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

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[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.

[b]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 [/b]

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]

This is the advice I'd give anyone who asked me about taking APs at our Big 3 (probably the same one). The school is not as clear on this as they should be.

But FYI - according to my rising senior, it wasn't a small subset who took the AP Lit and APUSH tests last Spring - the numbers were too high - it was probably 50-75% (probably more for Lit than USH).[/quote]

Agree. Also, students, there is no guarantee that you will get into a school that doesn't give credit (e.g. Ivy). If this happens, and you don't end up where you expected, and choose a school a that does give credit, as upset as you may be about not getting into the hoped for school, add to it that you will be taking intro courses for a year or two that others have placed out of. Particularly, if it is a big school, most of the top 25th percentile kids will be a year ahead of you in coursework, (e.g., some kids completely place out of the core requirements and jump right into the major, putting them at an advantage for  internships). A lot of kids don't mind this, but it is something to consider.[/quote]

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