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

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

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

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][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.

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

There’s never been a single email from our school warning parents of these last two facts. Not one.

And the UC system specifically calculates weighted GPA using AP. 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).

[/quote]

I agree with a lot of this.  These schools are doing their students a disfavor, not because the courses are less rigorous, but because they are not being honest and complete when they tell students there is little value in taking AP tests.  There is a lot of value to any student who wants to place out of intro courses when they get to college (assuming they score high enough) so they can focus on either higher level courses or take more courses in different areas.  That is a huge advantage.  And that's aside from the issue of applying to overseas schools, where it is necessary.  [/quote]

My son was encouraged to take the test in a class he didn’t take (APUSH) and got a 5 on the exam.  There was some extra studying but not a heavy lift. While I don’t expect the benefit to be knowable or quantifiable, I would imagine there would be some positive to reporting the 5 (plus AP honors in conjunction with other tests).  If there was truly nothing, then the schools wouldn’t have students sit for an exam where only 10% of kids, most of whom took the AP class, get that score.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics