admissions simply because it’s a counting stat. I took X APs and scored a 5 on this many of them.

I think the reality is far more complicated and chasing 10, 12 or 14 APs is just misguided.

Montgomery County kids take APUSH in 9th grade. Isn’t it possible that colleges devalue APs if 9th graders can excel in them?

A lot of colleges put some kind of cap on the way they score APs. For example they might want to see one AP in each core subject, or treat “6 or more” APs the same, so that there’s no extra benefit to taking 18. But of course as with everything this varies from school to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People desperately want APs to count for admissions simply because it’s a counting stat. I took X APs and scored a 5 on this many of them.

I think the reality is far more complicated and chasing 10, 12 or 14 APs is just misguided.

Montgomery County kids take APUSH in 9th grade. Isn’t it possible that colleges devalue APs if 9th graders can excel in them?

I'd take a kid with say 7 hard APs (calc BC, bio, chem, physics, lite, APUSH, and foreign language if not native speaker) over another who 12 mostly fluff APs (world, human geo, psych, env science, CS principles, etc.). Quality over quantity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People desperately want APs to count for admissions simply because it’s a counting stat. I took X APs and scored a 5 on this many of them.

I think the reality is far more complicated and chasing 10, 12 or 14 APs is just misguided.

Montgomery County kids take APUSH in 9th grade. Isn’t it possible that colleges devalue APs if 9th graders can excel in them?

Just because there are diminishing returns past 10 APs, doesn’t mean they don’t count.

Is introductory world history that much harder in college that no 9th grader would pass? I doubt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People desperately want APs to count for admissions simply because it’s a counting stat. I took X APs and scored a 5 on this many of them.

I think the reality is far more complicated and chasing 10, 12 or 14 APs is just misguided.

Montgomery County kids take APUSH in 9th grade. Isn’t it possible that colleges devalue APs if 9th graders can excel in them?

If the alternative is on level courses, then on level is even less value.

The alternative isn't on-level in the AP race. The alternative is taking electives or ECs to be well-rounded.

Consider the alternative of a study hall for better grades.