Reply to AP Test Passage By High School

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don’t know of any college that takes 3.  I went to a state school and they only took 4 or 5.

It’s not elite only schools that take 4 or 5.  This is the norm.

There are outlier schools who might take a 3 but not common and likely bottom of the heap.[/quote]

But getting credit is not the only goal of taking AP.  3’s strengthen the college applications of kids not applying to top schools.  2’s look better than no AP’s on college applications for students who are not stellar students but are college bound.

As an AP teacher in DC I tell students:
If you are trying to get into an Ivy or very top tier school a 4/5 will strengthen your application and a 3 is neutral.  
If you are applying to a mid-tier school a 3-5 helps your application and a 2 is neutral.
If you are applying to less selective schools a 2 helps your application over kids who don’t challenge themselves by taking AP.

To be honest many schools elite and not just don’t give credit for any AP’s anymore which is why I focus more on college application strength with them.
[/quote]

This is a great point and also fully illustrates the competing goals. DCPS's perspective is that more kids (including those who are not stellar students) taking AP classes is good because it makes for stronger college applications for those students and shows less selective schools that they took steps to challenge themselves in high school.

The question is whether this focus (call it AP for all, or AP for many) takes anything away from the experience of kids who are stellar students, who may be aiming at ivies. In other words, does "AP for all college-bound kids" make it harder for these students to get all the content they need to score a 4 or 5 on the test, which is what colleges they are applying to expect.

In my suburban high school, 80-90% of kids were college bound. But only about 25% of kids took AP classes BECAUSE the pace and rigor of them was really intense. [/quote]

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