Reply to which Big3 schools actually dropped APs this year as planned?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Several things bother me about this as a parent of a high schooler at one of these schools that dropped AP classes

First, the DOJ sued and settled with these DMV schools alleging collusion. They colluded and did not ask parent input. Big party foul. Look up the DOJ news release

Second, my school still offers the tests but not the classes. The school college office is very oblique when asked why. Here’s what I figured out since we are now deep in college process. Many colleges in US still take AP test scores to place kids out of required core classes. Otherwise the kid has to repeat language or chemistry or math at many of these schools. That’s actually an economic and choice architecture loss. The Ivies mostly stopped allowing AP tests to place out but basically every other college does grant credit. And credit is time and money.

[b]Finally, the UK and EU universities - many of whom are gaining in popularity I notice, require 3 to 5 AP classes. [/b]

There’s never been a single email from our school warning parents of these last two facts. Not one. 
[b]
And the UC system specifically calculates weighted GPA using AP. [/b]They do not accept UL tagged classes as high level. So these DC private schools have screwed over their students for UC admission. And the data shows that. The DC private YC admits to UCLA and UCB are very low last two years (can see it on UC regeants website)

So most parents and kids ignored signing up for AP tests (you can take the tests but they don’t teach the class). A small subset took the tests.

My advice - if you think at all that your kid fits into any of these buckets (placing out / up of some college core, UK/EU/Canada colleges, or UC) then have them sign up for AP tests at beginning of each each school year - esp sophomore, jr, senior. You can always opt out in the spring

Now if my $45k of tuition would compel the college office to explain this to parents and kids in advance, it would be great.

Instead they send this annual September email that says “you don’t need to sign up for these tests but here’s the link).

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We may have a child at the same school - not sure.  Our school also is very "squishy" on AP details and/or advice.  I decided to ignore the "it doesn't matter" message and sign up DC for exams in language, history, language, math (but this was a AP class) and DC was glad that I did based on results and their applicability to many of the points you mention above.

But a few things:

1) The UK/EU schools require AP scores - NOT courses. If your child is a rising senior and still wants to apply to these schools, all is not lost.  UK schools will often accept students with a with the condition that the student will get the required AP scores by the end of Senior year.  This is because UK schools have to accept students before they have taken A-level exams...so acceptances are conditional based on the "predicted" A-level test scores. They do the same for AP scores.  Also note that at most schools, if your student has a high SAT/ACT score - they will only need three AP's with a score of 5 (versus lower SAT/ACT might require five AP's with a score of 5)

2) Your UCLA/Cal stats are not likely AP related - they are more likely related to the fact that these UC schools are shutting out out-of-state students at higher levels now AND that in diversity efforts, it favors public school kids. There will be an admissions officer at UC that knows your DC's private school and can apply or interpret the GPA appropriately.  What you are seeing is far more likely....the last thing we need is a rich private school kid from DC when we have plenty of smart kids to choose from in DC.

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